The get ready for the new cart thread

BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
edited November 9, 2008 in SmugMug Support
I know many of youz would love advanced notice for things that your customers will see that change their experience. This is a big one. I've posted some screen shots before but long ago and now it's possible that we're within a week of shipping.

Disclaimer 1: These are taken from our test server so the prices you see have no bearing on the prices you'll see when it goes live.

Disclaimer 2: Not all the text is as it will be.

Disclaimer 3: It isn't out of test yet so more bugs could be found to hold up the release.

Disclaimer 4: I wish we could put it on the beta server too like we did with the ajaxed galleries, but in the case of a secure shopping cart where products come out, it would be hard.

Disclaimer 5: We'd love to hear feedback and feature requests, but new features at this stage would make significant delays. Coupons, interfacing to a pro lab, etc., all depend on the cart so we'd have to trade off feature requests that would delay the cart + features that depend on the cart against something that would start the testing cycle all over again.

Unless it's a showstopper, our inclination is to hold the implementation of feature requests until release 1.1 or whatever.
«13456710

Comments

  • BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited June 21, 2008
    Okay, so here's how the cart looks with photos in it:

    317323305_Vohtm-O.png

    iPhone users will appreciate how the buttons work.
  • BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited June 21, 2008
    If you click bulk options, this is what you get:

    317323265_85QuS-O.png
  • BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited June 21, 2008
    If you click the crop option, this is what you get:

    (Sorry about the creepy guy.)

    317323348_CB4ga-XL-1.png
  • BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited June 21, 2008
    Then we ask for shipping address:

    317322796_F2n6i-X2.png
  • BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited June 21, 2008
    Then offer shipping options:

    317322814_itduc-X2.png
  • BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited June 21, 2008
    Then payment options:

    (This screen shows what happens if there's an input that needs correcting.)

    317322855_egtU6-X2.png
  • BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited June 21, 2008
    And order confirms look like this:

    317323141_WAQHx-XL.png
  • mike.strockmike.strock Registered Users Posts: 147 Major grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    Baldy wrote:
    And order confirms look like this:

    317323141_WAQHx-XL.png

    I don't want to sound negative here, but will the text be customizable? The "Who's getting the goods" and "Who's Paying" text, while cute, may not be the most "customer friendly" from some people's perspective....

    No offense intended.

    Mike Strock
    http://fourangelsphotography.smugmug.com/
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    I don't think the photo number does much good here. Why not use the
    uploaded photo file name, that's what appears on the bulk delete, move
    caption pages or have both shown as below.

    Photo by: Chris
    Filename: 33709050-O
    Filename: IMG_12345.jpg
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited June 22, 2008
    I don't want to sound negative here, but will the text be customizable? The "Who's getting the goods" and "Who's Paying" text, while cute, may not be the most "customer friendly" from some people's perspective....

    No offense intended.

    Mike Strock
    http://fourangelsphotography.smugmug.com/
    Disclaimer 2: Not all the text is as it will be.

    That includes sentences like, "Some words and junk that explains how bulk options work." :D
  • BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited June 22, 2008
    Allen wrote:
    I don't think the photo number does much good here. Why not use the
    uploaded photo file name, that's what appears on the bulk delete, move
    caption pages or have both shown as below.

    Photo by: Chris
    Filename: 33709050-O
    Filename: IMG_12345.jpg
    Good idea. I think that's actually the plan, but I'll check.

    The name Chris is just what I have mine set at. We've been talking about adding a field for Studio Name so we can get better branding, but not this week.
  • AllenAllen Registered Users Posts: 10,013 Major grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    Baldy wrote:
    Good idea. I think that's actually the plan, but I'll check.

    The name Chris is just what I have mine set at. We've been talking about adding a field for Studio Name so we can get better branding, but not this week.
    Good luck in coming up with/generating a name. err ... site user_nickname .... domain, might need a box on settings page so peeps can add a specific name.:D
    Al - Just a volunteer here having fun
    My Website index | My Blog
  • BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited June 22, 2008
    Allen wrote:
    might need a box on settings page so peeps can add a specific name.:D
    Yeah, that's what I mean by a custom field.
  • NWMtnGuyNWMtnGuy Registered Users Posts: 88 Big grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    Visually this looks really nice. Thanks for all the hard work to roll this out. Just a couple of questions:

    1) In the "cart items" view of your mockup it looks like the filename for each image is shown. I assume this is the name of the original uploaded file, not the image caption. Will there be any way to hide the filename? I generally allow visitors to see captions but not filenames. I often annotate things within filenames on my computer that I don't want my customers to see.

    2) Not really a problem, but I never understood why "standard prints" and "compact camera prints" are broken into different categories. I understand that these are different aspect ratios that correspond to common digital sensor sizes, but I would be surprised if most people really make this distinction. Maybe your research shows otherwise. If so, I trust your data.

    Thanks for the heads-up on the changes.

    Dale
  • jasonscottphotojasonscottphoto Registered Users Posts: 711 Major grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    If we set an album on "Auto" color or make it so customers can only buy lustre finish, will they still be able to see the other options in the cart?
    Posts by Allyson, the wife/assistant...

    Jason Scott Photography | Blog | FB | Twitter | Google+ | Tumblr | Instagram | YouTube
  • mike.strockmike.strock Registered Users Posts: 147 Major grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    Baldy wrote:
    Disclaimer 2: Not all the text is as it will be.

    That includes sentences like, "Some words and junk that explains how bulk options work." :D
    Shutting up. :) Sorry about that.

    Mike.
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    The "Who's getting the goods" and "Who's Paying" text, while cute, may not be the most "customer friendly" from some people's perspective....

    We say in our confirm emails: "the deliveryman cometh" and other cool things. You probably know by now, we're no ordinary company. If you're looking for a stuffy shopping cart that wears a suit and tie, it won't be at SmugMug, I'm sorry lol3.gif

    We're gonna have wording in the cart that is consistent with our style as a Company. And "Who's getting the goods" and "Who's Paying" fit right in, IMO.
  • renstarrenstar Registered Users Posts: 167 Major grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    Baldy wrote:
    Okay, so here's how the cart looks with photos in it:

    317323305_Vohtm-O.png

    iPhone users will appreciate how the buttons work.
    I have a couple of comments, so I will put them each in a reply to the post that contains the image I'm commenting on.

    On this one, there is a spinner for the quantity. But then, there is a button that says "Add Another Item". Now, my educated guess is that this button allows me to add a different product (sized print, mug, cards, etc) of the same photo, but that's just a guess. Perhaps it would be more obvious if I could just click on it and find out (but i cant right now for obvious reasons). So, i guess the point of this is 1) what does it do? 2) can the text be changed to make it clear what it does.

    Also, while it can be deduced that the left number is the price for the item and the right number is the price for the total amount ordered, I think some headings or something are needed here. When you have 1 item, it lists the same price twice and it really isn't clear why.

    Lastly, the link to "change" the item doesn't fit with the rest of the UI. To me, it feels like it should be a similar button.

    Lastly lastly, the one photo that does not need cropping has two options for crop, reset and adjust. I think this should probably be "None" and "Adjust", with perhaps "None" changing to "Reset" if an adjustment has been made? "Reset" and "None" don't always mean the same thing.


    Love the new layout though, feels way more informative and intuitive to me. I like the crop indicator "frame" and the button style.

    Cheers,
    -r
  • renstarrenstar Registered Users Posts: 167 Major grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    Baldy wrote:
    If you click bulk options, this is what you get:

    317323265_85QuS-O.png
    Comments:

    1) Contains two ways to close the window. "Nevermind" implies that all changes will be saved. What does clicking the "X" mean? In Windows land that generally means changes are not saved, but in Apple land there is almost never a save button, closing the window saves changes.

    2) So im trying to figure out what this window does. It lets you bulk change the properties of either all products in your cart? Or just all items using one product (print size, mugs, etc)? Can you have multiple bulk settings (one for each product?)

    3) Is "Change quantity to" going to change all the quantities to that number, or increase the count by that number. I would be frustrated if I painstakingly went through a large cart, set the quantities I wanted, then found out i needed one more of each, so then went to bulk settings, selected "1" here, and they were all reset. It isn't intuitive to have to set the bulk count first. This might be a minor nitpick use case, but you asked for feedback, so thats what i thought of.

    4) The three print sizes should have the same UI as the rest of the cart. In this case, I think they should be blue buttons. (side: why the blue and not the smugmug green?)

    I think having the ability to make bulk changes, especially when ordering large quantities of vacation pictures is good feature. One more comment I guess, most users who order many small vacation photos are not going to be very technically savvy, so this window needs to have very clear functionality.
  • renstarrenstar Registered Users Posts: 167 Major grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    Baldy wrote:
    If you click the crop option, this is what you get:

    (Sorry about the creepy guy.)

    317323348_CB4ga-XL-1.png
    Comments:

    1) This window has the same closing behavior ambiguity of the bulk window.

    2) "Hide Thirds" should maybe be "Hide Grid"? I know what it means, but will a non-photographer?

    3) If a crop is required for a print size, perhaps there should be an option to fix the aspect ratio so that the crop will always fit that print size? (either a check box, of even better, one of those blue buttons) (perhaps hidden under an "advanced [+]" thingy)

    Praises:

    1) I love the look to this, so intuitive and so clean.

    2) The ability to see the grid helps cropping so much.

    Cheers,
    -r
  • renstarrenstar Registered Users Posts: 167 Major grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    Baldy wrote:
    Then we ask for shipping address:

    317322796_F2n6i-X2.png
    Not a whole lot here. Perhaps the order summary should have an expandy "Details [+]" thing where it will show me how many of what item (and even an sub-expandy of what photos for that product (without a thumb)). Thats a minor thing, but the only observation I have.

    -r
  • renstarrenstar Registered Users Posts: 167 Major grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    Baldy wrote:
    Then offer shipping options:

    317322814_itduc-X2.png

    I really think that this should display the service used for each option. I shouldn't have to look in the help pages to see what provider smugmug uses. Also, I often have to chose the shipping based on the shipper, because some shippers are a pain in my area.
  • renstarrenstar Registered Users Posts: 167 Major grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    Baldy wrote:
    And order confirms look like this:

    317323141_WAQHx-XL.png

    My only comment here is that the "Place Order" button seems to be lost in the middle of a alot of information. The final cart window (with the pics and items in it) should probably be scrolly and the order button on the bottom outside of the scroll, otherwise, the button should be at the bottom of the right hand column.

    OK, I lied, i have one more. That "Payment Info" back button is weird because the arrow points at the photos, while the real payment info is below it. I looked at it and thought "that isnt my payment info, thats a photo". I think it could be more clear that it is something to modify the payment info, there must be a better way to indicate this.

    Since this is my final (maybe) comment post, I have to say I like the overall new look, and thanks for giving us a preview. Keep up the good work.

    Cheers,
    -r
  • renstarrenstar Registered Users Posts: 167 Major grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    Now that comments are done, questions and requests:

    1) Will there be a way to save carts for later? This is pretty common on most e-commerce sites.

    2) I guess that is it for now, Im sure something will come up later

    -r
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    renstar wrote:
    Now that comments are done, questions and requests:

    1) Will there be a way to save carts for later? This is pretty common on most e-commerce sites.
    Yes, for those that make you register, with email addresses and such. We don't do that so it's cookie-based.

    2) I guess that is it for now, Im sure something will come up later

    -r
    AWESOME Feedback, ren thumb.gifclap.gifbowdown.gif
  • BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited June 22, 2008
    Allen wrote:
    I don't think the photo number does much good here. Why not use the
    uploaded photo file name, that's what appears on the bulk delete, move
    caption pages or have both shown as below.

    Photo by: Chris
    Filename: 33709050-O
    Filename: IMG_12345.jpg
    Allen, upon further review, that number is the filename. It's just that I downloaded it from my son Ben's gallery so it got that name before I uploaded it to mine.

    If you look at the images in the first screen shot, they clearly have filenames.
  • BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited June 22, 2008
    NWMtnGuy wrote:
    Visually this looks really nice. Thanks for all the hard work to roll this out. Just a couple of questions:

    1) In the "cart items" view of your mockup it looks like the filename for each image is shown. I assume this is the name of the original uploaded file, not the image caption. Will there be any way to hide the filename? I generally allow visitors to see captions but not filenames. I often annotate things within filenames on my computer that I don't want my customers to see.
    Uh oh. I'm going to make a guess at the answer because BigWebGuy, who designed the cart, isn't here today but he can correct me tomorrow if I guess wrong.

    I'm pretty sure it didn't occur to us that some people wouldn't want the filenames shown. It's one of those things where it was asked for so fervently so many times...and I don't think we heard the other side, at least I didn't. How serious an issue is this?
    NWMtnGuy wrote:
    2) Not really a problem, but I never understood why "standard prints" and "compact camera prints" are broken into different categories. I understand that these are different aspect ratios that correspond to common digital sensor sizes, but I would be surprised if most people really make this distinction. Maybe your research shows otherwise. If so, I trust your data.
    4x5.3 prints make me crazy. Can we just nuke them from the catalog? I know some people will scream and there will be cropping, but no one can figure out what to name them without offending the 4/3 shooters, they don't fit inside photo albums and frames well, and it's just one more difficult thing for consumers to gr0k.
  • BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited June 22, 2008
    If we set an album on "Auto" color or make it so customers can only buy lustre finish, will they still be able to see the other options in the cart?
    The answer to the lustre question is yes, because with the pricing tool you can make gloss and matte go away.

    We have found with the old cart that buyers will leave the auto and true setting to whatever default you have set for the gallery. I hope that's true with this new cart too.

    I would love to see us add an option for you to hide the button altogether and make the choice for the consumer. But I don't think that's part of this release and my vote for the #1 thing to do after we ship the cart is coupons.
  • BaldyBaldy Registered Users, Super Moderators Posts: 2,853 moderator
    edited June 22, 2008
    Andy wrote:
    We're gonna have wording in the cart that is consistent with our style as a Company. And "Who's getting the goods" and "Who's Paying" fit right in, IMO.
    I agree with that but thought Mike had a point about the tone.

    Who's getting the goods has a twinge of a drug deal going down in Manhattan and you might be knifed if you answer wrong.

    Getting the goods on cheating spouses.

    Maybe Who's the lucky one is just as memorable but without the twinge.

    We'll work on the wording. One thing we hear every day is how glad our customers are that we don't have forgettable corporate writing that gets lost in a sea of sameness.
  • NWMtnGuyNWMtnGuy Registered Users Posts: 88 Big grins
    edited June 22, 2008
    Baldy wrote:
    Uh oh. I'm going to make a guess at the answer because BigWebGuy, who designed the cart, isn't here today but he can correct me tomorrow if I guess wrong.

    I'm pretty sure it didn't occur to us that some people wouldn't want the filenames shown. It's one of those things where it was asked for so fervently so many times...and I don't think we heard the other side, at least I didn't. How serious an issue is this?
    It's not an end-of-the-world issue, but it's a bit of a hassle. I often have several versions of a particular photo on my hard drive (different processing, sharpening, resolution, etc.) and I frequently annotate this information into the filename. It makes it possible to see in the Mac finder or Windows explorer which file is which without needing to open it in another program.

    In the majority of cases I'm not worried if someone sees the filename - it just looks like a string of nonsense. However, there are a few that I definitely don't want people to see due to specific annotation. I suppose I could identify all the files in question, rename them on my computer, and upload them to my account all over again. But I'd rather not. (Hopefully there aren't too many.)

    Sorry I missed any discussion on this. Although I have been uploading photos to SmugMug for years (4000+ photos) it is only recently that I've gotten serious about customizing my site and using it as a sales channel. Suddenly I'm paying attention to these changes a lot more!
Sign In or Register to comment.