How ebay began to look at the user experience. Working from what ebay is towrads how communication iwth the suer could be enhanced. The development of eBay Express - one pirce, easy find, one payment point and a shopping cart!!!

The need to ‘reduce’ ebay for ebay express, it grew from a community but they need to try and develop predictive designs that will anticipate user needs in the future as behaviour changes and be almost transparent to the user in terms of usability. Developing ebay express as a more visual and photographic experience. Making it customidable for the different ebay markets worlwide - tailored shopping experiences.

Showed ebay express on screen - much more use of relevance engines and pictures based on tagging, attributes etc.

As we are seeing (click here for nielen/netrating figures), social network sites continue their spectacular rise. Yet another aspect of community that is growing. Social Radio, shared and social video (Youtube etc.) and out and out social networking sites are all rocketing in size and reach. The nielsen figures show MySpace dominating as a service but when you look also at the retention figures the order lower down the list changes a little with Facebook scoring highly.

I like this because it confirms that standard behaviour is occuring online. We read so much about ‘new behaviours’ but the fact that smaller sites have great retention bodes well for up and coming and new ventures in this space and shows that a sustainable model based on satisfied cutomers is possible even if you dont attain MySpace scale - i.e. when you plan to launch something aim clearly at a market and serve that market well.   They will reward you with loyalty.

As we are seeing (click here for nielen/netrating figures), social network sites continue their spectacular rise. Yet another aspect of community that is growing. Social Radio, shared and social video (Youtube etc.) and out and out social networking sites are all rocketing in size and reach. The nielsen figures show MySpace dominating as a service but when you look also at the retention figures the order lower down the list changes a little with Facebook scoring highly.

I like this because it confirms that standard behaviour is occuring online. We read so much about ‘new behaviours’ but the fact that smaller sites have great retention bodes well for up and coming and new ventures in this space and shows that a sustainable model based on satisfied cutomers is possible even if you dont attain MySpace scale - i.e. when you plan to launch something aim clearly at a market and serve that market well. They will reward you with loyalty.

MTV has announced that it is to launch an audience-controlled channel brand that will focus entirely on broadcasting user-generated content across TV, the Internet and mobile phones…they claim that users will be able to control the length and nature of ads, the content delivered, setup playlists, show their own content AND mashup content provided by MTV and advertisers. Another great way for advertisers to screw up…remember Cillit Bang anyone?

Hope the channel does what it says and it isn’t just token changes. i also wonder if the audience really willl “want their MTV?”

I attended a BIMA event on Thursday night (”iMode is big in Japan…. will it make it over here?” ). One of the speakers quite rightly pointed out that we don’t talk about TV in terms of content and technology, but rather refer to channels and programmes. The average user has no interest in how they access the content of their choice, only that they can access it, and painlessly. No one cares if the mobile website they use is delivered and designed for WAP or iMode, or quite frankly if it appears by magic. They only care that it is easy to get to, easy to use and that the user interface and interaction is enjoyable. The technology is only a means to an end and is only truly successful if it is invisible.