Need your help testing new site

[iCraft Admin]

We've been guilty of promising new design for weeks, if not months, now. 

We are close, but not quite. Still polishing some pages and trying to fix a few bugs on the new site. We also need to test how site works in different browsers, on mobile etc., for which we need your help.

We are looking for a few volunteers, who we'd give access to the new site and who could start using it and reporting to us their feedback - what works and what doesn't work, what's missing, any bugs they encounter etc. We want to make sure new features and the new design makes sense to sellers.

We've been doing a similar testing with buyers too and will continue testing after we switch to the new site too.

Please tell us who wants to participate in testing and we'll point your accounts to the new site.
You would then have to report back to us either here or through our contact form about everything you find not working etc.
This would speed up our testing process and get us closer to the new.

For now, we are going to enable the following accounts to have access to the new site:
Beajoux
PetiteTuques
PillowThrowDecor
Fairy Cardmaker
GalleriaLinda

Anyone else?

I'll post instruction on accessing new site shortly.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Yay!  Beta!

[Beajoux]

Thank you, happy to help out!

Ainsley

[Ahkriti]

Can I be included yet to check the site?

[Northern Girl Jewelry]

I'm also willing to help test it.  I have some work to do in my shop in the upcoming week anyway, so will be using the site more.

[PillowThrowDecor]

Yay... I'm in.  Sounds so exciting!!!

Cheers
Christine

[iCraft Admin]

OK, AhKriti and Northern Girl Jewelry I'll add you to the list! 

We are setting up your accounts for accessing the new site and making sure all changes you make on the new site will be visible on the current site. We've been using the new site for a while now, but not as sellers would use it, so this will be a good test.

I am waiting to hear from our tech guys when everything is ready. However, when you login on iCraft next time, don't be surprised if you are redirected to the new site. I am just not sure how exactly this will be done from technical stand point. Or maybe we'll give you a separate URL. Don't know yet.

We are also setting up second analytics system to track the old and the new site, so we could compare user movements on both.     

[iCraft Admin]

Hello ladies,

OK, so we’ve setup your accounts for accessing the new site.
Click on this URL https://icraftgifts.com and log-in using your iCraft login info, same way you’d enter when logging into your “My Account” section. Let me know if you have problem login.

Here are a few things you need to know:

• The site is not 100% complete, but it’s functional for the most part.
• Please don't click on any Share buttons on the new site
• Also, don't distribute site screen shots to others outside this group
• You can use it to add and update your products, write blog posts, comment, post on the message board etc. All those changes on the new site, will be visible on the old site as well.
• You can flip back and forth between the new and the old site.
• If you’d like to test how your store avatar, store banner or blog avatar will look like on the new site, you’d have to keep in mind that those changes will not be pushed to the old site. After testing, you’d have to re-upload your old banner and avatars on the old site. It’s just hard for us to keep synchronizing the two sites.
• “My Account” area is a bit messy right now, as we didn’t fully redesign it. We are focusing on finishing main public facing pages. My account will be redesigned last.
• We are aware of some of the bugs and system problems that we need to fix, however, I don’t want to list what’s not working. So please comment on everything and report bugs when you encounter them. We’ll sort through the feedback to see which bugs we didn’t know about.
• When submitting bugs, please specify which Browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari etc.) and browser version you have. To find out your browser version, click on the Help link at the top and then on “About” link.
• You can post your feedback here including URLs to pages that you are referring to. Only those who have access to the new site will be able to see what you are talking about.
• If you see an error on the page, please take a screen shot and email it to us.
• We’d like to know what you think about your store and product pages, search results pages etc. and if there are things that you don’t like and why.

Ask, comment and suggest your ideas. All feedback is welcome.

Thanks for helping! 

[Ahkriti]

It looks fantastic! I had no problem looking for specific items! Sent you guys an email about errors on specific searches.

Am pretty excited as you guys are! Will you have a launch party soon?

[iCraft Admin]

Thanks AhKriti!  Happy to know your first impression was a positive one

We've implemented new search engine on the new site, so finding specific products should be easier now. We can tweak our search algorithm quite easy and apply different degree of weight to various parameters like tags, audience, product categories or the position of keywords in Title etc. Search results should be a lot more relevant now.

Launch party? Hmmm... we didn't even think of that yet... but good idea. We love to party! 
There is still a lot of work for us ahead. What you see on the new site right now is only some of the functionality that we've developed. There is a lot more. So I think we'll celebrate when we realize all our plans for iCraft.

Thanks for the email. We'll fix that error message.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Exciting!  I don't have time to look right now and I'm at a nephew's birthday party tomorrow, but I will certainly nose around over the coming week and let you know what I find.

[Northern Girl Jewelry]

Love the new look of the front page - clean and modern.

I'm using IE8.

I'm just starting to look around a little and when I clicked on "silver jewelry" under popular searches on the left, it brought me to search results for "silver, earrings".  I was expecting to see all silver jewelry here, not just earrings.  Was it intended to just go to earrings?  Once I'm on that page, there is a full choice of jewelry from the pull down menu on the left, but it was surprising to see a fairly specific result come up from clicking on a generic search (silver jewelry).

Love the pull down menu on the left in our shops!  This will make it so much easier for buyers to find what they want in a shop.  Also, now understand the importance of all the attributes we can select from in our listing set up.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Northern Girl Jewelry,

Actually, link says "silver earrings", not "silver jewelry".
Unless I am missing something...

[PetiteTuques]

Overall I like the new look!

I have a few things - when I click on a product in my shop, the url at the top doesn't have shop names.
For example,     Buy Handmade >    Crafts >    Knitting >    Knit Reflection Scarf Pdf Pattern

I'd rather have people stay in my shop as long as possible. Maybe that;s too "etsy" but I think it makes for less confusion for the buyer as well.

Question,- will we be able to have live links in our product descriptions? To direct people to similar items, or to our "home page"?

[iCraft Admin]

Hi PetiteTuques,

That's how breadcrumbs are implemented on the current site right now. We didn't change them.
There are many ways users can get to product pages, including from browsing our categories. Breadcrumbs help them to explore related categories. There are links to your store and your other products already displayed on the right.

No, we don't plan to enable links within product descriptions, but we plan to add function that will connect related products. Thanks!

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Okay - I'm poking around.  First impressions:
The colour scheme is very fresh and easy on the eyes!

I am using Google Chrome: 16.0.912.77 m

On the home page, I'm not a big fan of how some of the banners transition.  Some of the transitions create a pixelated picture until it has fully transitioned.  When people are moving quickly through pages, they may not see a clear focus of that banner item in the 1.5 seconds they are on that page.  I prefer more of a fade in or fade out transition than the one where columns rise or fall in progression and distort the image.

I love the listing graphics - self contained photos to keep all the products separate and distinct.  I'm glad the mouse over does not enlarge the product anymore.  I don't know how many times I moused over something in carelessness and had to wait for it to go away before I could click on the product that I was actually aiming for (and by then, sometimes the page would transition out and I'd have to wait for it to come around again!)  Good riddance mouseover popups!

The "popular searches" menu is clutterful.  It's a loooooong list.  A tag cloud would weight words (bigger for more heavily searched, smaller for less searched.)  That would look more modern, at least, however I also recognize people in more obscure categories might feel slighted.  I'm not a big fan of the long list.  I would prefer if, when I pull down the menu for "buy handmade" and then mouseover a category, a more detailed list pops up (the way window's menu commands work).  (Menus are the only places popups are allowed!)

The one thing I miss is the seller's name below product photos on communal pages (like the front page or the search results pages).  (I have only clicked a popular search - I have not tested the search engine yet.  However, I did click "cards for weddings" and I was taken to search results for "Wedding, Crafts" and not many were cards.)

That's it so far.  Off to try a listing now!

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Listed something new.  The listing process is painless and familiar.  The only thing I couldn't find was how to add it to a collection.  I had to log back in to the old side to be able to manage my collections.

Site is looking spiffy so far.

[Beajoux]

Hi,

I've mostly just poked around my own shop, although I did check out the home page. (Thanks for including one of my rings!) I found the banner loaded just fine; I didn't get any pixelated photos. I'm using RockMelt, a Chrome-based browser.

Given that the photos' size and point size has increased for individual listings (listing titles), I'm wondering if you could also increase the point size for the listing description. It seems a little lost under the photo. Also (and this is just the editor in me), could you put the space back after the colons in the descriptions?

E.g.,
Availability:1
Custom Size:customizable
Dominant Color:Blue ... etc.

I love that you've added "Pin it" and "+1". Do people actually use the Amazon wish list, Kaboodle, etc.? Maybe they could be removed. Or let me know if that is still a popular use.

I will continue checking things out. Thanks again for the opportunity!

Ainsley

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Fairy Cardmaker,

Do you have different browsers on your computer? Can I ask you to try viewing homepage banner in a different browser, like IE or Firefox?
I don't see the same problem that you described with pixelated images in Chrome 17.0.963.46 m.
It could be browser version specific. We found similar problems with IE 7.
We might have to substitute new banner transition with the old one (fade in or fade out) for those specific browser users.

I'm glad the mouse over does not enlarge the product anymore.

I guess you are talking about New Arrivals flash widget on the current site that has mouse over effect.

The "popular searches" menu is clutterful.

I hear you about the long list. That's one of the things that was suggested to be included by our SEO expert. Apparently, machines like it, but we might have to cut it down a bit if humans find it overwhelming.   

The one thing I miss is the seller's name below product photos on communal pages.

Sorry, not sure which place on the site you are referring to. Could you please provide more details?

I did click "cards for weddings" and I was taken to search results for "Wedding, Crafts" and not many were cards.).

Ahhh... yes, we'll fix this link. Somebody typed crafts, instead of cards. 

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Beajoux,

Yes, we can add space after the colons in the descriptions.

Not sure about the font size in the product descriptions area, as we are using standard size font throughout the site.
However, it's good to hear your feedback, as we will be having a second look at all pages after we have phase 1 release of the new design.
We are rushing now to get the new site out, so we know we'll have to revisit some design decisions and deal with all sorts of imperfections after.

That's a good question about Amazon wish list, Kaboodle and other buttons.
I doubt we'll have any stats on these buttons, as they are not ours. We'd probably have to research statistics on them.
Do any of you guys ever use those buttons?

[Beajoux]

I've never used them. But I do use Pin it and +1 often.

[iCraft Admin]

Have anyone tried to update their Blog Profile yet?
I want to know if you had any difficulties updating your information or uploading photos on that page.
We've added new features there, like blog banner, bigger avatar and your social media links. So you can add your Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and other links there.
Here is one example how your Blog page could look like. Thanks!

[Beajoux]

Oh, something else: when I updated my listings from the new site, they went to Twitter, which is great normally, but for this test site, could they be suspended? Someone clicked on the link from the tweet and it took her to the page requesting a user name and password. She was slightly confused, not having had to do that in the past.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Where the sellers' names are missing is on the home page.  Where there is a product image, when you mouseover, you get a little shopping bag icon.  It would be nice if the seller's name also appeared (if it won't fit in the item title below the image).

I tried to put my URL for my blog.  It's on blogger, but I paid for the domain name (to remove the ".blogspot") so the profile would not accept it.  (Didn't try to change the pic.)

[iCraft Admin]

Ohhh... sorry Beajoux, we forgot about automatic Twitter feeds.   
So don't update products on the new site for now.

[iCraft Admin]

What is your blog URL Fairy Cardmaker?
We are adding only supported blogging sites first, but we also plan to let people to add other non-supported URL with our moderation.
I'll see if we could add yours now. If not, that feature will be added shortly after.

Hmm... not sure about adding sellers names on mouse over... we are also planning to add "Add to Favourites" icon in addition to "Add to Shopping Bag" icon on top of that thumbnail. Might be too much...

Btw, I noticed on your store page, the names of your product collections are very long and some of them wrap to the next line.
I wanted to suggest replacing "and" with "&". That might solve that problem. Thanks!

[PetiteTuques]

I'd like to suggest a new feature, because I've recently started to list my patterns I was thinking how nice it would be to have the pattern downloadable right from iCraft. Etsy doesn't do it, so it would a great advantage

I also talked a little bit with Dragon Katy about having some free patterns on site. What would you think of that? For now I put one on the blog, but I'm unsure if I should continue and put more on.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi PetiteTuques,

Downloadable patterns? Absolutely!   
I think it's a great idea and would benefit buyers greatly.
Are all your patterns in PDFs?
I'll see how we can add this feature sooner, than later.

Free patterns is another great idea! They will attract non-crafters, who appreciate crafts.
We were discussing before an idea of a section under Community where sellers could post video tutorials, free patterns, DIY projects and other freebies and maybe even provide expert advise to people who are learning crafts. So it would be sort of a Learning Center, but with a more catchy name. 
So, we'd pull in all patterns and tutorials (Free and not) from products section, blog posts from Tips, Tutorials & DIYs category, your video tutorials from YouTube etc.
 
For now, you can list free patterns, as regular products, but at $0.00.
You can then add a "Free Patterns" collection in your store, so people could find them easily.

We'll think of how we could promote those free patterns on the site in general.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Why are the new forums all centered as the default alignment?  It's hard to read.

My blog URL is:
http://www.fairycardmaker.com/

I agree with Petite Tuques about having a auto-downloader for patterns in iCraft.  I was starting to investigate some I could plug in to my blog so that I could offer a product complimentary to my cards: a PDF of greeting card sentiments.  Another popular item is digital stamps.  When I buy digital stamps from online sites, an auto download email is sent to me with the link and password to retrieve my purchase.  (Some of them give a link, some of them ask you to go back to the store and login and then put in the generated password for your purchase.)  Auto-downloads would open a whole new market.

Thank-you for the tip on my collections.  I noticed that myself.  I'll see what I can do.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Uuuhhhmm..... there's no "manage my collections" or "add to collections" place in "My Account".  I can't do anything about my collections right now.  

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Free patterns is another great idea! They will attract non-crafters, who appreciate crafts.
We were discussing before an idea of a section under Community where sellers could post video tutorials, free patterns, DIY projects and other freebies and maybe even provide expert advise to people who are learning crafts.

I strongly disagree that a DIY focus will attract non-crafters.  It will attract people who want to save a buck by doing things themselves and/or who will use that knowledge at craft fairs instead of online.  I think DIY is completely targetting the wrong market for iCraft because the supplies to make those things are not sold here.  Please explain what you see in this market?

I do, however, think freebies are a good idea.  But those should be promotional bonuses and not expectations.

[iCraft Admin]

Ahhh... yes, where did the Collections go? 
We'll fix that soon!

Why are the new forums all centered as the default alignment?  It's hard to read

I don't see this problem anywhere.
Can you please email us a screen shot? Are you using the same Chrome browser? Thanks!

[iCraft Admin]

I strongly disagree that a DIY focus will attract non-crafters.  It will attract people who want to save a buck by doing things themselves and/or who will use that knowledge at craft fairs instead of online.  I think DIY is completely targeting the wrong market for iCraft because the supplies to make those things are not sold here.  Please explain what you see in this market?

I do, however, think freebies are a good idea.  But those should be promotional bonuses and not expectations.

I guess I was thinking that the focus would be on Education. We'd showcase all products, like patterns and tutorials that we sell on iCraft, not only freebies. I think ability for people to ask experts a question about certain craft techniques or materials used etc., is an interesting one. I see parents using it for Kid Crafts ideas or beginners looking for tips and advice. Maybe I am completely off on this one. Let me know.
 
We are interested in attracting all art and crafts enthusiasts and in new ways to engage people on our Community section. Generating more conversations alone would help with social and SEO. So we just need to figure out what other new and exciting things we could add that would keep our existing members engaged and attract new users. All ideas are welcome! Thanks.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Fairy Cardmaker,
Collections are fixed now. Try using it now and let me know if everything works fine. Thanks for reporting this problem!

[PetiteTuques]

Downloadable patterns? Absolutely!   
I think it's a great idea and would benefit buyers greatly.
Are all your patterns in PDFs?
I'll see how we can add this feature sooner, than later.

Yup all my patterns are pdf, except for the free ones. I prefer to have people go to my website instead of downloading them. I'd prefer to then leave a free pattern as a listing, and not have the option of a download. That's just me, and I've only seen one other website to that, {petite purls} and I thought it was a smart idea.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Emptying my cache fixed my forum alignment problem.  Thank-you for the suggestion.

Collections worked fine!  Love being able to edit more than one item at a time for collections.  (Not a new feature, but a good one!)

I do enjoy learning about the crafting process and even tips and tricks, but a tutorial start-to-finish (which is what I read in to the scenario) seems to divulge too much to the wrong market, IMO.  But I agree that more general education could draw traffic based on curiosity (and some "give a little, get a little" basis too).  So, I would be on-board with that.

[iCraft Admin]

Hi PetiteTuques,

If listing is at $0.00, there won't be a "Buy" button. And you don't want to have a download option. So how would people get your free pattern from listing on iCraft?

I think letting users to download your free pattern would be ideal and easy on the users.
If you want to direct users to your website, you could add links to your site on the PDF itself? A line like this would probably get their attention "For more free patterns, visit my website ...."

We've been asked for downloadable files before by people who sell prints and digital art, so it looks like we'll be adding this option anyway.

[PetiteTuques]

Hi PetiteTuques,

If listing is at $0.00, there won't be a "Buy" button. And you don't want to have a download option. So how would people get your free pattern from listing on iCraft?

My answer to that would be that the pattern itself would be in the listing. It gives a reason for people to come back and view the site. Not everybody might agree with that, and maybe in the future I would change methods and have downloads of free patterns, but if I have the choice, then I choose not to.

[PetiteTuques]

There is a link called Knitting Patterns at the bottom of the page, but it brings me to "https://icraftgifts.com/crafts/" I guess because there is no category for patterns yet on the side?

[iCraft Admin]

No, there are some patterns available. That was just a bad link.
We actually changed it to "Patterns for sale" and linked it to all patterns, not just knitting patterns. Thanks for pointing it out!

[Beajoux]

Today was my first time listing on the "new" site. After I submitted it as live, I got the page letting me know I already had 5 items listed, so the newest one would be put on hold. Fine, no problem. I put an older one on hold and went back to put my newest one as live. But it was gone! It's not with the hold items, or with the live ones. I'm really saddened that I have to list it all over again! Has this happened to anyone else?

Ainsley

[iCraft Admin]

Hi Ainsley,

I think system was saying that you already have 5 items listed (maximum per current subscription) and rejected your new product. I'll see what can be done from this situation happening again. Maybe a warning before you upload a new product?

[PetiteTuques]

Hi Admins!

I tried to search the Blog Categories and came up with this error:
 
Framework error handler says: User Warning (E_USER_WARNING): Smarty error: unable to read resource: "#blog-search-results.html" in /home/icraft/!website/!FRAMEWORK-live/smarty/Smarty.class.php line 1164

[iCraft Admin]

Thanks for notifying us, PetiteTuques! We'll fix it soon. 

[iCraft Admin]

FYI. The issue with Blog Search is now fixed!