Please test changes BEFORE they go live on the site

[Anne]

So the latest is now the earnings page. Apparently staff did not see that the result of their changing things resulted in something unworkable? And had to rely on designers to report this?

This is not the first time that designers are confronted with something that does not work for us.
Please TEST things before they go live and do not burden the designers with this constantly changing things without need NOR announcement.
Thank you.

[Zizzago]

I agree with you Anne👍

[Zorinda]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but don’t hold your breath.  This has been going on for the well over a decade that I have been here.  To Zazzle, this is a feature, not a bug.  Better to waste the already overburdened and unpayed designers’ time than to have to pay testers.  You know what they say: why buy the cow when you can have the milk for free? 

[Anne]

Thanks, @Zizzago and @Zorinda 
And yes, you are right Zorinda.
They think they have the milk for free, yes. Later they'll find out that it is not actually free.
Google is already largely ignoring Zazzle, customers are also leaving. 
That's just the tip of the iceberg imho.

[Susang6]

I agree with you, Anne. What makes this so frustrating is that every time Z rolls out an update, it feels like we’re suddenly the quality assistance team. We’re all in the middle of working on collections, and then boom something changes with no warning, and we’re expected to adjust instantly. It really does feel like “here it is, acclimate now.”

A simple “coming soon” notice would make such a difference. Just a heads‑up so we can plan around it instead of stopping our workflow to figure out what broke. Updates should be tested before they go live, not after creators report the problems. It would be so considerate to give us a little runway instead of dropping changes on us mid‑season.

[Anne]

Excellent idea, @Susang6 “coming soon”.
And "Updates should be tested before they go live, not after creators report the problems."
Period.
And no "fixing" things that ain't broken.

It's not really that hard, is it? 

[LauraLee]

Hi @Anne , I noticed that there's been a lot of difference, but what I don't know is, can you say what is not "workable"?  At the moment everything is working fine for me [or nothing unworkable for me yet that I've noticed]. I've noticed that the new mobile app is exceptionable better than it used to be, and it is very much like the website now.  But that's not what's important, I'm guessing, I think it just makes my perception miss what the problem may be, idk.  Just curious if I have an answer.

[Anne]

Glad you are happy, @LauraLee 
You seem to be in a wonderful world of bliss, which, unfortunately, I do not recognize at all.

I am reporting at least one bug a day and am extremely fed up with what is supposed to be the "design tool".
It's not a design tool if even designers are asking where the tutorial is. (let alone what customers experience).
Having to click 7 times before accomplishing one small thing is not workable in my book.
Almost none of the reported bugs are fixed and the mess is getting worse by the day. Sorry if that does not sound "happy" but that is the truth of my experience. You can find more information in the long list of tech problems on the forum, reported by many different designers.

I'm seriously baffled by your question.

[Susang6]

@LauraLee 

I think there was a little misunderstanding. @Anne Anne wasn’t saying something on the site is ‘unworkable’ in the sense of being broken. What she meant is that Zazzle keeps blindsiding us with major changes  no notice, no ‘coming soon,’ just suddenly there in the middle of our workflow.

That’s the part that becomes unworkable for creators who are in the middle of designing, uploading, or managing collections. Even if the update functions, it still disrupts our process when it drops out of nowhere.

That’s why Anne was asking for some kind of heads‑up. Even a simple ‘coming soon’ notice in our management section would help us adjust and plan instead of being hit with changes mid‑project

[Anne]

That's a sweet thing to say, @Susang6 
I am sorry if I am coming across sharply. (Probably because I feel on edge today, already having reported several bugs and being obstructed in my work flow; i.e. frustrated)

It's one thing to constantly be facing useless changes, like one day a button for something is on the left side of the screen and the next on the right (and that may change again any moment). What really bothers me is that these things are being done and then we as designers are supposed to do all the de-bugging resulting from untested changes. So actually, yes, I am saying things are broken. And they are broken because they are not being tested before they are rolled out.

The design tool we had over a year ago now, was so much better and easier to work with than what we have now, which I refuse to even call a "design tool".

So, changes announced ahead of being rolled out would be an improvement.
Changes need to be tested before they are being rolled out (mandatory imho).
Bugs that are resulting from these changes need to be addressed within a reasonable timeframe (currently that is somewhere between YEARS  and NEVER).

[ColsCreations]

We don't actually know that things aren't being tested in some way first before before being introduced 'live" to us.

But the Zazzle ecosystem is so big and complicated -  millions of published products for sale,  probably tens of thousands of Designers, active or not, all with saved designs and image galleries and custom stores, collections, categories, plus the customer base and their stuff… - and 24/7 there will be designers around the globe adding, deleting, changing, editing something plus customers searching, browsing and buying …  -  I don't see how it would be possible for Zazzle  to reproduce the whole ecosystem in an off-line environment for accurate testing under all varied scenarios before releasing things live. 

And even if they could do that, who would be the testers in this off-line system? The software engineers - who aren't Designers? A group of Zazzle execs - who aren't Designers? Random members of the general public they rounded up - who aren't Designers? Maybe they somehow make it available to a small select group of actual  Designers to test - but they're each going to have their own workflows & preferences they're used to so such limited feedback wouldn't be particularly helpful.
Releasing things as an "A/B' test has its downsides and could be handled better, but, the result is thousands of actual Designers getting to test-drive a change and provide feedback with how it works with their system/device specs and their workflow. . Sometimes the feedback is ignored but sometimes it isn't when enough Designers report it as a Nope, like with bringing back the ability to see our file names in the Layers panel. It's not a perfect system and certainly not one without frustration but still, I prefer it to an approach where changes would be tested & judged by only a limited select group - who may not even be Designers themselves.