This probably belongs in Ideas & Suggestions but that forum is setup to discourage discussion ("If you’d like to have a conversation with your fellow community members then we’d suggest using the General Discussion board.") and many posts go unseen there by other members due to its odd sorting behavior. So I'm posting here so everyone can chime in with their own aggravations and suggestions.
Here is how the Layers panel currently looks for the new glassware set as example (Left) and my mock-up (Right) of the type of improvements I'd love to see.
First, and minor, is the Layers title row at top. We already know we're in the Layers panel so that is unnecessary and just a waste of vertical space.
Second, I'd like to see the Background layer operate like any other layer meaning you can click on the little square preview icon and the background options open in the right-hand panel just as the options for text and images do. Make your edits, then simply click on another layer from the left panel to activate the options for that layer in the right panel, same as it works for other layer types. As is, you have to click the add/edit button which opens the background options panel on the left, eliminating the layers panel, and then the only way to get back to the Layers list is to click the Layers tab from the left menu.
Also, the only way to see the hex# of the background color you chose is to click that edit button, then click the + symbol from the grid of swatches to "choose a custom color", and then you can see & copy the hex value from that dialog box. Making the Background layer operate like other layers would be a huge overhaul, but at the very least, it would be super helpful and time-saving to show the hex# of current background color at the top of the dialog box where it says "Current Background".
Next, When the product is a set of items that can be designed independently and each item has its own different design areas, each of which in turn can have its own multiple content layers, it gets very visually difficult to sort out. I'd like to see everything labeled clearly and with each individual item "nested" that we can then expand/collapse at will. Other sets are like this (bath towels and the 4-piece coasters for example) but the new glass sets are still quite a mess.
On the topic of expanding/collapsing at will, currently we can only have one layer open/expanded at a time. This is seriously inconvenient when trying to compare the contents of different layers and/or copy & paste from one to the other. It would be marvelous if we could open/expand as many layers at one time as we want.
As mentioned below, when you click on a Layer title block, say Front 3 for example, it automatically opens/expands (great!) but then also automatically defaults to highlighting the first/top content layer as the active one. I would like to see it instead highlight the Front 3 title row (which is what you clicked on) which would tell you this is the design area you are currently in; then you could choose which content layer within to click on to work on.
Finally, my biggest complaint with the Layers panel that has existed since my Day One here: It is extremely frustrating to work with locked or hidden layers.
1 (left image):
When you first click a layer block (Front 3 in this example), it opens and the first/top layer within by default becomes the highlighted active layer. One of the layers in this block is hidden but it's very difficult to tell which one it is.
2 (middle image):
When you start moving your mouse around, whatever layer your cursor happens to be over gets a light blue highlight. My cursor is over the shamrock layer so it's highlighted in light blue which makes a lock icon and eye icon appear. But this layer is not locked or hidden!
3 (right image):
Now I've moved my cursor over the oval layer and see the exact same thing, light blue highlight with both lock and eye icons evident. But in this case, the layer is actually hidden. ????????
This makes it nearly impossible to tell what's what when mousing around the layers panel trying to figure out what you want to click on.
Now, if I actually click on the oval layer it becomes the active layer and gets highlighted in dark blue.
But because I just clicked on it my cursor is still over it so the lock and eye icon are both shown just as they are on every layer regardless of whether it's actually locked and/or hidden or not. (Left image)
When I move my cursor off the area, the lock icon goes away and only the eye icon remains. (Right image) This is what finally tells me the layer is actually hidden (but not locked).
With the light blue highlight needlessly following your mouse around (we all already have cursors on our screen telling us what our mouse is over), the lock and eye icons both appearing even though they are not activated, and having to click and mouse OFF something to tell for sure if either option is activated for it ... it's exhausting and a real exercise in frustration.
What I would like more than anything else on this wish-list is something like in my above mock-up: very evident icons for Lock and Hiding that are ALWAYS visible and that you can toggle on/off simply by clicking on it even if it's not the active layer, and without then making it the active layer just because you hid/un-hid or locked it. Grayed out if not on, red if on. Then we'd have a very clear visual when looking at the layers panel of which ones are locked/hidden and we could change its status without making it the active layer and then having to re-find the layer we were actually working on to make it the active one again.
I know Zazzle has been working hard on bringing us new tools & features within the Design Tool and that is great and appreciated, but I would like to see some love given to also improving the over-all user-friendliness of it.
Yes! That's exactly why I hide layers, so I can try and compare different things. But it's so not user-friendly it's become a deterrent, more often than not I'm just like "eh, that's good enough" because I don't want the frustration of hiding/unhiding to compare.
Move to first & last is still there, but it's sorta hidden. You have to select the layer, then go to it in the design area (not the layers stack) and right click. That brings up a menu that allows you to move it to the front or back.
I've never used an iPad so I don't know how or if you can right click on one of those things, but there must be some way to get that menu.
Don't know how to select multiple layers using an iPad either, but on a PC you just hold down the control button and select them all. Maybe @Sara_H's 2 finger tap would work?
Yes, that's a huge one. It wouldn't be helpful just to Creators during the design process, it would be beneficial to customers who venture into the Design Tool, too, as we could make things much clearer for them.
