Since I have tens of thousands of photographs in my hard drives — some of which are quite good — I've periodically thought of putting some of them on postcards and greeting cards. Some might even be good enough that they're suitable for framing as pieces of art.
Enter Zazzle!
Photography is one of my favorite hobbies, and I have really wanted to like the Zazzle website because they do offer a very wide range of products you can add art to, whether you like it simple or complicated.
A number of the artists we worked with when we had our gift and art gallery here in town used Zazzle to print their greeting cards because the quality was decent and when there was a sale going on, ordering in bulk could actually get you a pretty fair price without having to buy thousands at a time... like you would have to with a traditional printer.
As I said, I've really wanted to like the Zazzle website but I just can't.
How Do I...?
Today I went to visit it again, mostly to take a look at some of the uploads I'd made there in the past and to see if I could add something new to where it would actually add up to a meaningful little sideline shop; something I could create over the next few months or so and have ready for the holidays.
Sadly, it only took me about five minutes of poking around to recall why I disliked the site so much: it has some of the worst site navigation I have ever seen, one of the worst creating user interfaces on the planet!
On some level it's a case of offering so many features that none of them work particularly well, but that's not all of it. Pretty much nothing there is intuitive on any level and it seems like the whole website was coded by people who had never heard of such a thing as ”structured programming.”
Going Around in a Circle
Most creative web sites I have worked with — From Etsy and eBay to smaller providers — have a very clear partition between viewing the site as a customer, and viewing the site as a creator.
On Zazzle, half the time when you're trying to actually create something it takes you to a page where you're expected to buy something not create something. When you want to look at your existing designs and perhaps modify/edit something there doesn't seem to be a "designs" or "inventory" mode... instead you have to be looking at your store. Except you wouldn't know that, because there's no "edit" button till you look at the detailed description of an item.
I spent a good 30 minutes trying to create a single new greeting card — and by the time I finally managed to get to a place where I could just create a custom design from scratch — rather than slightly modify a bunch of cheesy prefilled designs — the editing tools were all but impossible to use.
Usability Matters!
I suppose in their "defense," Zazzle is probably not designed with users like me in mind. I like creating from a blank screen, not by adding a couple of icons and a few words of text to one of 1,000's of already created templates.
Even so..
Sum Total Takeaway: I had a really lousy user experience, as a result of which I was completely turned off putting any effort into trying to create anything new... and I just remembered why I also felt completely put off the last time I went there... which was about a year ago, when I last tried to create something new.
The experience made me pause and think about the importance of good web design and creating something that offers a positive user experience!
Myopia, Usability and... Hive?
Of course, lots of organizations and companies will insist that they're offering "a really good user experience," but much of the time such claims actually only hold true if a you're a programmer/developer (which actually is not representative of anything), OR it holds true for some tiny segment of the population that isn't actually the average end user of the site.
I sat for a minute and thought about our own Hive Ecosystem here.
Then, I reflected on the fact that were it not for a front end like 
Sure, a bunch of blockchain developers and cryptocurrency maniacs would probably disagree with that to which my response is "yes, that is true if the ONLY people you're looking for to use the site is that handful of developers and crypto nerds but that's not really what we're looking for is it?"
Back in my IT days — almost 25 years ago, now — I was a usability engineer, which made me extremely unpopular, mostly because end users very rarely think — or use technology — the same way developers do.
Zazzle — while technically speaking offering a great product/idea — is a good object lesson in how not to create an interactive website. But they are still very popular! However, a large part of their revenue depends on people going there and creating stuff, but it really doesn't work for anybody who actually wants to create stuff, it only works for people who wants to take the same cookie cutter templates, add a couple of smileys, add a new color.
And even then, I'm not too sure there wouldn't be a pretty steep learning curve.
And yes, I plan to go back, too! But not until I have an entire day to just move things around and take copious notes that will allow me to create my own "user's manual." so I don't waste quite so much time.
OK so I think I will end my rant here and go find something else to do. Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!
How about YOU? Any opinions on the usability of web sites? Does something that's difficult to use ruin the experience for you? Or do you just "grin and bear it?" Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
Greetings bloggers and social content creators! This article was created via PeakD, a blogging application that's part of the Hive Social Content Experience. If you're a blogger, writer, poet, artist, vlogger, musician or other creative content wizard, come join us! Hive is a little "different" because it's not run by a "company;" it operates via the consensus of its users and your content can't be banned, censored, taken down or demonetized. And that COUNTS for something, in these uncertain times! So if you're ready for the next generation of social content where YOU retain ownership and control, come by and learn about Hive and make an account!
Proud member of the Silver Bloggers Community on Hive!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly and uniquely for this platform — NOT cross posted anywhere else!)
Created at 20220826 23:40 PDT
0643/1889