Hi Creators,
We hope you had time to check out our recent announcement. If you’d like to share observations or flag issues as you explore the updated experience, please use the dedicated feedback form. Submissions help us track themes and identify areas that may benefit further evaluation for the Creator Community.
You can use this thread to share your experiences with your peers!
I logged in to work on some things and was absolutely horrified to see the new workspace. I tried to convince myself that my absolute hatred for it comes under the “old dog new tricks” scenario but I’m afraid not. It may be helpful to customers, and to some designers - but I think whether it’s an improvement for designers depends on a lot of variables.
I did play around with it some. I can’t quite explain it, but it somehow makes me feel like I don’t have as much control over what I am doing as the old workspace.
I’m grateful that (at least for now) we have the option to disable it and go back to the old workspace but that raises another question - can we disable it permanently? Please?
Having tested it, I agree, disable it permanently.
You can’t possibly think hiding all the aligning and scaling options behind a drop-down menu is easier.
Stop pretending that this change “will benefit both customers and designers.” The purpose of this change is to help customers. Designers be damned. You saw designers’ feedback the other day, and you are choosing to ignore it. It feels like April Fools Day all over again.
Covering the design area and hiding all the essential features behind menus isn’t helpful for designers or customers.
no – i think by next month you won’t have that option – and I think we need to keep that option. For sure, we need to keep it for a number of months. What is the downside of keeping it as an option?
Here are my initial thoughts. In general, one of my biggest pet peeves is when developers like to make something ‘look clean’ by hiding the tools that need to be easily available. It should not mean adding extra steps causing far more wasted time to do the same things that took one click previously.
My biggest issue is editing text. This should still be available in one click, as text is one of the biggest things used on this platform considering it’s all about customization. If I want to edit the text, I should be able to edit everything about it all at once as we have been able to until now. It’s fine for customers, but as designers, we have to use these tools many more times than a customer would.
I stand by the fact that we should not have to click into an entirely different place to edit the text ‘effects’ like stroke, spacing, etc. I should be able to edit the font color and font stroke color in the same exact move, as well as the stroke size. Or even the letter and line spacing too. Because sometimes the font color and/or stroke need to change based on each other. If you change the font size, usually you have to change the font stroke too. Not to mention it needs to change again if you change the font. So much of the text is reliant on each of the effects working together.
Same issue with creating templates. That is a full additional step now to make something templated on top of all of the other additional clicks. In fact, I can’t even tell if something is a template without clicking a bunch of extra times into every single element (at least that I can find so far).
Some Other Things:
A lot of buttons you have to click on the right side of the screen (like effects, templates, etc.) and then you have to move all the way to the left side to actually use that menu. There feels like a lot of wasted time moving back and forth. Everything used to be easily accessible on the right side. Background was the only random thing on the left before.
I don’t know about everyone else, but editing on the right side of the screen felt far more natural to me. Maybe that’s a personal preference, who knows.
Switching ‘front’ to ‘back’ etc. is not as intuitive as it used to be. I think it should also be accessible on the left side. If everything is controlled on the left, that is where I would expect to look.
There is an issue with double clicking to edit text. You cannot ‘double click’ to edit if the text is in front of another element. So even if the art layer is BELOW the font, you still cannot access it. Which is incredibly frustrating to a customer.
Bleed lines seem to be missing on posters? Or maybe they never had them?
I work on a 24" Mac desktop. Even then, the dropdown menu for color covers over 3/4 of an invitation design when I’m at normal 100% view. Why is that the only one that drops down when the others pop up on the left side? I stick by the fact that ALL text editing should be together and pop up on the side together.
Why is ‘tiling’ in with text effects? I realized that it says ‘Effects’ on the main button, but when you open it says ‘Text Effects’ at the top. And why are those tools at the top. I know some people use tiling for text, but I think a large % use it for images? Same with opacity. Sure it can be used on text, but I would use it more on art. I would think the other text effects are used far more regularly?
I have had multiple messages from customers lately saying they are having a hard time centering things and wanted me to check their order (unfortunately I can’t obviously). So there may be something that needs to change for them?
When I hit ‘add text’ it pops up this weird screen that makes zero sense. This is not all of the text templates (in fact these are the ones that are NOT the templated parts) on the invitation. It’s not even the text that I had tapped on in order to copy that same style. I didn’t even realize that I had to hit ‘Add A Text Box’ again (since I already hit ‘add text’). Before if you hit ‘add text’ it just popped up a new box. I think this would confuse customers, I already overrode my text accidentally because of it.
When you ‘lock/unlock’ something, it’s like the icon gets stuck. You have to click out of the tool entirely to get it to stop looking like it is locked.
I still think we should be able to give a template instructions when needed, even if it is one ‘overall’ design one that will show on the tool.
I am not opposed to the design tool changing. I can learn a new system really fast. But there are definitely things I would like to see change before I stick to this version. A tool should not take far more steps to use for the sake of ‘looking pretty’. It’s a tool, function and efficiency are key. For now, I will switch back to the old one and keep an eye out to see if things get fixed.
I’m afraid you are right 
I know myself well enough to know this is not something I will get used to. Not only does it feel awkward, getting used to it would consume more time than I care to waste for no more than I make on here now. There. I said it. I don’t get paid enough for these headaches. I know that isn’t what this thread is about but to me this workplace change is feeling like just another hurdle, another hoop to jump through. I mean, with other changes I ended up averaging less than $2 a week on here.for 2025, worst year ever.
I sure do wish Z would let those of us who prefer the old workplace continue to permanently use it - and let customers and designers who do like the new workplace use whichever one they are most comfortable with. I’m not even sure customers, at least repeating customers, will be happy.
From a developer side I’m sure it gets very complicated. They would have two tools to constantly fix bugs on. And then both of those have to integrate with the website and the customer tool. I’m sure making edits on one would likely effect the other. And then for admins and customer service, they’d have to keep up on both tools on how to help people and/or troubleshoot. Just not feasible long term. Hopefully they will make the changes we all need to the new tool. 
Also on text stroke. Since the colors (main text and stroke) are no longer together for the customer, they may not know how to change the stroke at all. Could end up with a frustrated color if the font is blue and the stroke is stuck on pink. I brought this up when the customer side was introduced too.
I agree that the lock/unlock thing is super confusing - just like it was on the old tool, but it’s a bigger deal now since layers need to be locked to allow customers to edit layers that are underneath them. It needs to be an on/off switch instead of an icon that just appears or disappears. As it is, you can’t tell if a layer is locked, or if it’s just that your mouse is hovering over it. The top layer here is un locked, the bottom layer is locked - but you can’t tell until you move away to a different layer.
Maybe the padlock icon could change into an open padlock if it’s unlocked? I just know that I spend an inordinate amount of time clicking and unclicking that stupid lock trying to figure out if something is locked or not.
your break down was excellent and a bit overwhelming as I’ve been sticking to the old tool which I’ve basically been very pleased with and had no real sense of what challenges lie ahead. I think you’ve detailed well enough that each point can be looked into and hopefully improved.
i haven’t found that this new tool made things easier for customers. they seem to have more trouble. Also it has absolutely not helped my sales at all as there has been a drastic decline since this was implemented on the customer side. What was wrong with the tool we have now? This new one is harder to sort out edits and layers and many of the boxes actually block the design window
Where are fit and fill?
They are weird little icons up top after you click on the art or image. That is another thing I think confuses customers is all of the ‘mystery icon buttons’. Thankfully on a desktop you can ‘hover’ over the buttons and it says what it is, but not sure if that is possible on ipad and phones? As far as templates, you have to go into ‘Seller Options’ then turn on the template, and then they appear below that.
Thanks @VivianD117 ! I decided to turn it on an play around, because I figured the sooner they got feedback the better. But yes, I’ve turned it back to the original now too. Hope you have been well!
it occurred to me that a good test for me would be to try and design a favor box – which is pretty complicated and really needs a clear view of the composition in parts and as a whole to get the sides and the front / back to match correctly. I don’t think you can “dumb down” designing – you can add enhancements – and they certainly had – background remover / strokes / transparency – all very positive. But if you want creativity, it does often require a degree of complexity. So I would think the real focus would be how to continue to add enhancements that complement that creativity.
I think the favor boxes are still only on the old tool.
and what does that tell us. I’ve just submitted a suggestion that the rather brief video doesn’t cut it in terms of learning the new tool. It requires a number of videos on individual features so that someone can go directly to something they don’t understand and have help figuring it out. I think that would make a big difference.
