Taobao PC revision! We chatted with a man who worked behind his back for 6 years...

At the end of May 2022, the Taobao PC homepage will be completely revised. This article tells the story of the ups and downs before and after the PC revision, as well as the future technical layout and thinking of the PC project team.

2022 new version of the home page
https://www.taobao.com/

On a morning in December 2021, user Bendou habitually opened Taobao with a computer. He can see product details on a large screen, compare multiple pages, and quietly watch Taobao during work hours without any sense of disobedience. These reasons make him one of the few "PC Taobao enthusiasts" in the mobile era.
He quietly raised his mobile phone and scanned the QR code to log in. When he clicked to jump to the next product page, the login box popped up again. Wandering through the grid pages full of the sense of the times and the occasional error pages, he took a fancy to a folding camper, clicked Want Want to inquire about the size of the merchant, and the message box prompted the need to download and install the Want Want client...
Ben Dou angrily shut down the website because he thought it was troublesome. At this moment, there are 10 million people who have the same troubles as him about "the PC is not easy to use".
At the same time, Yong Ba, a big Taobao engineer who has worked in the homepage development position for more than 2,000 days, is brewing a new Taobao PC homepage renovation plan under the opportunity.

Engineer Yongba and the new version of Taobao PC homepage

PC Home, Tears of the Times

In 2015, in the context of the entire era, Ali started the "ALL IN Wireless" strategy. "PC is not as good as mobile fragrance", in the first few minutes of Double 11 Night in 2015, the proportion of wireless transactions has reached more than 80%. Since then, Taobao's PC users have been submerged in the torrent of the times like sand flowing between their fingers, and the DAU of the homepage alone has dropped by nearly 10 times.
Until now, it is almost impossible for you to open the computer version of Taobao Mall and recharge your phone once. This means that many businesses and operations have also "migrated" to new battlefields with users. Some niche function sections on the PC side are almost "empty shelves", and large and small problems such as interaction lag, page 404, and error pop-up windows are lurking. Every corner... Some users couldn't help but complain on Weibo: Is the PC no longer maintained?
Yongba raised his glasses and smiled bitterly: "We've been there, but the resources are really not enough."

The 2016 version of Taobao PC home page

Resources do not mean investing in a dozen or so technical students and hundreds of servers for development; those businesses that are gradually transferred, disappeared, and iterative have left unfilled "resource & manual operation pits"; those organizational adjustments, Changes in technological changes inevitably leave "historical traces": aging sites, inconsistent technical solutions, non-grayscale and non-rollback release methods, etc., they are deeply rooted in this platform that has been in operation for nearly 20 years. On, like an old and disease-ridden beast, panting and carrying a heavy load.
"Can you imagine? I also received some PHP pages, probably more than ten years ago, and I haven't even started writing code!" Jin Zhen, a classmate of Yongba's team, is the main force in this homepage renovation, and he is still a student At the time, he always regarded Yubo as his idol. He didn't expect that after 3 years of work, he could still see the JS code written by the idol Yubo in 2010 on the "Lighting Up" function: / Copyright 2010, KISSY UI Library v1.0.5 MIT Licensed build: 524 Apr 6 09:10 // * @module Wangwang Lighting Script @author Yubo@depends ks-core */ New students also have a common pain point when facing PC needs: no handover documents, no find Responsible person, everyone's work is full of archaeological "fun". Even if it is to modify a small search box component, from stripping the historical code to refactoring the new logic, the students actually spent a full 2 weeks.
The resources are scarce and the burden is heavy. It is different from the "technical people who switch to wireless" in everyone's imagination. In those years of "unseen" and "infinite delay", Yongba and his team have already started for "PC". This matter quietly settled for 4 years.
In June 2022, the user Reee wanted to buy a nine-nine multiplication table card for his child, but he opened the computer Taobao because the characters on the card were too small to read. He was surprised to find that the homepage became clear and clear, it was easy to find what he was looking for, and he could communicate with merchants through the web page, and it could also be synchronized with the news on his mobile phone... After not reading the website for many years, he couldn't help but post A circle of friends, "I don't remember what Taobao looked like in the past, but I feel that it is very beautiful and easy to use now." Those PC activists who need Taobao search pictures (such as e-commerce artists, home design) due to the nature of their work , I couldn't help but post, "There are fewer error pages", "The module is very clear"...
At the end of May this year, the Yongba team launched a new version of the Taobao PC homepage. This is the version with the biggest changes in recent years, and the first goal is to focus on solving the problem of product usability. But this is not the ultimate goal of the four-year precipitation. The homepage revision has just begun for Yongba's "PC transformation plan".

Behind the PC homepage renovation plan is a big chess game

In the eyes of the teammates, Yongba "has a lot of ideas". In the "severe hatred" between programmers and product managers, not only will he not cut requirements, but he will even take the initiative to add several demand suggestions. "It's better for users to have this, why not do it?" Even UED has accepted his suggestion, "Would it be better to change the font here?"
His current team of 20 people is responsible for the front-end development of all basic products of Da Taobao, including homepage, information flow, details, transactions, news, etc. He likes to be a user of his own products. In order to have a "first-class" experience, he angrily rejected the business side's demand to open Taobao products in the WeChat scene. "Didn't I want to see the product? Why do I force the login?" PD was choked by this honesty instead.
Developing on Taobao, especially the development that is closely tied to the user's vision & experience, requires such a user's perspective and a strong heart.
Lingjun is the girl who is responsible for the launch of Want Want Web products in this homepage revision. "Product capability upgrade" is the second goal of Yongba's revision, and gradually solve the user's "why can it be on the mobile phone and not on the computer?" Previously, when users communicated with merchants on the computer, they needed to download the Want Want client software separately, which was troublesome and took up memory. Sister Lingjun has been fiddling around for a month, and when she is full of confidence and goes online to 50%, the unexpected negative feedback makes her autistic. It turns out that many users have already installed the client, but they are not used to evoking web page sessions. There are also some new users who hope that the Web version can achieve more functions besides text chat. "Everyone thinks that you are Taobao, so you shouldn't make this kind of thing." Ling Jun smiled helplessly.
As her leader Yongba, since she was in charge of the homepage in 2016, she has already experienced hundreds of battles and is invincible. "Users have expectations for us. If one day users don't use us, even the sound of scolding will disappear." The next morning, Lingjun rolled back the Web Wangwang to the order of 20%, adding a client or web page Session options, and can tick the default options. Jin Zhen joined the team in March 2 years ago, and he was also affected by Yongba's "user value" perspective. In this homepage renovation, Jinzhen took the initiative to take over nearly 20 old pages that no one cared about, migrated them one by one to the maintainable Zebra building platform, and added the "Web Accessibility Version" capability at the ceiling. It can read aloud, change colors, and zoom in. "The more convenient it is, the better."
In a team with such a clear value proposition, cohesion becomes a breeze. Behind the upgrade of PC product capabilities, there are many things that ordinary users cannot perceive but require the technical team to spend many days and nights. For example, Taobao's PC technology stack is too old to support grayscale or rollback, which is almost completely inconsistent with current safety production standards. This means that if you feel that this version is not perfect after it is released, you can only choose to redo a version and cover it, and you cannot go back to the historical version.
"It's like painting the wall. If I don't like it, I have to repaint the whole house." Yongba scratched his head. This is also the most far-reaching layout and third goal behind this renovation plan - "to upgrade the technical capabilities across the board." ".

Discuss the homepage construction plan together in the conference room

Grayscale and rollback are just initial iterations, and this part has now been completed. For the past 4 years, Yongba has been paving the way for "a framework that supports multiple terminals. For example, if you launch a new function on Taobao App today, I will be able to smoothly migrate to PC Taobao and H5 Taobao in a week or two. This is very important. We can all accept that there is no obvious progress in this year, but we must persist in doing it.”
There are many factors in "getting something done", and "persistence" is the one with the lowest cost. It is not an easy task to copy and migrate product functions at low cost and ensure consistent user experience across channels. In 2018, the Yongba team moved to Jinhui Building. At that time, they received a demand to develop H5 Taobao. The purpose was to open a product page in a non-Taobao APP (such as Alipay), which is similar to the experience in Taobao. However, due to the large difference in infrastructure, the page opening speed of H5 Taobao takes almost 2-5 seconds, and the low-end machine may even take more than 10 seconds, and the page information is not safe enough. So in 2019, they took the initiative to make small programs with almost no business appeal. Under the circumstances at that time, this was a technical choice that was easier to experience.
This incident inspired Yongba. In fact, what PC Taobao needs is such a platform architecture with complete capabilities. While changing the old version of the structure, it can also keep pace with the iteration of mobile Taobao. "The revision is not that you change the previous version today, and you will not do it next time without resources and attention from managers. If there is such a low-cost and transferable technical solution, no matter what function is iterated on the mobile phone, the PC will immediately be able to do it. Take the effort to keep up, why not do it."
Yongba smiled and bared a small tiger's teeth, "I will try my best to do [can or not] first, and then I will decide [whether or not] for the business."
This is the real goal of this man who has guarded the PC homepage for more than 2,000 days since 2016. From "holding a hammer to find a nail" to "finding a nail to make a hammer", technology is deployed in advance for the business, and mining is not something that is not currently, but may be a strong demand in the future, and from the user's point of view, this is a more long-term, The way to protect the value of consumers, instead of listening and doing it today, doing it for a while.

Do not change jobs, do the right thing, the realization of the value of technology is not limited to the field

In June 2019, on the first floor of Building 6, Xixi Park, a large collection exhibition of the previous versions of the PC homepage was held. Yongba sighed with emotion, "I developed several versions, and I feel that I also belong to the part of history."

The PC homepages that Yongba was responsible for (parts)
In the process of "history" flowing, some colleagues have left, some colleagues have changed jobs, and most of them have chosen the client or server, regardless of business value and consumer value, everyone tacitly hides a question: how do you Still doing PC Taobao?
In the field of technology, there seems to be a very obvious anxiety about "the trend of the times". "The prospect of xxx is not good", "Is yyy cold", "How to evaluate the trend of zzz, it's too late to turn it around", those topics that provoke people's hearts are full of all corners, and they are afraid of being left behind by the wind, and even more afraid Was slapped on the beach by the "back waves". Everyone understands that the era of PC is impossible to return.
Yongba was recruited to Taobao in 2014, and he was independently responsible for the homepage in 2016. Even when there was no test and TMS and other facilities were not perfect, he still handed over a copy that was enough to make the head of Taobao's front-end & wireless at the time. All-staff emails praised his answer sheet. After being promoted in 2017, he has also been confused. If the scene has not changed, he can no longer make new heights. What is even more troublesome is that when he first took over the team in 2019, half of the people left due to various reasons. "It's not that I did anything wrong, but I'm still very stressed."
Jin Zhen joined the team for 2 years, and was silently jealous of the "next door" mobile Taobao page data. He didn't hide his confusion: "Is the ROI of our PC page too low? Can I be seen doing this?" Even if Yongba has a personal sentimental factor to stay on the PC, he is not interested in these young engineers. Said they need brighter opportunities and challenges, which is a harder and more realistic problem.
"My advantage is that I know what to do is right, and I am willing to stick to it." This is Yongba's proud advantage and philosophy of doing things. Under the wave of ALL IN wireless in 2017, he went from confusion to relief. "Technology is only a means to help businesses solve problems. There are various business forms and technologies used, but the ability to solve business problems will not change." After a happy afternoon "eat fruit activity" for the team, he enlightened Jin Zhen, the value of a technology is not how advanced your solution is, how powerful the framework is, but whether it can better meet business needs and create new thing. For individuals, "whether the ability to solve problems has increased" is more critical. If any product is given to you, it can exceed expectations, and you have more options. "Besides, I made your performance, so what are you worried about?" Yong Ba patted his little brother on the shoulder jokingly.
Learn to delay gratification, stay out of the spotlight, accept challenges and doubts, stick to what's right, and be patient and wait for it to bear fruit, which he always takes the trouble to communicate with his team. Sister Ling Jun, who has just joined the team for 3 months, also feels that Yongba is a leader who "everyone can take into account" and likes communication and input. The team often code reviews with each other, "but Yongba is the one who reads the most carefully and has the most detailed feedback and comments." "Before I saw him for the first time, I thought it was a middle-aged man when I saw the photo, but he was actually very young and energetic haha."
Pseudo-middle-aged man Yongba likes to use the word "today" in communication. "Today we regard ourselves as users, and we can go shopping on computers and mobile phones more comfortably. I think this is always valuable." "In the past, it was very difficult for the front-end to win Taobao's technology awards. Today, as a On the front end, if the transaction conversion rate can be increased by 1%, the business value it can bring will be quite huge." Understanding "today" means grasping and thinking about the reality, and his favorite reading is Mao Choose, I hope I am a person who can output thoughts and insights. For this reason, after 9:30 p.m. until before going to bed, he often arranges for himself a meeting time "with a hundred schools of thought, Emperor Qin and Han Wu", "I am willing to study some things, history can help people establish their own world view, and the wind is light. Look at the past and the present lightly."

Yongba's beloved bookshelf

Black pants and white tops are the most common images of Yongba. He mocks himself as a boring person in life. "In contrast to work, I hope to be considered to have no ideas in life." Without ideas, and naturally no comparisons, he lived a good life. Simple, pure and focused, simply listening to songs, running, games, watching food, watching travel, watching games, it is not easy to be coerced by anxiety, and it is naturally better to keep the original intention in this era.
Following the launch of the PC homepage revision, at the end of last month, the PC product detail page 2.0 with a more complex background was also launched. Adhering to the style consistent with the homepage, it is clear and clean, and the experience is smooth. It is currently in the women's clothing category. In the next step, they will gradually complete the business details transformation of all categories, and in the next step, they will also complete the upgrade of the entire site search. Compared with its peers, PC Taobao's product upgrades and technological transformations this time are still at the forefront.
The five digits at the beginning of the job number 7 have witnessed Yongba's thousands of days and nights on Taobao. This old man from Fujian has settled down and took root on the side of his dream and is doing his best to guard it. "Some old applications and old codes have been ignored. At this time, whoever hurts the most, whoever is willing to step forward, whoever is willing to step forward. This tests one's own persistence and belief in the right things, regardless of performance."
The development of history is spiraling upwards. As long as the things that are considered to be right will surely happen/proven in the future, this is the belief of engineers Yongba.

Yongba and his teammates on Double 11