I had a payment to process on PayPal today and when I visited their main page to login I noticed a tiny message bar at the top center of the page asking me if I wanted to “Preview the new PayPal Homepage.” The message got the best of my curiosity so I decided to check out their new look. I don’t use PayPal all that often, but I do know they have had the same look and feel in their design for quite a few years now. Past updates to their site design seemed to be minor changes in look, new graphics and rarely have we seen any new usability features. Well, the future is here and PayPal wants your feedback to help them build the best homepage/site that they possibly can.

Once I clicked the Preview link (looks like the one above) I was taken to a welcome screen that basically details the fact that they are redesigning their pages, starting at the homepage and need feedback from their users to make it the best it possibly can be. You can either click a link to “Try Beta Now” or you can click the “No Thanks” link to return to the old PayPal homepage. The body of the welcome page has a list of features included in the new design and when you hover over each item in the list it highlights the feature on the image to the right (pretty cool).

The list of new features includes the following.

• New tabs to guide you - Personal or business, we get you there fast.
• Handy site search - Just type and click.
• You want answers - We put your top questions here
• We want your feedback - Go to Site Feedback or email homepagebeta@paypal.com

This is what the welcome page looks like.

Here is the old PayPal Homepage alongside the New Beta Design. Check them out to compare the two.

Personally I like the new design and the features that go along. I think companies as large as PayPal should always be looking into new design and usability implementations so there’s aways growth and change. Remember, change can be a good thing! Be sure, especially if you are a regular PayPal user, that you give them your feedback and input regarding their new designs. The answers to common questions section on the sidebar is probably my favorite new feature (something I have always liked about Google services).

After I was completely done looking around the new design I decided to go back to their old homepage to complete my login and process the transaction I had originally gone there for. Once I clicked the tiny message titled “Switch back to the original PayPal” I got yet another surprise. I was greeted by a Thank You pop-up (powered by opinionlab) asking me if I wanted to leave comments, ratings or get in contact with customer service.

Here’s what the special greeting message looked like.

I believe what PayPal is trying to do is a good thing. Although opinion polls, user feedback and pop-ups can sometimes get annoying they are still needed to get direct feedback from a user or customer base as large as PayPal’s. It will be interesting to see where they take this and what kinds of other features they have in the works for the future. All I can say is hopefully the next round of upgrades or the next new design doesn’t take as long to happen as this one has.

Update: Well, it took awhile, but PayPal has posted a page explaining the new design. It also has answers to frequently asked questions and goes into the reasons behind the new look and some of their future goals with the service. Here are the questions and links to the answers they provide. They urge users with other questions about the new homepage to contact them for answers.

• Why is PayPal changing its homepage?
• Will I still log in the same way?
• Do I still use my PayPal account the same way?
• How can I be sure I’m on the official PayPal website?
• Should I expect an email from PayPal announcing the new homepage?

In addition to the new PayPal page, I spotted some other opinions and remarks around the industry about their design and wanted our readers to have access to more than one point of view. Below is a link to one third-party site that recently posted content related to the redesign. I will continue to post additional opinions as I find them.

• Auctionbytes - eBay Testing New Design of PayPal Home Page