Need your help testing new site

[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.