Groups: Member
Joined: 11/23/2008
Posts: 4
Location: Tucson
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I am still fairly new to Zazzle and am really enjoying it. There may be another way to deal with this issue' and I would appreciate any suggestions; but I find it laborious to wade through all the various products on a lot of sites. With so many products, it takes a long search to get an overview of all the designs offered.
I have added this statement in capital letters to my homepage:
TO GET AN OVERVIEW OF ALL MY DESIGNS, GO TO MY POSTER PAGE. THEN, YOU CAN GO TO THE VARIOUS PRODUCT CATEGORIES TO FIND THE DESIGN AS A SPECIFIC PRODUCT.
It seems to me that this approach could work for others. Any feedback is appreciated.
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Groups: Member
Joined: 4/22/2009
Posts: 603
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Hello Robert_coyne, love your mandalas!  I've just looked at your store and see you are not utilising the folders area to their max which would take away that need to send your customers to a section to see all of your designs. I also think you have far too much text on your front page, forcing the customer have to scroll down before they see any product or design. Internet shoppers on the whole have the attention span of a goldfish, unless you do something to grab their attention immediately they're gone. But I totally agree with you that the poster section is a great way to get an overview of all available...so make it display on your homepage, exactly as I have done here with my Write Stuff store. Organise your categories by design, then right click/ save as your poster for each design from your product list page (that way it already comes complete with your stores background colour) and use that as your folder graphic for each section. Set your store display to show all categories on the front page and viola! there you have it.
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 9/25/2007
Posts: 1,666
Location: Cardiff
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Well that approach would only really work if you stick to a limited range of products such as those available in quick create, where making the products simply entailed putting an image on it. That's somewhat similar to how Cafepress works.
Whilst it is possible to approach things that way on Zazzle. It's not really possible to fit things such as business cards, stationery, binders, skateboards, Ked's shoes or even ties for that matter, into that kind of approach, because those products need to be designed individually. So taking that approach would tend to limit one's options and these products are not going to fit into a design or image orientated method of categorization.
That being the case you'd probably be better off putting things in categories enabling the advanced store features and using picture folders in your store.
That said I don't have the advanced features enabled myself, and simply have a super sized flash panel showing latest products. I even wonder how well picture folders work, since presenting customers with page after page of picture links with subcategories etc seems a bit like visiting a train station and not getting to see any trains, or visiting the Zoo and seeing no animals. Why waste people's time with architecture?. So I tend to like to stick the products up front. I think that's more likely to temp people to take a look around than presenting lots of picture links to categories.
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Groups: Member
Joined: 9/21/2009
Posts: 38
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Sorry artberry, but your way off the bat with your analogy, the store that I linked to as an example does not use quick create at all, every product is made individually and it contains many of the products that you have listed, and the method cerrtainly works well for me.
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 9/25/2007
Posts: 1,666
Location: Cardiff
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WriteStuff wrote:Sorry artberry, but your way off the bat with your analogy, the store that I linked to as an example does not use quick create at all, every product is made individually and it contains many of the products that you have listed, and the method cerrtainly works well for me.
There are two different approaches to categorization though. There's an image or design orientated approach, where you categorize products according to the image or design you put on them. Or a product orientated approach which would apply to things such as business cards and stationery which are normally template products and may have no image on them at all and/or may have a very specific layout or design which relates to nothing else in a store. There is an analogy relevant to quick create and to the way Cafepress do things because they are both set up for an image/design orientated method of categorization. Rather than for a more custom product orientated method. So there are two clearly different approaches to making products on Zazzle which will affect the way one would categorize things. In some cases it's necessary to categorize by the product type than by the design. So you end up with a kind of category mish mash.  Unless you open different stores and take different approaches in each. 
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Groups: Member
Joined: 9/21/2009
Posts: 38
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Absolutely, but that's exactly the beauty of the category customization that Zazzle have introduced. For example if you look at my specialeetees store, it's a bit of both. Many categories are set up by design, but I have also inlcluded categories determined by product because I have a few business cards and bookplates where the design only appears on those products and nothing else. For this store I have created my own 152x152 pixel graphic to use as the front page section header, then created sub-categories by design inside if necessary, or in the case of the bookplates and business cards sections there are no sub-categories within. It is totally possible to create one store using a mixture, but it's down to the SK to use the tools available to their own best advantage for their store. By using the folders system supplied, it also completely eliminates the need to use HTML to achieve the same thing.
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 10/6/2008
Posts: 3,387
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just a note use bold not capitol letter - i cannot read things in all caps and i skip them - it hurts my eyes and causes my eyes to jump around the screen when i try to read them - and i know i am not alone out there
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Groups: ProSeller
Joined: 9/25/2007
Posts: 1,666
Location: Cardiff
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WriteStuff wrote:Absolutely, but that's exactly the beauty of the category customization that Zazzle have introduced. For example if you look at my specialeetees store, it's a bit of both. Many categories are set up by design, but I have also inlcluded categories determined by product because I have a few business cards and bookplates where the design only appears on those products and nothing else. For this store I have created my own 152x152 pixel graphic to use as the front page section header, then created sub-categories by design inside if necessary, or in the case of the bookplates and business cards sections there are no sub-categories within. It is totally possible to create one store using a mixture, but it's down to the SK to use the tools available to their own best advantage for their store. By using the folders system supplied, it also completely eliminates the need to use HTML to achieve the same thing. Yes I can see how one could use the picture folders to help categorize things and if you organized it well and limit the numbers of categories and made the pictures look appropriate to the products it could work. However I have come across one or two stores which although their folders are beautifully designed and they have obviously put a lot of effort into making their store look nice and tried to organize things which is commendable. There are so many categories and levels of subcategory you have to click through about 3 or 4 levels before you even see a product. In fact the easiest way to view their actual products is to click the "view all products" link under the shop search box. Obviously this totally defeats the object. If customers can't see the wood for the trees, or the architecture no matter how beautiful it is, gets in the way of the products what's the point? People don't even visit Harrods to admire the architecture they just want to see the products in the windows. And every department store looks exactly the same. Big plate glass windows with products on display. So I tend to be of the opinion picture folders only work if they are kept to a bare minimum. I have well over 12,000 products in my store and hundreds of categories. I have enough problem fitting all the category links down the side margin. If I enabled the advanced features in my store no one would ever see my products again So I'm not sure whether I think category folders were the best idea and still think text based categories in the side margin are a far more effective means of navigation because they don't prevent customers from accessing the products. In fact I'd go so far as say category folders fail Web Design 101. It's fundamental mistake of web site navigation to present visitors with page after page of links to click through to get to a destination it's just frustrating, and a disaster on a slow connection. Which is why frames, and side margins were invented in first place, so one can put a menu in it. So I think the picture folders serve no purpose and are a step backwards in terms of navigation. I realise they can look pretty, but the GUI is supposed to have a functional purpose. And to my way of thinking it should offer the quickest and most effective access to the products. That said I can see how picture folders could work with a design orientated approach. Because you can put a design on each folder and have them lead to all the products with the same image on them. But the fact one can have two different approaches to categorisation in same store does complicate things. I suppose I also find it difficult to read many image folders. Obviously each one is supposed to convey a message relevant to the category, But some people are better at expressing clear meaning in visual terms than others, some people's category folders whilst they may be beautiful works of art, don't convey any relevant meaning at all and simply distract from the text giving one total sensory overload and actually make one want to run away than look any further. So I think sliced bread was a far better invention than category folders
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Groups: Member
Joined: 8/15/2008
Posts: 192
Location: Adelaide
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Your open discussion on this topic is a great read with fantastic suggestions. It's something I have been struggling with for a while and the more products I create, the more I need to figure out how I am going to do this. I started out with just my Abstracts and Fractals, but I got the Zazzle bug, figured out how to scan my illustrations and started teaching myself vectors.
Now my store is a mixtire of all sorts. I also have business cards etc that are designs restricted to 1 or 2 products.
I began sorting by design (although not yet complete) but have never figured out what to do with the 1 offs other than make a catagory for them. My store is feeling like a bit of a muddle at the moment. I guess my goal will need to be a combined sort order. I just have to figure out how to do that neatly.
I thrive on order and structure but am having trouble with the way the layout is designed.
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