pre-placed fields vs starting with just a background

I figured I'd pass on what my customers are saying in response to the following email I just sent to 1,000+ clients this morning. The reason I reached out to my userbase is that I recently had it suggested to me that people would rather start with a background with no preplaced fields.

I will post each customers response in followups.

Here is the email I sent:

If you have a quick moment, I would greatly appreciate your feedback.

I am considering switching to a new online designer that will allow you to save designs so you don't have to lay out your candy box in one sitting.

The downside? I cannot provide pre-placed field placeholders. So, rather than editing elements that are already on top of the background, you would have to start with a background and place/upload your images and text yourself.

Here is a link to a sample Christmas template. You can easily choose from 7 different backgrounds, and then begin placing your photos, logos and text anywhere you want:

http://designer.realtimedesigner.com/designmycandybox/index.php&tng=Y3BpPTc2NDc1JmN0aT0yNzE0NA==

Respond to this email with your thoughts for a chance to win 100 free candy cartons at the end of the day today.

1. How important are pre-placed fields to you?
2. How important is it to you to be able to save your designs for later editing/re-ordering?

My biggest fear is that without pre-placed, recommended fields, that people will not want to take the time to upload and place fields themselves.

Thank you for your time, and I'm eager to hear your thoughts!
Sincerely,
Greg the Candybox Guy
www.DesignMyCandyBox.com
636-542-8560

UPDATE:

Wow! In 10 minutes I'd say I have my answer. Preplaced fields are critical. Customers don't want to have to sit and think "Hmmm... what should I put on my candy box?" They want fast and easy.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2015 11:48AM by candycartons.

Keep it as is….

Frank Mancino
NMLS#: 133472
AVP/Branch Manager



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2015 11:43AM by candycartons.

I love the new box designs but it looks like it will be more difficult to design the boxes without the pre-determined templates and it may not come out with the text even.

Regards,
Mark S. Fisher
Licensed Mortgage Originator
NMLS ID#478240

Download my Mobile Mortgage Calculator App: http://nycmortgage.mortgagemapp.com/mobile

UNITED NORTHERN MORTGAGE BANKERS, LTD.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2015 11:43AM by candycartons.

Janet Murray janet@janetmurray.net via yahoo.com
10:17 AM (6 minutes ago)

to me
I am not a graphic designer, so pre-place fields are critical to me to ensure an end product that looks professional.

1,000,000% agree, the pre-placed stuff is your bread and butter. I know design and I don't mind doing the whole thing myself. In fact, I'd prefer it. But MOST people you're targeting are not marketers and designers & would have a tough time coming up with any words or designs. Appeal to the masses & keep it the way it is.

Jason Crittenden - Certified Residential Military Specialist
Jason Crittenden Team at Realty ONE Group



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2015 11:43AM by candycartons.

It was so easy to create my box when I ordered it before with the pre placed field. I usually choose companies for this time of promotion where it is easiest for me to just click and go .

Lesli Fioretti

Sent from my iPad

1. When on the go it's nice having already pre placed and I like that

2. With it pre placed it's quick and easy and don't need to save work. Just complete it quick

Clayton Mulford via gmail.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2015 11:43AM by candycartons.

Hello Greg

I'm all for easy!!! I'm not a graphics designer nor do I want to be.
It would be nice to save the design but it's not necessary. When I was doing my boxes, I "lost" them but came right back in and had no problems.

Hope this helps.

Gwen Wallace
HomeSmart's
AZ Home and Lifestyle Team
623-760-6788 cell


Sent from my iPhone

1. How important are pre-placed fields to you? Very important. This was one of the features that attracted me to the Candy Box. Please keep this feature in place.
2. How important is it to you to be able to save your designs for later editing/re-ordering? Very important. It saves time in my busy schedule.

Miguel

Sara Colby
10:40 AM (1 minute ago)

to me
Hi Greg,
I am not afraid of designing myself at all. In fact I kinda like that idea because we have different regulations for text size ect that we need to adhere to.
Maybe you could just always have “ideas” on your site so people have a vision of what a box could look like?
Hope this helps,
Sara Colby
Hostetter Realty

Carmelita Gilles
10:38 AM (5 minutes ago)

to me
I would prefer the pre-placed design; makes things much simple in our busy lives. Thanks!

Greg,

Well, it surealy was intersting to read all those feedbacks.
But there's one thing I don't understand about the email you originally sent them.

Quote

I am considering switching to a new online designer that will allow you to save designs so you don't have to lay out your candy box in one sitting.

The downside? I cannot provide pre-placed field placeholders. So, rather than editing elements that are already on top of the background, you would have to start with a background and place/upload your images and text yourself.

I am not fully understanding why you asked them to try a blank RTD product instead of a template.
For your kind of product I see easily that 95% of audience would go with templates. Actually, this is true for the vast majority of the whole RTD userbase too. Good templates are often the key to success.

If you had someone suggesting you to offer blank, well.... you surely can!
I mean, what would prevent you from offering links to both templates and empty products?

Hi Alex! It wasn't a totally blank RTD product, it had the xmas backgrounds, just no suggested pre-placed fields. Basically, I was considering offering just the backgrounds to see if my customers would still be happy placing their own fields on top of an attractive background. It would save me a lot of time if all I had to do was come up with great looking themes and let them place the elements.

But after receiving tons of responses with more coming in every minute, this clearly this would shut my business down as they love the preplaced fields showing a recommended layout.

I did not include a link to a sample with preplaced fields yet because I am crossing my fingers for better text handling (if possible) and the ability to center justify replaced images so the customer doesn't have to reposition the image left to right to be centered on the panel. While this may seem nominal to seasoned users, I am a FIRM believer that every little thing you can do to make the experience FAST and EASY will pay off dramatically. On my current site, when a user replaces an image, it is proportionally sized centered within the original bounding box. They don't have to sit there and think "Crap, it's not centered anymore. I guess I'll just drag it and try to eyeball the center."

I get that RTD was a build in search of a market, with no particular industry in mind as you have stated on previous posts. And, I understand that it won't be able to be as robust as a tool that has been specifically built for a single product type. I LOVE what you have made and I can see where it is absolutely perfect for products that are not too text-heavy and require more decorative text effects. But for my product, where text formatting is extremely important, it's not a good fit at this point compared to my current vendor. I shouldn't go into details since I've posted it already in another thread. I can live with replaced images being left-justified, but I'm afraid at this point the text handling is not a good fit for my customers. My goal is to make it easy for them, and I have done that. My biggest reason for wanting to switch to RTD as my new vendor is so my customers can save their designs and re-edit them later, which they cannot do now.

But, I don't want to take a step backwards in ease-of-use for the text handling.

I believe you will be replying to my alternate thread post regarding text issues and whether I could pay you for some added functionality. So at this point I'm just kind of waiting to see what happens. 3 days ago I was 110% committed to RTD and ready to build my new shop, but today, after playing for hours with the text handling, I'm not sure anymore until I hear what can be done, if anything.

Greg Beckemeier
www.DesignMyCandyBox.com
(636) 542-8560

One other thing that I find interesting. I've had a significant number of responders say the following:

1. Pre-placed fields are very helpful. I wouldn't want to take the time to figure out where to put something. The layouts you have now are perfect.
2. With the way it is now, it's easy enough that you really don't need to save it.
Professionally yours,
Dawn Brewer
REALTOR®

I'm finding that my clients are not as concerned with being able to save designs, particularly because it is so easy as-is to build a layout. This reinforces that fact that I need to make sure RTD will perform at least as well as my current engine.

I'd be happy to point out a number of thing that would help from a user viewpoint, but I'm tackling a few things at a time after doing the forum research. I also don't want to seem like "that guy" that always has an issue. I'm just very, very committed to the end user experience. Because in the end, that is what feeds my family.