Ebay Europe
How they tick and click - User Experience research for eBay
- GfK User Experience experts monitoring survey participants
By Tim Bosenick
London, UK, 9am. Tobias Verhaag is giving one final check to make sure that the laptops have internet access. Then he puts two bottles of water on the table and sorts through his documents. With this, he and his colleagues are ready to start the personal interviews with the respondents. Tobias is the manager of a GfK User Experience project for eBay Europe. He and his team are testing how internet users find their way around the parts and accessories pages of eBay Motors, eBay’s motor section. User experiences give insights into how quickly users locate the product they are looking for, whether the site navigation is intuitive and whether the design of the search filters is appropriate.
Ultimately, the team looks into site construction and the design, which originates from the USA – Brits and Germans may have a different approach to the search process. By means of insights gained from the interviews, the experts can then identify where there is potential for improvement.
In Germany alone, three employees of GfK SirValUse are permanently engaged in improving the user experience of eBay users in Europe. They are constantly working in a team with eBay staff, helping to organize continuous rounds of tests with real users and in this way, assisting the team to gain user insights which can be utilized for product development. The User Experience test for eBay Motors is a binational study taking place in the UK and Germany. Consequently, the primary task of the project team, which is also bi-national, is to tailor all the recruitment and interview approaches to the particular country concerned. As the main contact, Tobias clarifies any queries and tasks with eBay Europe’s product management, and then transmits the information to local market researchers in both countries.
In order to respond flexibly to local peculiarities and to enable the team to suitably adapt the construction and execution of the study where necessary, an international User Experience test is initially only conducted in one country and this is followed a short time later by the other countries. However, of prime importance is ultimately presenting the client with a comprehensive report, which is not only country- specific, but also includes overarching insights and this makes it essential to ensure that the various local findings are comparable and can also be aggregated into a coherent whole. A difficult balancing act for market researchers, who have to pick their way carefully between local individualization and international standardization.
The qualitative interview as a research method
User tests start today in London for eBay Motors. Overall, the User Experience experts will conduct eight individual interviews and twelve paired interviews per country, observing how the subjects use online automotive marketplaces and setting them a task: the Brits and Germans interested in cars selected some weeks earlier are asked to find a suitable wing mirror for a Golf GTI on eBay. The market researchers will monitor what draws the attention of the respondents, whether they intuitively understand the way in which the site is constructed, whether they understand the descriptions and terms used and also, what they think of the design of the website.
Of course, User Experience experts are well aware that when it comes to navigation and search processes, there are cultural and gender differences. For instance, they know that Germans require explicit information as to whether the spare part in which they are interested really does fit their own car. Earlier studies have also shown that typically, men – who account for the lion’s share of eBay Motors users – use general terms to carry out their searches more rarely than women. Empirical facts like these are taken into account in the test analyses from which the recommendations are derived.
Thinking aloud is required
To a great extent, the survey uses the "thinking aloud” technique whereby the correspondent says what he or she is thinking while using the test product. This is very revealing for research purposes, since thoughts and actions are not always concomitant: for example, if a user manages to conclude a purchase, afterwards, he or she will often rate it as a successful experience, even when objectively regarded, the path to the purchase has been tortuous and involved a great many clicks. These aspects, which are generally hidden facts, are precisely what market researchers are looking for, because they constitute the basis for optimization of the navigation process, the functions and the comprehensibility of the website.
Paired visions
Paired interviews have proved to be particularly interesting – and important. In some areas of application they have even become an essential element, such as for the strategic further development of a product. In this instance, two respondents are invited to participate at the same time, and in the case of eBay Motors, one was a user of the website to be tested and the other was a fan of another automotive parts website. The two subjects introduce their websites to each other, demonstrate its advantages and highlight its particular features. The researcher moderates the conversation. There is a great deal of creative potential in these paired dialogues. Participants express wishes and ideas and suggest potential improvements from the user’s point of view. The method provides a clear picture of customer requirements and produces visions of future developments. The information gleaned from paired interviews is collected by GfK for use at the next strategy workshop with eBay Europe.
- Wireframe of a search results page for eBay Motors
Tangible research
Hamburg, Germany, 4.30pm, next day: Tobias’s colleague, Carola Weller has already collated the first interesting findings from the London interviews and is preparing them for a mini-workshop with the client. These mini-workshops also take place during the fieldwork phase and for this, she chooses relevant screen shots and significant statements by UK test subjects extracted from the video recordings of the interviews. She uses wireframes to sketch the initial solutions based on suggestions made by the respondents.In this way, the changes proposed can be visualized by the client, making the findings from the first days that much more effective for them.
All about true intents and heavy users
Carola is a User Experience consultant with particular expertise in international studies. She has been managing the eBay Europe client account for two years and has made a significant contribution to the design of the User Experience tests for eBay Motors. When selecting respondents for the eBay project, it was Carola who made sure that the sample included male participants and car enthusiasts familiar with the products, as well as heavy users, who had made at least eight purchases from eBay’s Parts & Accessories site during the past twelve months. After all, it is they that deliver particularly detailed suggestions, because they know exactly what they are talking about.
In the design of the personal interviews, it was again Carola who ensured that the test subjects navigated the website as naturally as possible, which is why they were also allowed to make use of the automotive parts pages for their own purposes during the tests. And so yesterday morning in London, one of the respondents took the opportunity to search for the right hub caps for his old Mercedes. Additional tasks, which all the test subjects have to fulfill equally, such as looking for a wing mirror for their cars, are also set to ensure the comparability of the interviews. In fact, qualitative research benefits particularly from this combination of "true intent”, that is, genuine interest on the part of the user, and the fact that the tasks set resemble real situations as closely as possible.
Online marketplaces – progress through insights
For some time now, eBay has not just been an auction house, but the majority of its sales have been new products bought immediately and at a fixed price. However, increasing numbers of companies are offering goods and services on the internet. In Europe, these are mostly generalists, such as the two major companies, Amazon and Otto, both of which now have online stores selling goods from other companies and in this way, they are developing into real marketplaces. But a great many smaller marketplaces concentrating solely on, say, fashion, furniture or home-made products, are also well established. To stay a few clicks ahead of the competition needs the support of User Experience experts. Different ranges in themselves are no guarantee of success: at least as important for every marketplace is a high level of user friendliness and this is one criterion which anyone after success will not be able to avoid in the future. After all, a customer irritated by or simply giving up on navigating the site is hardly likely to come back again.
Products must be easy to find and payment processes simple. Buying should not be a chore and it is surprising how complicated many websites make the process for users. An objective view from the outside is worthwhile and Tobias, Carola and the rest of the GfK User Experience experts hold this view. One which sees how internet users and potential customers tick and click.
