Case Studies Number Two--ebay.com:Site Focus

ebay.com is an auction site that users can sell or buy things or products on real-time. People who are interested in buying things in a lower price than in store will visit ebay and bid for products they choose.Sometimes, if buyers really like a specific product, they can buy it with the price that the seller give (without bidding again and again). ebay also enables buyers to "watch the item" in order for them to get the best deal on things they really want to get.

Search function can be found on ebay.com. Since searching is one of the most important features for online shops, ebay develops its own search style based on traditional search engine method. ebay's search includes items like "buying options", "shipping options" and etc. People can also do specific search in specific domain. For instance, if I go to section for cellphone auction, I can search in either "all categories" or "cellphones and PDA". There are also search functions like by price, by number of bid, or even by sale items.


I really like the search engine on ebay. I can find things as specific as I want to. For instance, I usually like to search products within a price range, or a particular brand I like.

I find the products' list is a little bit confusing for me. It looks messy and I need to deal with so many things at a time. Furthermore, I have to go all the way down to go to the next page. May be the ebay designers can reduce the number of products display in one product list and also put a page navigation on the top of the list.