Shopping Cart

Khaos

I've always found that the more buttons or options you give people the more confused they get and the less they get out of it.

My concern is the Regular Prints and the Specialty Prints seperation. I'll have a print offered in the 20x30 size and that is all they'll see in the drop down prices unless they go and choose specialty prints on the right to see the other sizes offered.

I feel to many people will stop and say "I don't want one that big," and move on never seeing the other sizes offered.

Can you allow pro accounts to just list all the print sizes offered and prices without having to choose specific "products"?

It would much better to see the 20x30 in the proper context with the other sizes.

dashphotography

I have to agree as well here.
This makes sense. I have had users not see a product size before because they didnt see the drop down box and make the flip. It would be great to have just one category and everything we want them to see off the bat right there in one place.

Shawn.

Khaos wrote:

I've always found that the more buttons or options you give people the more confused they get and the less they get out of it.

My concern is the Regular Prints and the Specialty Prints seperation. I'll have a print offered in the 20x30 size and that is all they'll see in the drop down prices unless they go and choose specialty prints on the right to see the other sizes offered.

I feel to many people will stop and say "I don't want one that big," and move on never seeing the other sizes offered.

Can you allow pro accounts to just list all the print sizes offered and prices without having to choose specific "products"?

It would much better to see the 20x30 in the proper context with the other sizes.

Baldy

I think we have two issues. One is, we need to really focus in and find the best way for break the lists down when all options are present. That is, when lots of print sizes and gifts are offered, we already found out the hard way that one list won't do. There was quite a lot of conversation about this in a thread that had to do with calling one small cameras, but we didn't really nail a clear conclusion in it and decided to circle back after other things are off our plates.

The second issue is when a pro decides to offer a shorter list of products that can fit on one drop-down, can we engineer it so it can be so?

I think I heard a suggestion once that we go with a second drop-down for finish type, which would make the list shorter. But according to your mantra, it has the disadvantage of being one more thing...

jh4wvu

I currently offer 4 sizes....4x6, 5x7, 8x10 and 8x12.

It can be a little confusing because the 8 x 12 is all by itself in the Specialty Prints drop down. It would be nice if this was in with the other sizes.

Proposed dropdowns....

Standards Prints
Photo Gifts
Small Cameras

Khaos

I see the point of seperating gifts and small cameras, but large size prints using the 2x3 factor should be available all on one list. having the 20x30 and 6x4 on the normal and a 8x12, 10x15, 12x24, etc, on specialty hurts.

I know the others don't correlate to standard frame sizes, but I really would like to have them on one easy to see list. I guess the only thing I can do is eliminate the 20x30 size, go with a 24x36 to get it all in one list, but it bothers me to be limited like this.

rutt

Khaos wrote:

I see the point of seperating gifts and small cameras, but large size prints using the 2x3 factor should be available all on one list. having the 20x30 and 6x4 on the normal and a 8x12, 10x15, 12x24, etc, on specialty hurts.

I know the others don't correlate to standard frame sizes, but I really would like to have them on one easy to see list. I guess the only thing I can do is eliminate the 20x30 size, go with a 24x36 to get it all in one list, but it bothers me to be limited like this.

That still wouldn't get 4x6 on the same list and it's such a desirable size and since the standard list would still be there it would make it harder to find the big prints.

rutt

It's not perfect, but here is a suggestion which would require very little work to implement. Just change the product names in the dropdowns a bit:

1. Prints for Standard Sized Frames
2. Prints that Fit Digital Camera Images Perfectly
3. Other Sizes
4. Gifts and Fun

At least that would help the customer know what this was actually about. I wondered whether it had something to do with the quality of the prints, for example.

StevenV

rutt wrote:

1. Prints for Standard Sized Frames
2. Prints that Fit Digital Camera Images Perfectly
3. Other Sizes

Every print would fit into either 1. or 2., I don't understand the need for 3.

isn't it kindof like saying
1. boys in one line
2. girls in another
3. everyone else come over here

rutt

StevenV wrote:

[/list]Every print would fit into either 1. or 2., I don't understand the need for 3.

isn't it kindof like saying
1. boys in one line
2. girls in another
3. everyone else come over here

Good point. I was just trying to maintain the categories that smugmug already has but give them more informative names.

In fact there are some things in 3. 20x24 and 10x10 for example.

Andy

Thanks guys, for the suggestions. I'm certain JT has seen them.

Cameron

rutt wrote:

It's not perfect, but here is a suggestion which would require very little work to implement. Just change the product names in the dropdowns a bit:

1. Prints for Standard Sized Frames
2. Prints that Fit Digital Camera Images Perfectly
3. Other Sizes
4. Gifts and Fun

The tough part is that not all digital cameras have the same ratio. Most consumer digicams are 4:3, and most digital SLR's are 3:2. However, as I mentioned in another thread, not all SLR's are (Olympus SLR's for example).

I'd love to be able to arrange my cart to suite my needs, or at least control the categories, but then what about when a client is purchasing from my site AND another one? I don't envy the smugmug team... so many annoying exceptions.

rutt

CSwinton wrote:

The tough part is that not all digital cameras have the same ratio. Most consumer digicams are 4:3, and most digital SLR's are 3:2. However, as I mentioned in another thread, not all SLR's are (Olympus SLR's for example).

I'd love to be able to arrange my cart to suite my needs, or at least control the categories, but then what about when a client is purchasing from my site AND another one? I don't envy the smugmug team... so many annoying exceptions.

Right. So the real point of my suggestion is just to get the word "Size" into the product categories so that the customer has some clue as to what it's about.

StevenV

CSwinton wrote:

The tough part is that not all digital cameras have the same ratio.

why would a customer who's purchasing prints have any clue what ratio my camera uses (or more accurately for me, how I format my prints in Post)? I'd just have one "Prints" category and one "Specialty items" category - but admittedly those would each be l-a-r-g-e lists.

StevenV

CSwinton wrote:

I don't envy the smugmug team...

btw, I agree with you 100% there

Andy

StevenV wrote:

btw, I agree with you 100% there

On behalf of onethumb and jt, I'm going to say "thanks." The cart has evolved in such huge ways over the past three years. When you think about it, it's a very sophisticated tool. These types of suggestions sound easy but often are difficult. Thanks everyone!

jfriend

Why not just show the customer which sizes match this print?

StevenV wrote:

why would a customer who's purchasing prints have any clue what ratio my camera uses (or more accurately for me, how I format my prints in Post)? I'd just have one "Prints" category and one "Specialty items" category - but admittedly those would each be l-a-r-g-e lists.

Why not just show the customer which prints match the aspect ratio of this print?

There are:

1) Sizes that fit the print exactly and require no cropping
2) Other sizes that require some cropping to fit
3) Specialty items

Then, if the user wants to choose a size that will get them the whole photograph, they choose from the first list. If they don't see the size they were thinking about there, they go to the 2nd list and are then aware that some cropping will need to be done to make it fit.

This break-down works better for the user because they don't have to know anything about aspect ratios or digital cameras or the cropping that may have already been done on a particular print.

The other way to convey the same info is to put all the non-specialty sizes in one list and somehow show which sizes fit the print without cropping. So, if it's a 2:3 image, the 4x6, 8x12, etc... are the ones that would show as the sizes that can print the "whole print" without cropping or extra borders. Then, again without any understanding of digital images or aspect ratios, the customer could see which sizes will give them a whole print without cropping.

Cameron

andy wrote:

On behalf of onethumb and jt, I'm going to say "thanks." The cart has evolved in such huge ways over the past three years. When you think about it, it's a very sophisticated tool. These types of suggestions sound easy but often are difficult. Thanks everyone!

That is certainly understood. I appreciate the thought that goes into the design and implementation of features here. The issue has no easy answer, otherwise they'd be doing it. Who knows though, maybe someone new is lurking on the forums this time that has a flash of inspiration on the topic!

rutt

There are some really good ideas here, especially showing the print sizes that fit the particular image exactly in one category and the rest in a second. But they all take some engineering and probably consensus as well.

My suggestion is really just a matter of wording what is already there to make it clear that the categories are print size categories and not something else. This isn't clear from the shopping cart page and not even from the help page. When I frist saw it, I really didn't know what it was about. Digital? That sounds good. Must be better than mere common prints. Specialty? What's that? Some sort of novelty? Or perhaps something even better than digital?

Now that thinking might seem stupid, especially once you know what this is really about. But it really was my thought process at the time and I was really confused about it. And if it confuses me, I have to assume it would confuse some potential customers.

So, while we are trying to figure out what the true right thing is to do here and then how to do it, perhaps in the meantime we can have just a small improvement in the wording to make it clearer what's going on? Thanks in advance for considering it.