That John Martin

Looks like everybody is talking about eBay after the MarketWatch piece citing the nine month traffic decline reported by comScore.

I’ve always wondered about the thinking behind the eBay user interface. Obviously (I hope), it’s built around a rummage sale metaphor, and I can certainly understand the value in that, given their core audience. I get the feeling, though, that the inconsistencies of the interface, coupled with the burden of the enormous number of features that eBay provides/requires, alienates casual and new users (like myself).

On the flip side is Amazon with their new product page design. Amazon has always had a lot of vertical on their page, and so instead of trying to avoid it, it seems that they have embraced it and improved the usability with better section delineation, more consistent typography, and full use of page width. I like it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 20th, 2005 at 11:23 pm and is filed under uncategorized.