Managing icon abundance on eBay
Maureen Fan, Kathleen Ko · 2004
Icons play an important role in eBay's global interface by quickly communicating features, actions, or status while reinforcing the eBay brand. Connecting our users with concepts in a graphical manner, icons cross cultural and language barriers. With eBay's expansion into international countries and the growing complexity of the site, requests for icon creation have increased exponentially. To address the challenge of maintaining consistency in the face of an abundance of icons and the many purposes that they serve, we conducted a series of studies. How does one present the variety of icons and accommodate all their different functions, and still maintain simplicity and consistency? Recognizing the need to create a consistent icon experience, eBay conducted two usability studies to research icon usage. We sought to answer the following 2 questions: 1) How does an icon's design affect its affordance and comprehension? 2) How many icons can we present before reaching a saturation point?