Things that have come to my attention as a heavy-user on iOS
Looking up to the future, eBay Kleinanzeigen, the go-to German destination for buying and selling used items of almost every kind in Germany, shook up its game with a cutting-edge rebranding.
It was back in 2021 when eBay sold its business to the Norwegen Adevinta & only in 2023 that its more than 30 Million users could finally experience a completely new logo, updated colors & overall looks, plus new features that pointed to bring professionalism & a more serious note to the platform.
What’s Kleinanzeigen all about?
This online market allows users to create free listings of ( typically used) items they no longer need and want to get rid of easily and quickly after creating a free account.
On the other hand, it gives users looking to buy all kinds of items the opportunity to find them under several categories and filters, allowing them to negotiate directly with the sellers through private messages accessible through each product listing. From old collector toys to mattresses & vintage furniture, Kleinanzeigen has it all.
In short: as a user, one enters the platform, creates a profile, and can buy from other users’ listings or post own objects for sale.
It is known that the negotiation part might get a bit tedious (as the objects are mainly used/vintage ) but overall the concept is very simple.
PS: You can read more about the new Kleinanzeigen under the following link :
What could be improved?
As a regular user of the web platform and mobile app for the past six years, both as a seller & a buyer, I have experienced the positive aspects of the BIG change: a much more dynamic and attractive interface that makes the overall user experience more pleasant, while maintaining the fundamental functions of the original eBay Kleinanzeigen.
Nevertheless, from a usability point of view & after months of using the new app, I propose some tweaks that in my opinion would make the Kleinanzeigen experience (on iOS) better.
1. Link to Existent Messages History
Case: There’s a previous conversation with the seller.
As seen in the screenshots below, a potential buyer has a previous conversation with a specific seller, which they can access through the “Nachrichten”(messages) main menu. But, if the buyer decides to check the product one more time, meaning: going to the product detail page & from there sending a new message (by clicking on the left button “Nachricht”) they are now taken to a new page where the previous conversation cannot be seen.
Checking the details of the product just to be sure of the details of the item is an action that users of this market are used to doing (e.g. they want to make sure, one last time, that the bed will fit in their room or that the jacket is not too small for them) & in addition to that, on many occasions, it may take a while until there’s an answer from the seller, so the buyer might want to send a new message to keep the process flowing or, they might want to just go back quickly to their previous chat to check what was said last.
Favorites Path
The same behavior is observed when the user enters their “Favoriten”(favorites) menu. As displayed in the screenshots below, when a user opens a product detail page coming from their favorites list & clicks on “Nachricht” (message), they are also taken to a full message screen where no previous messages are shown.
In this case, it results even more frustrating: the users are coming through their “favorites” list, probably re-opening the app after some time (they might not have all product details or last conversations in mind) and, by clicking on “Nachricht” would like to quickly refresh their memories on what was the latest info shared or even to confirm if they had already contacted the seller about the product.
The variety of (cool!) items on Kleinanzeigen is huge & it’s easy to get a long list of favorites very fast, which can turn keeping track of the conversations & latest shared info into a real hassle.
Proposed Solution
In those cases, and to make the conversations & processes go on faster & better it would be much more efficient to not “cut” the conversation flow by showing a full message screen (as on the graphic below, last screenshot) but to simply show the existent previous conversation screen when clicking on the “Nachricht”(message) button. Even though there’s a “back” button, this might be difficult to see as it's on the top, right above the product's image & situated far away from the user's thumb. Contrary to this, the mentioned “Nachricht” button is much more prominent & any user would see it & tap on it first, expecting to find their previous open conversation.
Whether starting from the Messages or Favorites path, by showing the buyer their existing chat with the seller, we avoid repeated questions, and unnecessary “back” taps & overall save time, reducing mini-frustrations along the way.
The same solution applies to the Favorites Path:
2. Affordance of the “Delivery Method” element
Background
One of the first things I noticed while using the new Kleinanzeigen App was that now, on a product detail page, right next to the product’s price there's a piece of info saying whether “Only Pick Up” or “Delivery from 4,99 €”(the price here is only an example). As a long-time user of the app, I found this great: it was now easier to quickly differentiate those objects that could be sent to me without having to scroll down, read the complete description, or send a question. On the other hand, I could discard those objects that (sadly) I could not pick up myself — bigger objects such as furniture or things located outside of my city-.
Before it was very common to find that many sellers forgot to mention whether they’d be able to send the object, so writing a message to ask them about it was a needed step. Now with this new feature, I thought, I would save time & the stress of having to anxiously wait for a seller to answer — & getting my heart broken after getting a negative response.
A couple of months after the new app had been released I tried to sell an item (my first item within the new app) & while filling up the form, I somehow skipped the delivery method selection. Some hours after publishing my product, I got a notification saying someone had purchased it & that I had a determined amount of time to send it by mail — which I originally didn’t want to offer.
I also received a direct message from the “buyer” trying to impersonate the app, stating I should receive the payment + delivery soon and until then I should send them some extra info & consequently the item. It didn't take me long to realize this was a scam but I did feel confused & guilty (for offering mail delivery when in reality I didn’t want to offer it) & illogically scared, that somehow now I was obliged to either send the product or the money back ( which I had not received & could have not received in any way, since I had not entered any payment info).
To that, is important to mention that at that point, I wasn’t sure if this feature had anything to do with the other new star of the app, a function called “Direct Buy”- through which one can receive and send money directly on the app.
I must honestly say that back then I did not quite understand how these two functions worked & even though I have kept using the app (both as a seller & buyer), I haven’t been able to understand the connection between the two new features if there is any.
On the other side, it took me quite some time to figure out where I had gone wrong while posting that first item to sell & find the correct delivery method for my consequent items. I felt a bit ashamed that I had not seen it while filling up the form (I have using the app for years, I should know better!), & couldn’t help to ask myself if this was happening to other people & why.
At the same time, I kept seeing numerous item publications (some of them, I have added to my favorites) with the delivery option available (“Delivery from 4,99€” — info shown on the product details page) but which also stated “Only for Pickup” down in the seller’s description, which was disappointing in many cases: In my mind, I had already counted with the products being delivered to me directly. I was wrong, confused & always a bit frustrated.
This led me to think about my own experience discovering and using the feature & question what about it makes it misleading for others too.
How the new feature looks & (more or less) works
The feature can be found as a section inside the “Anbieten” (to offer) main menu, right underneath the item’s description box & followed by the price-related section.
It consists of a box element with a very simple border (gray or white, depending on light or dark mode), that contains the header “Versandmethoden” (Delivery Methods) & shows two mail delivery companies (starting with their logos) & their respective approx. prices. Below, a small text stating “Abholung durch Käufer immer möglich” (Pickup is always available) closes the whole section.
No other choosing option is shown. There is only a very small “>” button on the right, which doesn’t indicate clearly where it will take us.
This means, the user is being shown this option selected by default each time they post an item. This in turn means that now the object can be sent by mail (at the specified prices), but also (as specified in the small text at the end) can be picked up at the seller’s.
Kleinanzeigen explains how sending per mail works, as part of their other new feature’s “Sicher bezahlen” (safe payment) process :
- The seller chooses the delivery method when posting an item (between DHL or Hermes, in different size options),
- A buyer has to first send a “Sicher bezahlen” request for the item. They will only pay after you accept it. (Until here though, is not clear where or how to introduce our bank/payment information to receive that money).
- After that, the seller can retrieve the shipping label selected by the buyer directly in the app or PC and hand in the parcel at a DHL or Hermes parcel store. The shipment number is automatically sent to the buyer.
- As soon as the buyer confirms receipt of the item, but at the latest after 14 days, the money should be transferred to the seller.
As mentioned in the second bullet point, it was not clear when/where I as a seller should introduce the payment information for when a buyer decides to buy the item. In my opinion & personal experience, this is a big stress-causing factor: just like what happened to me when posting my first item, where I accidentally “chose” to offer delivery per mail & immediately started wondering about the money that I should be sending back (even though I had not given any bank info at the point). I had not seen or found the option to change it & was afraid of the consequences, which are not so easy to imagine, since this feature is still relatively new — especially for those, who like me, have not yet bought an item following the above-mentioned steps and therefore still new to the feature.
Even though the payment info situation could be the subject of further discussion and improvement, I believe a lot can be done by “simply” taking a look at the delivery method element in the “Anbieten” (offer) page.
Coming back to the visuals (see screenshots in the graphic below), the whole section lacks white space: headers & other elements are very close to each other & to the borders; also, the font size is very small, which hinders readability.
Overall the element lacks affordance: is difficult to differentiate this element from the others on the page & the simple line style used for the UI makes the clickable property of the element go unnoticed. The small “>” on the right (which seems to be more aligned with the first mail delivery company) doesn’t help in that direction either.
Proposed Solution
On this proposed re-design, the delivery method section (see graphic underneath the bullet points) presents the following changes :
- an introduction to the feature, thanks to a subheader: “Versandmethoden”(delivery methods), that is bigger and better readable thanks to
- bigger white spacing: margins & paddings inside of the box’s borders are bigger giving space for the elements to breathe.
- a (selected) radio button element with the label “Postversand” (mail delivery) is now included: that way the user knows this is just one option among other(s). The style and colors used for it follow the same characteristics as other radio buttons in the app. Moreover, in the bottom modal that opens up after clicking on the “>” button, the option “Only Pickup” was already presented next to a radio button.
- the previous info-text that stated: “Abholung durch Käufer immer möglich”(Pickup is always available) is now replaced by “Empfehlung für deinen Artikel” (Recommended for your item). With this the user understands the why behind this per-default given selection & can, therefore have the idea that they can still change it: delivery is not a must.
- To contribute to that, the right “>” icon is now a bigger pencil icon, which normally users connect to the action of editing. When clicked, the user would be presented with the same bottom modal (seen in the screenshots above) including the already shown info on the delivery methods & of course, the “Only pickup” option.
- use of different colors (darker and lighter green for light & dark modes respectively) to highlight the current selection and catch the users' eyes faster.
- *As you can observe in the screens underneath, I also considered adding a subheader to the next section related to the price. “Preis festlegen”(set price) follows the same logic as the subheader “Versandmethoden” & both try to bring more structure to the rest of the form. I believe they represent a crucial part of the item's info & both are or bring something new to the app. In that sense, the users might still need better guidance /introduction to them at the moment ( beyond long landing pages outside of the app).
Furthermore, this redesign points to making the delivery method section pop up a bit more to let the user know the choice is always on them, giving them some confidence back & reducing possible mini-frustrations once their item goes online. It also tries to give the whole screen more structure & let it breathe.
Even though adding more margins & paddings does take up a bit more space the whole page seems lighter & it is easier (& faster) to go through the options and most importantly understand what’s behind them, not only hoping that “old” users of the app would understand but guiding them through the new features.
Disclaimer: As mentioned at the beginning of this article, these are only ideas that have come to my mind as a heavy-user of the Kleinanzeigen app & have not had time to test them with other real users.
