To start the process of listing an item on eBay, people usually head to one of the most important features of the site – the Sell Your Item (SYI) form. As SYI is the backbone of the site for most sellers, eBay has always wanted to make it as easy as possible to use for any seller, regardless of their experience on eBay.

About three years ago the first SYI form was one long page, which was fine for experienced members but intimidating for new sellers. With SYI 2.0, the process was parceled into manageable pieces spread across several pages. But even though we believed that SYI 2.0 would be a big improvement for the majority of our members, we knew that this would be a huge change for sellers and we wanted to give them as much time as possible to familiarize themselves with the new version. To accomplish this, for a few months before eBay officially switched to SYI 2.0 in early 2002, we made both the original SYI and SYI 2.0 available on the site. This gave sellers the opportunity to learn and experiment with 2.0 at their own pace before we removed the original version.

In the three years since SYI 2.0's introduction, the features and options available for sellers during the listing process have increased substantially. This has made SYI 2.0 somewhat difficult to use. According to Mary Correa from eBay's Product Marketing team, “Feedback from the Community, both experienced and new members, indicates that it's starting to take too long to complete the SYI form as it gets increasingly complex.” To help address this problem, eBay is now working the next generation of Sell Your Item, otherwise known as SYI 3.0.

User Interface Designer Jamie Hoover explained the rationale for the project. “We wanted to take a fresh look at the design to come up with something that would meet the needs of both new and experienced sellers.”

Since the SYI form is the key listing tool for many sellers, the project team has worked to get feedback from the Community at every phase of development. In this phased design approach, feedback gathered from sellers during each stage of development influences the final design.

In February 2005, the first phase, SYI Alpha 1, was made available to members for testing. While sellers can actually create live listings on the site through the Alpha 1 form, it is by no means the finished product.

Explained Jamie Hoover, “SYI Alpha 1 is the very early version of SYI 3.0. Only some of the functionality has been built so far. But by making it available for testing, we're getting members involved on the ground floor. They have the unique opportunity to provide feedback along the entire way. This will help us figure out functionality and design that meets the needs of both new and experienced sellers.”

George Liang, a Product Manager leading the project, added, “We put this out there so early to see if the general idea of a shorter, more customizable form was appealing to sellers. So far it has been.”

SYI Alpha 1, the initial phase, ended at the beginning of March. The project team is pleased at the amount of valuable feedback they received from the Alpha 1 phase. Renee VonBergen from the Product Management team praised the comprehensive comments that came in. “We're getting very specific feedback, which shows that members aren't just glancing at the form, but are really taking a thorough look at it and providing great suggestions. It's exciting that they're really digging in and using it.”

However, VonBergen also acknowledges that some sellers may be confused that the Alpha 1 version is the final product. “People aren't used to us putting something out there this early,” she says. “We need to do a better job communicating exactly what an Alpha is.” To address potential confusion, the team provided more Help content on the SYI Alpha form to explain that it is a work-in-progress version.

The team is currently busy incorporating the feedback from Alpha 1 into the second phase. SYI Alpha 2 is slated to begin in the summer of 2005. What can sellers look forward to? George Liang, a Product Manager on the team answered. "SYI Alpha 2 will still not be the final version. As with Alpha 1, the main goal is to get input in order to refine the design. We'll include more options that currently exist in SYI but weren't in the first alpha, and also some brand-new features and a new design. One of the biggest requests we've received is to give sellers the ability to customize the form. In keeping with this, we're providing listing templates in the SYI Alpha 2 phase.”

In addition, SYI Alpha 2 will also support all other Web browsers that eBay supports today, such as Firefox, and will also be compatible with Macs. The first phase, SYI Alpha 1, was only compatible with Internet Explorer for PCs.

The team is excited that SYI Alpha 2 will provide them with even more valuable input in their quest to perfect the design on the long road to SYI 3.0, the final version. Says VonBergen, “We realize it's going to take a long time, but we didn't want to provide just a one-time window for feedback. It's important for us to know what sellers think about SYI when they use the new version for the first time, the tenth time, even the hundredth time.”