Garden by eBay is a new initiative in which the company showcases new concepts (called "seeds") and existing features (called "plants") and solicits input from users. eBay launched the Garden on Tuesday revealing a new "streamlined search experience" and displaying its existing Diamond Ring Designer. eBay Vice President of Engineering Dane Glasgow answered questions about the new initiative in an email interview with AuctionBytes Editor Ina Steiner.

eBay has been testing some of these search features seen in the Garden for 2 years, such as the side-by-side view feature (link). And I've seen Quick Look live on the site. It begs the question, just how many years of data does eBay have to collect before it makes a decision on introducing a new feature?

Dane Glasgow: The Garden by eBay lets us engage in a broad dialogue with our users about proposed features far earlier in the development cycle than previous tools and testing methods. We believe Community feedback continues to be an integral part of evolving features to best satisfy our customers' needs. Streamlined search brings together a number of new ideas, as well as some refreshed ones, into a new, holistic search experience for customers to explore. We've made great strides already in search and we feel a great way to continue to improve the search experience on eBay.com is to engage with eBay users and let them tell us what they think.

Why agonize over whether to add a feature when you can add it as an option and let shoppers decide which one they want to use?

Dane Glasgow: The Garden is designed as an experimental space where users can choose to try out proposed features before they go live to eBay.com. It brings users directly into the innovation process at eBay by soliciting - and acting on - their input to improve features before we launch them. We want our users to test and try out new features in a fun, interactive and collaborative way - and the Garden makes that happen.

In terms of feedback collection, you have one overall rating scale; a person could love one feature and hate the other, how would they rate the new search experience - does that give you the feedback you seek? For the text box, how easy will it be for someone at eBay to sift through the feedback provided?

Dane Glasgow: For streamlined search, we purposefully developed a short input survey to keep things simple for our users. The numeric scale asks a general question about what users think of the new search experience, and they can get more specific about their likes, dislikes and suggestions in the comment box. We let users decide how much detail they want to go into with their comments and we have tools in place to review, categorize, and understand the feedback we're given.

Aren't these search features really usability issues, and aren't there more sophisticated ways to measure and improve usability? Best Match figures out what items to present to shoppers searching on the site, which seems more relevant - why isn't eBay soliciting feedback on Best Match, and do you have plans to?

Dane Glasgow: Garden by eBay is one of many tools we use to gain customer insights and feedback on new site functionality. While we're not announcing any specific additions to the Garden besides streamlined search and the Diamond Ring Designer, we expect to bring more features into the Garden throughout the year.

In previous years, eBay has tested "new search" by letting people opt-in, is the Garden "seed" really so different?

Dane Glasgow: Yes! eBay frequently conducts tests on eBay.com, but what's new about the Garden is that it opens up a conversation with users and asks them for their thoughts on proposed new products well before they go live to the site. The input our users give will help evolve the functionality and influence when - and whether - features go live. Sometimes they will; other times they won't. Our users' thoughts and input will help shape that decision.

People who search the site have real insight into what works best in terms of finding what they are looking for. Can you tell us what is next on the agenda for the Garden?

Dane Glasgow: While we're not announcing any specific additions to the Garden besides streamlined search and the Diamond Ring Designer, we expect to bring more features into the Garden throughout the year. We also look forward to the next iteration of streamlined search based on a great dialog with our customers through the Garden.

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