It's important to remember that we're taking things very slowly this time around, so very few customers will actually see this new feature over the next few days. As a result, we do not advise that you advertise or market this new feature until we get a little bit further along. We understand that there is demand for this new offering, but the vast majority of Zazzle users will not actually be seeing this new feature on our website, so advertising it may only create confusion. At this time we ask for a bit of patience while we monitor things from our end to ensure that processes are operating as expected. We do hope to scale things up in the near future, and when we get further along we'll provide an update so that you can start to notify interested parties.
Here's a screenshot of what the user will see. On the right side of the page the user can select Prints, Instant Downloads, or Both. User will be sent through the normal checkout process, and once they check out they'll be provided a link to download the product. This same download link will be found in the user's Order History. When the user clicks on the download link they'll be shown a simplified product page where they can download as png, jpeg, or pdf. This simplified product page will also contain a link to purchase the physical product, too.
Your digital offerings show to those who landed in the random group with Beta access to DD's, even if you as the designer is not in that group and thus can't see them yourself. I can see DD's so checked and yes, I can see yours.
I've been checking out the Digital Downloads as a customer would see them and have a number of observations / questions. Since this is just the initial test offering I'm sure the Z team is working on all of them but since you're collecting feedback here, here goes... (I'm just going to post one thing at a time in no particular order so as to make it easier.)
#1) Transparency
On printed products, transparent parts of an image reveal whatever the actual product color is and that is reflected in the previews. On digital images, how transparency is represented depends on the application you're viewing the image in. It may show as black, white, gray, a grid pattern or actually transparent where you see the app's background color. Zazzle has choosen to show it as white.
Here's an example of a card where the center was published as transparent. I put it on kraft paper to highlight that it's actually transparent and not white as represented in the phone in-situ.
Here's another example with a twist. This card was published with all white text & elements, on a solid color background you can change.
I changed the background to transparent and again put it on kraft paper to highlight the transparency. Since you can't print white all the design elements disappear in the print version. You can certainly have white in a digital image but since Zazzle is also using white to represent transparency, the elements disappear in the phone in-situ, too.
I am assuming that when someone pays to download a .png version, any transparent areas will actually be transparent, that transparency is not being converted to solid white in the digital files. I get that Zazzle had to pick something to represent transparent areas and that how it actually appears depends on the app the person is using to view it in, which Z obviously has no control over, but, I think white was a poor choice. How will customers be able to differentiate between what's actually white and what's transparent?
Going back to the first example, it looks beautiful at the published defaults.
Customer edits the template text without ever going into the Design Tool where they would see the white is actually transparent, downloads the file, sends it off to a bunch of people as-is. But uh-oh, some people aren't seeing any text on it because for them the transparent center is black and maybe others are seeing gray or a grid. Not the white center the sender thought it had. Invite ruined. Customer embarrassed. Angry call to CS or chat message to Creator. Refund. Bad review ....
I'm being extreme here I know, but I think the white/transparency issue is going to cause a lot of confusion and if at all possible Zazzle should use a grid to rep transparency on the digital in-situs.
