Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Feedback Works!

It's hard to say if this is coincidence, but it's worth mentioning. A few weeks ago, I sent eBay feedback on their new site design. My gripe was that they were nesting scrollable areas within scrollable areas. As I was using the site today, it dawned upon me that the bad behavior was gone. Somebody actually fixed it. Perhaps it was my email; perhaps it was the combined voice of thousands of users; perhaps some developer just realized that there was a better way. Whatever the case, I'm glad that eBay made the change, and I like to think that I helped in some way. Thanks, eBay!

Before, things just felt wrong. I would be scrolling the page, and it would mysteriously stop. This happened on every single page, it seemed. When they switched to good design, I didn't even notice at first. It just felt natural. This brings to light a sort of design axiom: design successes are invisible, design flaws are glaring.

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