tA case study on the redesign of eBay Global Help system

1. Making eBay Help helpful again
A Case Study
Lucie Hyde
CS Forum – October 2012

2. Contents
• The Content LifeCycle
• Project Context
• Analyse Phase
– Deep Dive: Content Audit
– Deep Dive: User Research
• Collect Phase
• Manage Phase
• Publish Phase
– Deep Dive: Measuring Success and a metrics framework
• The Content Strategy Paradox: It’s not just about the content
– Personas - IA
– Design - Systems
2 eBay Inc. confidential

3. Content lifecycle
• Requirement analysis • Acquire
• User research • Author/Edit
• Governance planning • Version/Localize
• Budget • Metadata
Analyze Collect
• Aggregate/Transform Publish Manage
• Publish/Syndicate
• Evaluate • Modeling/typing
• Iterate or sunset • Configure/components
• Structure /standards
• Repository
eBay Inc. confidential
Credit: Rahel Bailie

4. Typical Content lifecycle at eBay
• Requirement analysis • Acquire
• User research • Author/Edit
• Governance planning • Version/Localize
• Budget • Metadata
Analyze Collect
• Aggregate/Transform Publish Manage
• Publish/Syndicate
• Evaluate • Modeling/typing
• Iterate or sunset • Configure/components
• Structure /standards
• Repository
eBay Inc. confidential
Credit: Rahel Bailie

5. Project context
• Assumed end-end responsibility for Global Help
• Help content repository not fit for purpose
• Increased focus on delivering content that supports business results
• Increased focus on managing full content lifecycle
• Design and content that were seven years old
• Org change that made collaboration with a content-receptive marketing and
comms team much easier
Decision: Pilot a redesign that broke down global help, in a more targeted
way, focusing on benefits (why?) as well as instructions (how?) and left
resolution to customer support
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6. Analyse
• Requirement analysis Activities
• User research Global:
• Governance planning - Content Audit
• Budget
- Requirements analysis
- Governance Planning
- Scoping and budgeting
Analyse Local:
- User research
6 eBay Inc. confidential

7. Deep Dive: Content Audit
Credit: http://johnmccrory.com/
7 eBay Inc. confidential

8. Global Help Content Audit
GLOBAL HELP 'MASTER' URLs TOPIC (UK) US CA CAFR UK DE FR IT ES BEFR BENL NL PL AU SG HK IN CLEANUP/MAPPING
asset URL
help/account/answer-center.html
Buying Seller journey TnS Other
Communit
y
906
Rank Rank Rank Rank http://pages.ebay.co.uk/
#N/A #N/A
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
875 nt/answer-center.html
LTS
status
LTS
Rank Rank Rank Rank Rank Rank Rank Rank Rank Rank Rank Rank
#N/A 1114 104 #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A 340 #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A
NOTES IA
CATEGORY/IES
Typical Content Audit
help/account/change-account.html http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
Account 88 53 92 68 nt/change-account.html LTS 82 91 89 50 90 92 39 255 54 69 84 72
help/account/change-password.html http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou doesn't exist for most
nt/change-password.html EU sites - functionality
Account 136 533 #N/A #N/A 404 #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A 363
may be different
(email conf used for
PW change). UK page
mentions changing
#N/A #N/A password very briefly
URLs
on
help/account/forgot-
password.html
Brief description
help/account/change-userid.html http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
help/account/closing-account.html
Account
Registrati
on
246
30
290
22
304
10
171 nt/change-userid.html
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
20 nt/closing-account.html
LTS
LTS
265
40
241
9
158
23
317
32
554
44
333
21
303
17
178
30
96
22
65
16
254
14
257
16
Unique identifier
help/account/contact-customer-
support.html
help/account/cookies.html
CS
Trust &
45 91 123
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
26 nt/contact-customer-support.html
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
LTS 21 62 59 75 69 87 74 406 157 364 255 232 Content types
341 162 254 381 nt/cookies.html LTS 100 225 266 439 151 267 234 99 222 #N/A 112 503
Content Relationships
Safety
help/account/cookies-web- http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
beacons.html Trust &
221 168 #N/A 262 nt/cookies-web-beacons.html LTS 249 1115 214 699 555 334 291 100 226 #N/A #N/A 504
Safety
help/account/correct-invalid- http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou US redirects to
IA identifier
email.html nt/correct-invalid-email.html help/account/change-
Account 1171 501 #N/A 1014 LTS 778 866 1142 658 556 #N/A 384 131 1128 #N/A #N/A 646 account.html
help/account/errors.html Tech http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
85 73 93 84 nt/errors.html LTS 114 101 119 127 117 181 199 108 118 131 228 156
Basic metrics: traffic/ visitors
issues
help/account/forgot-password.html http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
Account 78 45 85 92 nt/forgot-password.html LTS 173 285 118 108 229 107 100 257 69 185 49 101
help/account/forgot-userid.html http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
Account 98 75 69 133 nt/forgot-userid.html LTS 157 104 78 111 143 143 147 196 76 81 108 112
help/account/gettingstarted.html http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
eBay info 46 70 39 143 nt/gettingstarted.html LTS 113 128 76 59 103 83 124 45 151 57 13 92
help/account/getting-started.html http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
eBay info 150 206 113 439 nt/getting-started.html LTS 327 403 232 280 426 269 380 139 604 113 65 258
help/account/glossary.html http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
eBay info 74 48 89 72 nt/glossary.html LTS 650 #N/A 56 82 #N/A 88 40 59 67 82 63 81
help/account/how-to-register.html http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
Registrati
122 136 79 212 nt/how-to-register.html LTS 153 129 112 199 160 182 232 164 131 114 121 149
on
help/account/how-to-register- http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
business.html Registrati
214 437 #N/A 181 nt/how-to-register-business.html LTS 363 393 516 479 427 233 229 109 377 272 #N/A 505
on
help/account/link-paypal.html Account/registrati http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou 14
on PayPal 101 60 103 28 nt/link-paypal.html LTS 64 66 80 93 75 51 77 37 216 115 316 652
help/account/manage-paypal.html http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
PayPal 121 186 136 108 nt/manage-paypal.html LTS 78 124 108 129 94 131 197 179 59 #N/A 382 #N/A
help/account/managing.html http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
Account 33 26 18 37 nt/managing.html LTS 27 24 55 45 25 38 27 27 37 22 12 34
help/account/my-ebay.html http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
My eBay 67 170 108 113 nt/my-ebay.html LTS 154 201 106 5 192 14 78 92 192 186 144 282
help/account/my-messages.html Improve service http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou
standards Messages 47 38 44 52 nt/my-messages.html LTS 55 45 40 53 63 84 51 65 36 26 51 47
help/account/paypal-cc.html http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/accou doesn't exist for UK,
276 191 66 #N/A nt/paypal-cc.html 404 #N/A 287 701 517 243 342 203 222 #N/A #N/A 229 #N/A but probably should -
content is applicable
8 eBay Inc. confidential