What would you like Designers to know?
 

(I hope its okay for me to post this)

I saw a similar thread on another forum and thought this was an awesome idea. If Holly or a Mod thinks it shouldnt be here, please remove it :D

If you had the chance, what would you ask or advise a Designer regarding their kits and the content?

Here's some suggestions to start you off:

1. TOU - please make these a txt file. Image TOU files take up valuable download Mb that some of us dont have.
   
2. Please include your store URL's and screen names for each store in your TOU so we can properly credit when using items. If you have a blog, please include your blog URL.
   
3. Please name your Kit preview image as folder.jpg as this will allow Windows (not sure about MACs sorry) to automatically set the preview as the thumbnail on the folder.
   
4. please limit file names to less than 20 characters if possible. Some programs cant handle long file names and will crash when trying to load them. This means the purchaser needs to rename all the files before they can use them.
   
5. It would be awesome if you could prefix your items in the kits with your initials and an abreviated Kit Name. ie. ss_SnS_flower1.png
   
6. Please keep any preview files under 150kb in size (under 100k is even better). If the purchaser is interested in seeing more of the kit, they'll visit the store!
   
7. If you have a program that allows you to add tags or metadata to your files, please include your designer name, kit name, item category (ie. paper, element, quick page, etc). I know Photoshop and ACDSee will display tags and metadata set by the authors and this is an AWESOME way to search for items when you have oodles of stuff.
   
8. If your kit is relatively large, please chunk it into 25 - 30mb chunks. Dialup users can time out on larger downloads.
   
9. Please dont include blinkies or other graphics in your kits as these add to the download file size. If you wish purchasers to grab your blinkie, please add a txt file titled GrabMyBlinkie.txt and include your blog or store where your blinkie can be snaffled from.
   
   and one last thing ..
   
10. Please please please .. if you include a bow or button in your kit, please include a full length ribbon or string in the same colour so we can place these on our layouts. I love bows and want to use them all the time but without the ribbon, it looks like Ive just 'plonked' it on my layout.

If you have read this, thank you SO much for taking the time. I personally think all designers are awesome .. and deserve all the thanks they can get!

{hugs}

Just read your thread here now. Thanks so much for the suggestions- all noted! Personally, I enjoy it when we get feedback and suggestions - it really helps me to create better kits!

boy, this is a great idea! I wish I had seen it sooner too..

and as someone with a high speed connection I love one download vs several..

my biggest pet peeve though is when I unzipped stuff and it's not in it's own folder.... then I have to sort through everything and find where it goes.

I agree about TOU's, please make them text files.. not jpgs or PDF's either... and only give me one of each..sometimes I get half a dozen of the same file in a kit...

as for the preview being named folder..well I don't know.. I kind of like it being named "kit name_preview" so it has a one of a kind file name. I organize everything by store, then by designer, then by kit..

so I have a BIG GDS folder...under that I have all the designers...

....so lets pick Jessica Alger because I have almost everything she has :) .... under that folder I have each of her kits... but in the main Jessica folder I have each of her kit previews..so at a quick glance I can decide which kit to use or what colors I want to work with. Does that make sense?

In the few dd's that i've created, I include a folder.jpg as well as a hollyann_ddname.jpg for preview to accomplish both things :)

The TOU in txt form is the best.
I normally open it up and copy the "kit name yx by designer xy" pert for crediting, saves time.
And I really don't like it when there are multiple huge previews for other kits in it, sometimes even in non-freebies, puts me right of off checking them out.

my pet peeve is if the zip file does not contain a folder but just files... I normally download a bunch and the extract them at the same time. if the zip file has no folder in it, all the files get mixed up *grumble*

great idea for a thread!

I really, really dislike a folder full of previews, TOU etc. all on it's own. It somehow makes me feel gypped, a waste of time and space especially because 9 out of ten times those things are already in the main file.

Please no blinkie/store links, they're huge.

If you do lower and upper alpha, please name it differently so I don't end up having to do it. If I have to redo your alpha I probably will avoid your alpha at later date. ( I prefer one file for alpha not three)

Folders within folders within folders within folders drives me insane. I spend a ton of time deleting folders before I can 'play' with my new kit.

Wow! Thank you to all the creative designers out there. Your work is tremendous and I really appreciate you.

About the folder.jpg renaming. For some it has been helpful to have it named folder.jpg. For me, it has been very helpful to have the preview with a particular name, most helpful is when the preview and the kit/zipped download has the same name. If the preview is named folder, then a guess has to be made as to what the zipped file will be named so they will appear together on my computer so that later I will know which files to unzip for a project.

I'm sure it is a tremendous amount of work to get everything ready for us to download. I really appreciate all your attention to details and your efforts to make things easier for those who use your kits, QPs, etc. Thank you.

Thanks for these tips. I especially like the suggestion about the metadata. I never thought of doing that.

There are reasons we can't do some of these but most of them are great to know! :) I don't put my TOU in txt format any more because I had a problem with people changing the wording. :no: With my commercial use stuff, I have it in secured pdf format now so it's concrete! :)

We also can't put our blog addresses in our TOU because of terms in our contract. So, I just include my email address and gds. Hopefully that's getting the job done! :wink:

I also include my full name in all of my file names because I've seen too many pirated files and orphaned files that have initials and no one can tell who they belong to.

I agree with Andrea, I never thought about the meta-data even though I use it myself ;)
Keep the suggestions coming and we'll do what we can!
Thanks everyone!