New Design Experience Now in A/B Testing

[Heather]

Hi Creators,

We're excited to share that we've launched an updated design experience that's currently in A/B testing! This represents a significant evolution in how design works on Zazzle, moving toward a unified tool that serves both creators and customers.

What's Live Now?: Our design tool experience is being tested, meaning users will see either the current experience or one of three new variants. This tool builds on the features you've been using including frames, grids, design elements, and our royalty-free content library, but is optimized to make design more accessible to customers who may not have your level of design expertise. Your existing post-for-sale flow remains accessible and we intend to improve those workflows as part of the next phase. 

Here's a quick demo from Sean walking through the experience:

Why This Matters for You: Since this A/B test exposes templates to a new design interface, you may notice that some existing designs work differently in this customer-focused environment. 

As an example, to create a smoother customer journey, we’ve improved how “locking” works for layers. Previously , when you locked an object, customers could not unlock the object which caused usability issues when they wanted to make changes. With the new update, both you and your customers can unlock a locked layer. Note, if you originally had a a locked layer, the "disabled" setting is automatically turned on with the update. We’ve added a new toggle called “Disable All Object Interaction” which is located in the “More options” section in the right-hand panel. When enabled, it prevents users from interacting with the layer, and customers cannot change this setting.  Additionally, we’re using the locking feature to automatically hide certain layers, such as large transparent overlays, shields, or borders, that might otherwise interfere with customers trying to upload photos or edit text.

After the test concludes, we'll be sharing tips and best practices to help your templates shine in this new experience to maximize customer engagement and conversion. 

Looking ahead, this optimized experience is the first step toward a cohesive design tool for everyone on Zazzle, designed to add ease for customers and positively increase conversion to benefit creators. We welcome your thoughts and feedback as you see this experience in action, as your insights help us build better tools for the entire Zazzle community. The team will be reviewing this thread so please weigh in as you’d like. 

Thanks for being part of this journey, 

The Zazzle Team

[CreativeLeahG]

Hi Heather 

re this:

"As an example, to create a smoother customer journey, we’ve improved how “locking” works for layers. Previously , when you locked an object, customers could not unlock the object which caused usability issues when they wanted to make changes. With the new update, both you and your customers can unlock a locked layer."

There's a reason many designers lock layers and that is to preserve the integrity of the design. Which when customers post reviews and photos may show a horrid distortion of what the designer created.

or

Because as single elements the design doesn't meet the graphic license guidelines which may specify that the graphics must only be used when combined with other elements. In essence the customer should not be able to remove or manipulate those elements which may include removing them!

Removing them meaning that the graphic is now isolated and being used contrary to the terms. 

I think it's fair to say designers lock layers for a reason so allowing customers to unlock them ...??? 

[jessletterman]

Exactly. I sometimes lock layers due to the licensing of certain graphics or to prevent customers from messing up more intricate designs. Zazzle is opening up designers to possible legal issues.

[dotellabelle]

I agree with CreativeLeahG...and like many of the designers here, I have real concerns about Zazzle’s new design tool rollout.

What is most concerning, this tool could create a chain of unauthorized use. Many designers license fonts, illustrations, or graphics that strictly forbid redistribution or editing by end users. By exposing those elements, Zazzle risks putting designers in breach of their own license agreements, while also opening itself up to liability for facilitating use beyond the license scope. That’s a risk no one should be forced to take.

Many advocacy groups in the design community stress that licensing terms belong to the artists, not the system. That principle really resonates here.

Beyond the legal risk, this tool also compromises the integrity of designers’ work. If elements can be unlocked and altered, it undermines both the creator’s intent and the protections in place through Zazzle’s own user agreements.

And then there’s the customer experience. The reality is, most customers don’t want to become designers. My friends have a hard enough time just updating the text or adding a photo. If they were suddenly dropped into a full design tool, they’d leave—no question.

Other platforms, like Canva or Corjl, are built around customer editing tools. Their audiences go there specifically to design from scratch. Zazzle’s audience is different. People come here because they want to purchase finished designs with light personalization—not start from a blank canvas. Treating Zazzle’s shoppers like Canva’s could lead to confusion and lost sales. And since 80% of business often comes from 20% of loyal repeat customers, this risks alienating Zazzle’s most valuable buyers.

Finally, the timing couldn’t be worse. Rolling this out at the start of Q4—our busiest season—risks confusion, lost sales, and unnecessary frustration for both designers and customers.

At the end of the day, this isn’t just about convenience. It’s about protecting the creative work that makes Zazzle what it is, safeguarding proper licensing, and ensuring the customer experience stays clear and enjoyable.

Sincerely,
Victoria | Do Tell A Belle

[DancingPelican]

I agree with Leah's comments. There are license agreements designers have on some of their purchased graphics that require we lock the graphics so they may not be directly accessed by a customer.  How will Zazzle protect any license terms we have entered into in graphics we purchased licenses to use on the Zazzle platform?
Additionally, design integrity is also an issue here. We layout our design with intention and may not want a customer to rearrange the graphics or transfer them to a product with a different aspect ratio which make the design inappropriate for that product. As a designer, I want to have some appropriate level of control in these circumstances.

[Heather]

Hi Creators -   Note, if you originally had a a locked layer, the "disabled" setting is automatically turned on with the update. I added this to the announcement. Please let us know if you find anything to the contrary as there may be edge cases / bugs and our team will look into. Thank you!

[Ricaso]

Hi @Heather , so this is only on new products going forwards and not retrospective? 
Can you confirm from which date new products would need to have been using the new way of locking so customers can't interact with certain aspects of a product/design? 
Thank you in advance.. 

[plumb4me]

This only works if the creator had a locked layer template on top of images. If you didn't have the template locked and only had the images grouped together, it doesn't work. It has become a nightmare trying to test grouped images, because customers will not know to ungroup images first, then lock the top layer template and then and only then can they actually replace "placeholder images and crop them" underneath the layer they have to lock.

[Wollastonite]

It looks great in the video! It seems much more intuitive for the customer, and I like the way that the font options are pushed to the forefront.  Hopefully customers will have a much easier time visualizing the product and playing around with making changes, leading to more sales. I'll have to see how it works on the designer end, but it seems promising!

[Cat]

For those of us who don't have access to the new tool, it's going to be a little difficult to advise customers on how to make changes. Is it OK to share the video with customers?

And, once the change is settled, could you pretty please make a video/tutorial that's geared toward customers? It would be SUPER helpful - ideally it could be accessed from within the design tool so customers could just click on it for a quick tour rather than messaging us for help every time they get stuck.

[James]

Hi @Cat ,

Thanks for your feedback, but our goal with this update is to make the experience as seamless as possible for customers, with no need to reach out to Creators or support, however, our support team will help if a customer is stuck here. Yes, you of course can share the video. 

[ThankYouAlways]

If I am correct in saying this then going forward, any new product design that is used can be unlocked by both the creator and the customer. If a creator was using purchased art then they would need to determine if it will affect their Art License End User Agreement.

[Heather]

@ThankYouAlways - we’ve added a new toggle called “Disable All Object Interaction” which is located in the “More options” section in the right-hand panel. When enabled, it prevents users from interacting with the layer, and they cannot change this setting. When creating new products, turn this on if you have licensing restrictions. 

[CreativeLeahG]

Is this for designs that predate this change? Because it's physically impossible to not only identify those designs which require editing but to edit potentially hundreds (or thousands for some creators ) of products. Consider quick create as an example .. 100 products per design.

I'm assuming it's for newly created designs only? Please confirm.

[Heather]

@CreativeLeahG - Assets that were previously locked should have the "disabled" state turned on. When creating new products moving forward, there is a “Disable All Object Interaction” button which is located in the “More options” section in the right-hand panel. When enabled, it prevents users from interacting with the layer, and they cannot change this setting. 

[ashleetownsend]

I also agree with everyone the we lock layers for a reason! There is a purpose and a reason as to why we do it, and whatever that may be, it should be honored by Zazzle. We don’t want the customer having free reign over every part of the design. 

I also, personally, think the new design tool will not be easier for customers to use. I think it will overwhelm a lot of customers to be thrown into a “design tool” when they hit personalize, instead of just being able to quickly and clearly replace the template items. 

Is there a way to opt out of the “elements/clip art” portion of this? I draw and paint all of my illustrations myself. I painstakingly create all of my own patterns. I certainly don’t want a random piece of clip art from the elements panel added to a design I spent hours creating.

[Cat]

Wait... I think I missed something. So this new tool replaces both the "personalize this design" form AND the design tool? Like this is it?

[plumb4me]

Yes it does replace the old way, where the "Personalize this design" and the "design tool" pop up on the right side of the screen. It just says "Personalize this design" now.

I have some of my images grouped and it took me forever to locate the ungroup button or even to understand, that I had to ungroup the images, before I could even replace any of the images. 

Old way

 

New way

New way

When I ungroup the images, this is what happens.

[ColsCreations]

From what I gather from the announcement post, there are FOUR different versions of things people could be seeing right now. 

I think this makes is really important for people to include screenshots in their posts so both the Zazzle team and other Designers know what's what.

[Fiorenzo]

4 versions. Great. And let me guess: no one is backward compatible and all miss the labels and work similarly with little differences, like the one I saw with the sidebar showing a + sign to open 2 more buttons on top of the 3 visible, and one of the buttons hidden behind the + being the layer link which is the most crucial thing now since you are lost and limited to what you see on that lonely island in the greyish ocean. I can't believe this is happening to Zazzle, which should have designers working there or at least giving their input. Let alone that we already gave input months ago on the no-labeling issue. This is apocalyptic for the template-reliant designer community. And we can't even adapt, cuz it's just in the testing phase, and the holidays are coming. Fantastic.

[Fiorenzo]

On the positive side, you can now pack a whole bunch of different images in a design and the customers can pretty easily find their favorite variant by simply hiding and unhiding. An idea I brought up long time ago in the old forum. Comes handy when you want to create designs with decorative monograms or zodiac signs. But still, we are blind, and the only safe way for now is to create only simple designs.

[ColsCreations]

From the Announcement post:

Our design tool experience is being tested, meaning users will see either the current experience or one of three new variants.

I continue to hold out hope that our labels will be included in whatever version they go with but for now I wouldn't make any changes to existing designs or make new ones based on what one is currently experiencing as it's all up in the air right now.  😯

[Fiorenzo]

I was in the midst of preparing for Xmas, worked the whole last week on ornaments and wanted to switch then to cards to also offer custom variants to my customers. This is definitely the WRONGEST moment for such games, with all the holidays that are coming. And I truly ask myself who made the glorious decision to eliminate all labels and turn the designer into a pure phone app, because this is what it has become; what we are seeing is not responsive design across all device types, it's a phone app.

[Jadendreamer13]

I agree that implementing a big change to the design tool in Q4 was poor timing and not well thought out. Designers are working furiously to create fresh designs for the upcoming holidays, and this change will hamper their progress, and thus sales, instead of improving them.

At least hold off on implementing this change until January (or sometime in Q1, which is typically a time of slower sales).

Again, including a team of experienced Zazzle designers to weigh in on these potential changes would have been prudent. Hopefully, Zazzle will consider doing this for similar situations in the future.

[Windy]

---

@Jadendreamer13 wrote:

I agree that implementing a big change to the design tool in Q4 was poor timing and not well thought out. Designers are working furiously to create fresh designs for the upcoming holidays, and this change will hamper their progress, and thus sales, instead of improving them.

At least hold off on implementing this change until January (or sometime in Q1, which is typically a time of slower sales).

Again, including a team of experienced Zazzle designers to weigh in on these potential changes would have been prudent. Hopefully, Zazzle will consider doing this for similar situations in the future.

---

What future? 

[AirTwin]

Yes I got the message back when the "you are a bot thing started" and changed all my plans to another location.

[CreativeLeahG]

Yes I have products where  characters are created ( blonde rider on horse as an example) and all the variations of hair color are included in the one design , they're just hidden. Instructions are within the description. 

[Cat]

I'm so confused!

[Fiorenzo]

Designers with a tad more sophisticated design templates will love the new minimalist look their customers will get. And the loss of sales this will cause. Good luck, especially on cards and products that may come with blank placeholders, multiple-choice text fields, and fields that rely on dedicated information to be filled correctly. Customers without a magic sphere will love it, too.

Don't get me wrong, the interface looks fresh and appealing, but you are basically forcing customers to work blindly on a ton of more complex templates, and the new designer layout is a complete waste of space on any device that is not a mobile phone, with all tools and stuff now unnecessarily hidden who-knows-where instead of being in plain sight in dedicated tool bars like in the actual designer (that looks great and works perfectly, btw) and any regular non-mobile application. And for many designers (and probably not just little fish like me), these changes will turn into a nightmare, both financially (loss of sales) and technically (have fun redesigning hundreds or thousands of templates).

The issues could easily be addressed technically, by using a real responsive design approach on tablets and desktops (add the tool bars again), and by adding info-icons next to each field that open a pop-up window containing the field label information text provided by the designer.

This is meant to be a placeholder for an optional logo at the bottom of the card, which is explained in my template label: 

The actual designer is a great tool, and the personalization form could have been integrated into the new layout perfectly, with all labels provided. Just saying. Sorry for the rant, but I'm completely shocked here. And I'm not a designer with thousands of products to redesign. How will this be handled, btw? 

Edit: I forgot to note that you even have to open the layers pop-up to see all available fields and imagery. The positive aspect is that you can now add multiple images, which customers can then easily hide and unhide at their own discretion. This is great, e.g. for handling monogram or zodiac signs images. Assuming the customers know this little trick.

[Fiorenzo]

HA! Found the trick to solve the empty fields and blank placeholder images issue! Where's a will...

Instead of letting the alternate text fields empty and only fill the default one with your default text as done until now, you can trick the new layout by editing ALL alternative fields and set them to "hidden". The customer can then just hide the default text and show the text variant they like. Works also with logo placeholders. That's a positive aspect. The negative one is: 1. the customer has to open the layer popup, and 2. your design is cripple where the new layout does not apply - which makes this way only viable when the new layout is out of the test phase.

Funny how creative you get sometimes on zazzle 😉

Shot 1 - the default card:

 shot 2: how you get your alternate text and logo displayed instead of the default entries:

Now, all you have to do is to be patient and wait until the new layout is implemented everywhere, and find out how you can solve the labeling issue, so the customer knows what he is doing.

I start liking this new layout. Well exploited it can even work better than the old one. Genius me!

[CreativeLeahG]

Hopefully the concerns will be heard.  

[Laura]

What's interesting is, in the announcement video the "pop-up window containing the field label information text provided by the designer" appears - either as "Text 1", "Name here!", "Front - Line 1" and "Front - Line 2", or "Text 1", "Text 2", and "Text 3" so apparently one version exists where customers can actually see the text labels. Although I haven't seen it myself.

I did notice this version did not include the "edit" button for the images in each design. That is a different version which allows customers to change the image in the pop-up rather than clicking on the design (which may be beneath a frame, some versions do not seem to work without this pop-up, so customers abandon).

I think we need a combination of these two versions (text and image fields with labels together in the same pop-up) so it works the way it used to, yet still utilizes the new interface.

In addition, return the option to re-mask an image once unmasked, and regroup layers once ungrouped. Also, please bring back the color-picker tool.

[Jadendreamer13]

So, when Zazzle was planning these changes to the design tool/interface, don’t you think it would have been beneficial to put together a team of experienced designers who could weigh in on potential changes and how they might impact designers?

Does this change explain all the issues folks we’re having with their products yesterday?

[Amanda23]

Moving forward with the customer able to unlock items, I think as many have stated above that creators will need to change the way they design on the program.

To ensure licenses are not broken, they will need to create much, if not all, of their designs in a separate program and bring them into Zazzle in a single file. (Truthfully, that's what many of us should probably be doing anyway, but it is admittedly hard some times to figure out exact placement, etc., without bringing in a file a multitude of times to test things, especially on products like spiral notebooks. I have also found exact product dimensions and spaces a bit of a mystery on the platform, which makes this so much harder.)

Zazzle will definitely need to notify designers via email of the change, and I also agree that customers DESPARATELY need how-to videos on many of the functions of the platform.  

[Jadendreamer13]

When laying out individual elements on the design tool, I flatten my Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop file. Then I import it into the Design tool as an exact placement guide, overlay the individual art pieces, resize them as necessary, place them on top of the flattened piece of art, then I delete it. It saves me a lot of time.

[Amanda23]

I *think* I follow. Do you add some guidelines to help you have points of reference? I may try this next time. Thank you for the tip! 😄

[Jadendreamer13]

It would be nice if we had guidelines that we could pull out of the ruler bar (like with Adobe products) that we could position exactly where we need them. I just resize and position the individual elements by eyeball.

[Wollastonite]

The old style of "Locking" still exists, it's just called "Disable User Interactions" now. Zazzle is making the "lock" function work more like an art program, where you temporarily lock and unlock layers as you're working.

https://community.zazzle.com/t5/creator-news/design-tool-update-locking-for-layers/ba-p/218980

[ColsCreations]

Right. That's the only thing I understand so far LOL. The Lock icon on the layers panel is now a temp option both the Designer and customer can toggle on/off to prevent messing something up as they are editing.

If a Des!gner wants to prevent customers from being able to edit a layer, we need to use the Disable option on the right-side.

It's still confusing all around though. Trying to make one Design Tool that meets the advanced needs of Designers but is also simple enough for inexperienced shoppers, it's becoming a train wreck, especially since it's not just Design Tool changes, these changes are effecting existing designs/products.

[SheaPrints]

So far, I've had access to two versions of the new design tool, but when I do, I still have the 'original' one for creating new designs. I thought that was remaining the same, and it was only the customer who experienced the new format. Are other designers using the new format to create designs as well?