That was a very brazen title, but I’ll try to explain how my recent experience of using eBay bowled me over.
I was doing the typical easter clearout and decided to sell a few items on eBay. I had previously taken a few photos of the thing I wanted to sell on my mobile device and had a few images that I had grabbed from the internet and a good description from the manufacturer’s website on my laptop.
The conundrum
The assets I needed to prepare the listing were spread over two devices.
On deciding that it would be most efficient for me to start preparing the listing on my laptop rather than my mobile device (ease of writing out a detailed description quickly and more screen space to see what I was doing). I set about creating the listing. Adding the photos saved on my computer, the manufacturer’s description, and having in the back of my mind that it would’ve been a lot simpler to have everything in one place.
I needed to find a workaround to add the assets from both devices. My workaround idea was to post the listing and then edit it with my mobile device to upload the photos that were stored on it.
Clever use of second screens
However, during the listing creation process, when adding images, eBay asked me whether I would like to add additional photos from my computer or mobile device.
eBay then sent a link to my mobile device, allowing me to add images to the draft listing. Saving me the hassle of figuring out a way of getting the photos from my mobile device to my computer.
UX gold
This use of my second screen allowed me to complete the task of posting my listing with relative ease. eBay recognised that users are more likely to take photos on their mobile device than on their camera or laptop and would feel more comfortable creating a listing on their computer.
I can imagine that this functionality that eBay have built-in would reduce the number of users dropping out, Â thinking, “to hell with this” it will take me too long to gather all the assets from my different device that I would need to create a listing.
I was dedicated, had the time on my hands, and was willing to spend the time creating the listing, and subsequently found this little UX gem. A casual eBay user might not have. I recommend that eBay market the functionality more, letting their users know how easy it is to add images from multiple devices to a listing.