The problem comes with grouped designs. The design I posted below this message, is grouped and the customer doesn't know to ungroup it. If and when they figure out how to ungroup the design, they can't replace the images and crop the images, because there is a template on top of the images, that is not locked. If and when they figure out how to go the left side of the screen and click on layers, there is the grouped design, now what are they suppose to do? If and when they figure out how to ungroup the design in the layer, they still don't know they have to lock the top layer, so they can replace the images, underneath the template.
After all of these steps, I gave up and closed the product and the customer will too. This is so confusing and all of these steps are so unnecessary.
Why does Zazzle always release majors update right before the Holiday Season and why can't Zazzle announce the change, before it even goes live, so we can at least have a chance to update designs or decide how we want to move forward with future designs?
This is all the steps I had to take, just to figure out how to replace a collage of images. Why is this so complicated for a simple collage? I will lose sales and Zazzle will also sales, because there are alot of shops, that are full of just simple collages with templates, that are now unlocked and there is no simple way just to replace images.
Here is another version I see, not sure what's going on with the black outlined boxes. It's probably a bug, hope it's fixed soon.
I don't see this yet, but I have a big problem with this being thrown on us on a Friday right before the Holiday season and not being announced by email, but accidentally having to come across it in the forum. And clearly this should be pinned on top. It also fits nicely in the annual Zazzle tradition to do everything they possibly can to destroy the Holiday season. Please stop "fixing" things that aren't broken and address the LONG list of problems. Thank you.
I wish Zazzle would think in terms of functionality instead of just randomly moving things from left to right (like the front/back views) and vice versa. The main problem with the "old"/current design tool as I see it, is that adding the template option is not thought through well enough. If you need to add a lot of templates, it means constantly moving your vision from left to right and back, like watching a tennis game.
And why on earth, after ALL the feedback from designers about the font tool, is that also in the new tool?
Clearly Zazzle does not give a s*** about the opinion of designers. (they don't like it, but here it is)
I totally missed reading this and with all these changes, where does this fit into the "New Design Experience."
Per Zazzle,
Hi Creators,
We’ve made an update to Image Templates and Masks for Easier Customization for Customers:
Image templates:
- Image templates that are likely to be replaced by customers now behave like frames.
- We’re able to determine if an image template is likely to be replaced by checking if the placeholder image set by the creator has personal content like faces, etc.
- With an eligible image template selected, when a customer presses the delete key, the green placeholder will appear instead of the image disappearing completely.
- This change makes customization for customers a lot smoother so they do not need to resize or reposition their photo again after deleting it.
Masks are now frames:
- Most masks that were in your designs were automatically converted to frames
- This change was applied to eligible masks with only one image.
- This change makes customization for customers a lot smoother because cropping is now more intuitive and easier to use. Previously, it was possible for customers to drag their image “inside the mask”, leaving the possibility for creating gaps in the design.
- If you wish to make edits to your frame, you can always use the “change image” button.
We recommend reviewing your top-sellers, especially holiday cards to ensure everything is working as expected! With this change, we have noticed some technical issues for select mask designs, which are already on our team's radar and they are looking into fixing.
The Zazzle Team"
In one of the versions I'm getting (as a not-signed-in viewer of one of my own designs), once I click "Personalize this Design" from the product page I get this:
Those bottom three fields are NOT template text so why are they appearing here where using them totally destroys the design? They are editable unlocked text but previously one would have to intentionally enter the Design Tool and mess around there to change it. Now they're being given the same immediate & easy access to edit them as if they were template text. I wish I had locked those fields but too late now.
* This is not a one-off happening. I'm seeing the same thing on all my products where I used this same text set.
I still haven't found a way to test out the all-in-one editor version - this is the one I'm seeing on other people's products - it just replaces the form and not the design tool:
My feedback on this version is that the dashed lines on the image are super confusing because they don't actually line up with the text that's being edited - they're below and to the right of the text. This might work well on products that only have one editable text field, but on products with a lot of different fields it's really confusing which dotted line thingy goes with which text.
This new test version you posted looks like the new version that I stumbled upon and posted about via the forums early April 2025 of other designers items (see below ex. Image from back in April). Except back then they didn't have the blue link to Use our Design Tool until you clicked on the Back tab at the top of screen.
I thought back then (and still do) that this version looked like a nice clean look, and was glad the blue link opened up to the normal design editor tool.
(The template field boxes on the image were fine back then).
Looking at your new example of this same version it looks like they listened to designers' comments to have the link to the design tool editor tab on the Front tab too, which it should have been also. And I see they added a Preview tab now at the top from your example.
So looks like since early April Zazzle has been playing around with this version, and also now a few more versions this week to test out which one will be most beneficial for them to decide on keeping for the customer and designers to utilize.
Ex. from April
I FINALLY was able to test it out (I got there by using Chrome instead of Edge and logging out.) It will take some getting used to, but all in all I like it. A few thoughts.
1) As others have mentioned, we REALLY need the eyedropper tool. Please bring it back.
2) It took me forever to find the curve option on text - I finally realized that's because it's now called "Text on a Path." Not sure if that means that paths other than simple curves might be coming but I think that would be a great feature to add.
3) I'm not sure that I see the purpose of having this popup for text editing:
It would be more intuitive if the user could just click on the text and a cursor would appear inside of the pink box for editing like a word processor. That's probably more complicated programmatically, but I think it would be more intuitive to use.
4) I like the way it walks you through the design part, then the options, and then the review with the add to cart button right on the review page. It would be SUPER helpful if the review page could mention that orders cannot be modified once placed.
5) While I do think some folks will be overwhelmed (especially people who prefer written instructions over "discoverable" interfaces), I actually really like the all-in-one nature of the interface - I think that it's less confusing for the customer than having a form to fill out in addition to a separate design tool. I also think it might help the customers to understand that they are actually the ones doing the customization rather than filling out a form telling us how they want us to customize it for them (which seems to happen a lot under the current system.)
6) I do wish there was more in the way of on-board help for the customer. While logged out I tried asking the chat bot some of the questions I get on a regular basis (Can it be green instead of blue? How do I change the font? Are my margins OK? etc.) and all I got was generic "use the design tool" answers. I suppose while things are in flux that's really all it can say, but it would be wonderful if there was eventually some sort of interactive help that could be accessed without leaving that screen. In general, I'm in favor of making customers as self-sufficient as possible.
I haven't had access to that version yet, but it's good to hear it's working! The three versions I've experienced, all share issues with personalization, but this one has them all:
The photo is under another graphic/frame so you can't select it.
https://www.zazzle.com/custom_construction_site_id_logo_qr_code_navy_blue_badge-256273075905369953
The photo is grouped with other elements, so you can't select it.
https://www.zazzle.com/stylish_notary_public_photo_qr_code_id_black_gold_badge-256433015875953806
The monogram text is locked, so you can't select it.
https://www.zazzle.com/custom_monogram_name_initials_retro_green_yellow_pickleball_paddle-2566122090...
Text and photo are part of a 'Horizontal' tiling, so you can't select them.
https://www.zazzle.com/custom_name_age_photo_art_deco_birthday_black_wrapping_paper-2565762286303177...
Some of these issues are solved if a customer works out how to access the 'Layers', or find the 'Ungroup' tool. But there's no solution for the locked text/image, or the 'Horizontal' tiling issue.
This is super confusing because there are four different versions being tested. So we're all seeing different things, and it changes all the time!
