What are the top 3-5 features/improvements would you like to see most on the Zazzle platform?

[WHS_Designs]

What are the top 3-5 features/improvements would you like to see the most on the Zazzle platform?

For me, they would be:

1.   An Undo button (for products and collections that have been deleted)
2.  A way to make product, collection, and video mockups quickly.
3.  Drag 'n' drop functionality for Collections.

[Zizzago]

All of the above suggestions 
We would love payments to go directly to our bank accounts, that would save a lot of problems with changing addresses 

[Mariholly]

1. I would like the beta tests for privileged users with new products to last less time... For example, when will the embossers be available to everyone? The search already returns 5,331 results, when it reaches everyone it will be impossible to position a product.

2. I would like to have information about returns and cancellations and the reasons the customer gave.

3. I would like to be able to thank those who leave me a good review.

4. I would like to be able to give exact dimensions to the design elements and choose the measurement unit I want to use, px, cm, inches....

5. I would like to have more tools: better zoom, background removal (not just white), transparency, the ability to group multiple times, the ability to duplicate elements without copying and pasting, the ability to use the stamp tool with grouped elements....

6. I would like a better mobile version that allows me to do more things when I'm working on sketches on my mobile.

And many more, I'm sure, but I can't remember them now....

Note: I am one of those privileged users who can edit published designs. We should all have that feature.

[Mariholly]

I forgot something very important: more modern calligraphic fonts, not outdated ones. Any competing platform has many elegant and modern fonts that give designs a contemporary and chic look.

[ColsCreations]

My #1 wish is making the Layers panel more user-friendly, namely in regards to Hiding/Unhiding layers as I went into much detail about here: Improving the User-Friendliness of the Layers Panel in the Design Tool

My #2 wish is to be able to re-name our content Layers which would make it way easier for us when creating and also help us simplify things for the shopper who ventures into the Design Tool. Sixteen layers named "oval" is just UGHHH.

My other wishes rounding out the top 5 would fall more into general improvement than features but too tired to get into that tonight.

[HoneyBlossomA]

1. For Zazzle IT to stop pushing code on Fridays. In any company dealing with coding, it is a terrible practice to allow code to be pushed on Fridays (particularly if the tech team is not present all weekend) and is the obvious reason why technical issues on Zazzle always arise on Fridays and cannot be even addressed until the following week at minimum.

2. Add the functionality of having curved lines (Bézier curves) in the Design Tool.

3. Add the functionality of manipulating opacity for any object in the Design Tool (including text).

4. Allowing creators to dispute and petition to remove reviews left on their product designs that are addressing things out of their control, such as shipping, print quality, etc., especially since these reviews are now reflected on any collection that product is in.

[Jadendreamer13]

All of the above (especially allowing EVERY designer to edit their published products—lack of that feature really hinders me) and the addition of a polygon tool with editable nodes.

[Colorfulgalshop]

Make Collections clickable - have a button that takes the customer to the entire collection - just like the good old days! So easy, simple, obvious.

[BKMuir]

1. Remove the "Improved" Collections programming. It was a great hype, but mostly addresses WEDDING collections and ignores basic collections like New Home.

2. Do not discount shop keepers who will not/cannot jump through the numerous hoops with cover images

3. Limit the number of products that the First post on a thread may enter (5 pages of products to page through to get to the newest is unreasonable). Suggest that tables with two lines and 3 items per row be the maximum.

4. Order the FEEDBACK & SUGGESTIONS threads like all other forum posts so that we don't have to page through 50 plus pages to find the one new item that is really of no interest to the reader.

@WHS_Designs  thanks for this thread, I didn't know how to voice my concerns until now.

[Cat]

1) A better grid/ruler system in the design tool to make it easier to arrange design elements. Something customizable would be ideal - but in general, I wish I could control the spacing of the grid marks, and I wish there were markings for the center, quarter, and third points. As it is I end up using the line element to create my own temporary grids, or I just end up eye-balling it and hoping for the best.

2) A tool that would allow us to match the size of images - some way to create a template with two photos of the same size. The simple solution would be to simply allow us to control the height and width of an image with a numeric value in the right-hand panel. 

3) Similar to point number 2 - I'd really like to be able to easily size two text boxes to be the same width. The workaround is to make one, then copy it and change the text etc for the second one - but this system breaks down when you need to move/arrange/resize them. Again, the simple solution would be something on the right-hand panel to control the width of the text box numerically.

4) More downloadable products! I wish all of the paper products (excluding foil) were eligible for the digital download service. It would save so much time and confusion when I have to re-create designs on downloadable products for things like thank you cards, programs, menus, etc. It just creates a mess.

5) I REALLY wish that Zazzle would do a better job of educating their customers about how POD works and/or come up with a better system to shield us from having to field so many customer service questions. I have a loooong list of cut and paste replies that I use for common questions - my top ones are shipping questions, requests for design changes after an order has been placed, requests for changes to the physical product (different sizes than offered etc.), and requests for coupon codes or special discounts. What it boils down to is that customers think that they're buying things from me, and that Zazzle is simply a storefront app like Etsy - they don't understand that they're buying from Zazzle, and I'm just placing my designs on products that Zazzle sells. Anyhow, even with my cut and paste replies, I spend an inordinate amount of time fielding these sorts of questions. I think it's really a branding problem and I wish that Zazzle would address it.

[Jadendreamer13]

Hi Kat. Create a simple tic-tax-toe style graphic. Import it and use it to divide your artboard into thirds for use during design creation. Then delete it (or hide it) when you’ve completed your design.

[CrazyMermaid]

The only change I want is direct deposit into my bank account. I have zero hope this will ever happen though.

[MOM]

@CrazyMermaid Maybe because it’s often kinda costly? Bank of America is charging me $15 for domestic and $16 for International transactions (for funds I will receive regardless of amount received) and the sender has to pay too (as far as I know). Of course not all banks handle this the same way. Like I know some Credit Unions charge less or nothing. Also some other banks perhaps charge less or nothing.

[Barbara]

My number 1 desire is to have a truly good search tool, one that always finds what a person is looking for, given that it exists.

That's it. All else would be nice, but search is tops for me.

Colorwash's Home

[Rena]

Really new to all of this but loved reading everyone's thoughts. 

I would love to see collection in each category. It would make things so easy. 

It took me and is still confusing to me of why that  isn't an option. It just makes sense. 

Thank you

Rena

[ColsCreations]

My #3 wish is what @Cat brought up.
We need a way to make an image a known size not in pixels but on the real-world printed product in inches (or cm if you're on the metric plan) so we can accurately co-ordinate designs. It's way too hard as is. In the Design Tool, things like business cards or small return address labels or clothes labels are shown much bigger than actual size, while things like duvet covers, wrapping paper rolls, shower curtains, are shown much smaller than actual size. You can either blindly trust the previews and just eyeball it that the image is the approx the size you want and also the same size as on coordinated products, or you can attempt to make your own grid to overlay on them, as I have done in some cases, but that requires making a different grid for each product and that's too much calculating & extra work with still no guarantee that it's correct. So we absolutely need a way in the Design Tool to know and control what the size is going to be on the end product, not just in pixels on our screen.

[Jadendreamer13]

Photoshop can do this for you….

[ColsCreations]

Yes, but you have to do it for every different product and it's a real headache thinking about converting pixels, DPI, PPI, what we see in Photoshop or other editor vrs how it appears in the Design Tool, and real-life size according to preview images. I've made numerous grids in PS to assist in making something turn out a specified size in real life, including hours I spent making round stickers to a custom-requested size on the vinyl kiss-cut blank.  We should have a way in the Design Tool to specify "I want this square to be 2" x 2" on the real-life printed result". So that we can use the same image file on say a bathmat, a shower curtain, and a towel set and be assured that it will be the same size on each, without having to formulate how to make our own grid each time.

[tiffjamaica]

All great suggestions here - limiting myself to three is hard, but... 
1. A ruler in the design tool specific to each product's measurements would save so much time.
2. Improve the search function.
3. Improve the referral systems. Promoter Program has no analytics, remove landing pages, and create a separate system for custom work! The amount of times I've created artwork for people whose referral links don't end up working makes me now refuse custom orders, which is a loss for Zazzle, too.

Editing to add - Give us some explanation for cancellations. Just a simple cancellation classification would be nice. 

[CreativeLeahG]

1. Fix Filters and search function

2. Less Editors picks (one carousel row)

3. No 'other designer' products featured on our product pages

4. No 'landing page for referrals' go straight to product page.

5. When an item becomes discontinued, deleted - have the redirect go to creators store not generic Zazzle Home Page.

6. Add ability to make bold, italic, capital in single template of text.

[SJoy]

My thoughts on the "Landing Page" are the same.  Z seems fairly strong on keeping it this way.  However, I feel like it is a slap on the wrist for those in the Promoter 2 program. If they are going to keep it this way, they should give at least a 15% referral on items purchased through the link that are not their own.  As it is now, it is free advertising for Z while the person who placed their clean link that brought customers in doesn't get a single thing.

[Sea-Change]

Thanks for asking. It's been insightful to read everyone's input.

1. Simplify and improve collections: Expand their focus beyond events, allow chronological sorting in both directions when adding products, and simplify the whole experience. I realize the desire to focus on the huge suite upsells, but I think we all - Zazzle included - might be losing everyday sales, perhaps a lot of everyday sales.

2. Investigate whether referrals have dipped across the board, and if so, why. Mine dropped off the planet once the landing page and collections changed. I was making multiple some months, but only one in the past several months despite strategic pinning efforts. Some of my once successful Pinterest pins are still getting getting 20K+ impressions, several hundreds clicks, and a few hundred saves but to no avail. I realize cookies are complicated, but at least provide insight and recomendations.

3. Please make the Replace button available to everybody! It's a huge time waster to remake a product just because of one minor flaw or tweak, especially if noticed after covers, videos, and pins! It's also extra overhead for your IT department when we wind up creating two products, especially if we keep the original and hide it, e.g., if it isn't so bad that it needs deletion and might have been already been promoted by others.

4.  When releasing new products, please give Pro and Pro+ designers earlier access. It's disheartening to get excited about "new" products, only to find a small, exclusive set of designers has created 1+ of many subects, niches, colors, and styles for weeks and weeks. The market is already saturating before we're onboarded! I realize you want early designs to look good, but perhaps add a "Wave 2" for Pro+ Designers so we have at least a gnat's chance at early SEO in some niches.

Thanks for listening!

[wheresthekarma]

 1. Have a clickable link on collection so customers will see ALL your products that are in a collection. 
2. I would like to see you be able to move products from one store to another without having to delete it and remake it. 
3. The "Replace Product" button made for everyone instead of just certain sellers. This would make it easier for Zazzlers to fix a product if they made a mistake instead of having to remake the whole product over again and lose stats.
4. A program within Zazzle to help us make mockups and collection covers so we don't have to pay for all these other programs to do it. All these monthly subscriptions are adding up.
5. Someone to look into why everyone's sales dropped about a year ago and haven't regained traction as of yet. 
6. Something done with the chat box. There are a couple reasons,
* Most of the questions creators themselves can't answer, so customers need to somehow be told who this chat box is going to. And I see Z is trying to do that but I get so many shipping questions and can you fix my mistakes in personalized items questions,  and things I can't answer. 
* I keep getting custom requests... such as, "Can you make this invitation with a cat instead of a dog?"  Then I work on it for hours and then the person never buys it. So there should be some small fee for "customizations" up front. 
7. Why the landing page when we share products to Pinterest? It's a real punch in the gut to creators who are sharing their products only for customers to end up seeing "other" products and then if you are on the 2.0 program, you don't get a commission fee. Ouch Zazzle, that hurts! All us creators love Zazzle, we want you to love us back!
8. A "snap to" so that when designing things like coffee mugs, you can tell if your design is centered in the right place. 
9. A way for Zazzle to find "duplicate designs" because copycat thieves are becoming a real problem on POD sites. 

Sorry WHS, I know that was more than you asked for! 

[Cat]

Assuming I understand correctly, Number 8 already exists. In the design tool there's a setting called "snapping." If you turn it on you'll get a green line that appears when the item is centered. Just found out about this and I've been designing for over 5 years! You can also use the align button at the top to center something in the artboard or to center it to other selected layers.

[wheresthekarma]

Yes, that is what I'm talking about but I want it on each side of the coffee mugs. You can center images to the "center" of the "whole space" that can be edited, but I can never quite tell if I have the images centered on the front and back of coffee mugs, if that makes sense. 

[Barbara]

@wheresthekarma  I've been using the 5 vertical green lines for centering left, middle, and right. I'm not quite sure what the in-between lines are for. Alternatively, you can create your own template with centering lines, uploading it, and placing it temporarily while you position your images, then deleting it from the design surface.

Colorwash's Home

[Cat]

Oh, I see what you're saying. That would be a nice feature!

[Barbara]

Set the left side image all the way to the left, then move it with the arrow key by increments to the right, counting how many times you do it to get it centered on that side. Set the right side's image all the way to the right, and with the arrow key, move it to the left, using the same count you did for the left side image.

But yes, it sure would be nice to have those center marks already there to snap to.

Colorwash's Home

[1234Shine]

1. Replace Tool for everyone, not just for some!

2. Replace Tool for everyone, not just for some!

3. Replace Tool for everyone, not just for some!

[Marblewave]

Great question @WHS_Designs 😃

1.  More sophisticated color filtering controls in the design tool, including opacity levels
2. External links go to the seller's product which is pictured or described, not a list of other products which may not even include the one which was clicked on. If I were a customer I would like to look further at what I had clicked on, rather than being directed elsewhere.
3. A smaller proportion of 'Editor's Picks' heading up the search results.