GCU,
Just noticed a new drop down menu for shoppers.  It looks nice and I assume this should make it somewhat easier for shoppers to find the cards they want.  I did notice a bit of a problem though in the wedding categories (invitations and thank yous).  Many of us that have been here awhile have many cards for weddings that do not fall into the new categories that have been set up and I don't really see a good way for the shopper to find these cards--there is a small note at the top about clicking here to see all the cards, but all the other categories are in big bold and I don't think a shopper would think to look way at the top in the smaller print.  I am concerned that all those cards made long ago that are really great but are not relationship specific will be ignored by shoppers.  May I suggest at least a category like general that we could put these in so they don't get lost?  Maybe a Friend category under Bridesmaid would also be nice, as people would be more inclined to ask a friend as opposed to a best friend to be a bridesmaid, I think.  Any other thoughts.
 
Okay, adding a little to my post, as I noticed that when a card is horizontal 7x5 the card appears squished and you really cannot see the card correctly.
   
Kathy

Wow...just realized by reading this post that I have some of my cards on the examples pages for the different categories!  
 
I too noticed that both of those cards are supposed to be horizontal and they are showing as squished vertical...LOL.  Not very pretty.  
 
I also noticed that if you click on the 'Be In My Wedding' Category you have to click on an extra link to go to that page versus it bringing it up when you click on that category -  
 
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/shopping/card_category.asp?cid=1145

I've also noticed that when you finally get to the end of a subcategory, you still have to click the words at the top to see the cards. I found that out when I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and..., well you know what I mean. I finally realized that it wasn't going to come up at all unless I did something else. That isn't true, though if you go to that subcategory from the left hand side. Sounds like that needs to be changed as well as showing the cards that are not in the subcategories within a category in some way, or they will never be looked at.  
The buttons don't work, either, but at least the wording on them does. I guess the programmers forgot to attach the link to the button instead of the words.  
That said, the new look is pretty good. If the kinks get worked out, I think it will be an improvement.   Here's hoping getting the kinks worked out won't make huge knots in the rest of the program!  
Kathy

Hmmm ... as "cool" as this all looks, I suggest that this be reconsidered. The purpose of this page is to help the shopper quickly get to the desired lowest level subcategory using the least amount of scrolling, clicking, and use of time.  They don't need to see card samples in this process, imo.
 
Right now it takes 5 clicks to get down to the set of congrats cards for a graduating Medical Student, and it's very easy to get lost!
 
I'd rather see a page formatted for each of the 8 main categories that fully maps out the category tree in a smooth intuitive way that with as few as one click, the shopper is able to navigate to the farthest out limb of the tree that they are interested in (congrats cards for a graduating Medical Student).  Use the full page width and stay above the fold if possible.  It should be as simple as taking the category page we artist use HERE, break it out into one page for each of the 8 major categories, with 4-5 columns per page. It would also help to do something like color coding the backbround of each major sub-subcategory within the tree table to make it easier to navigate.
 
I think this would not only speed up the User Experience, but also helps avoid the getting lost problem.
 
Just some thoughts to share ....

Hi all,
I just went to take a look after reading your posts, very interesting....I can see it's still got a few glitches, like when you hover over certain cards...a lot of them mine LOL!!....the card does a spastic version of the happy dance!  I almost had a seizure trying to read it!
 
Plus when I looked for my (for the moment..) one and only Graduation card, it wasn't there....AT ALL!
However, I did see lots of cool cards for the Class of 2007
 
Oh well...it'll sort itself out eventually, but we might lose a few sales in the meantime.  I have lots of flower cards as you probably know....and I looked for them, couldn't find one until I hit page 8...and then the next one was page 10!
I really don't fancy my chances of selling much that way...

After reading Tom's latest post I did another check for a card of mine, a recent (3-4weeks) addition to see if later cards are getting into the right place and I am left wondering how/what gets you into one of the sub categories.  Here's why.
 
From the header bar I chose Wedding Party>then selected Be my Bridesmaid from the 'pretty blue bars'
Then chose Sister-in-Law from the blue bars. It said 'see all 10 cards'. (then click to browse these 10 ????)
Anyway..... if you are still with me, I do not see my sister-in-law will you be my Bridesmaid card. Why on earth would it not be there when it was with them before this all started?  
Second question, How am I going to sell that one when no-one will ever see it? A customer would assume that the cards showing in this category are the only ones available? Nice if you are in there otherwise good luck!
 
Here is the card to show you it clearly should be in the sister-in-law category, and in doing this I discovered that I am in 'other' along with the niece version which is not in the niece category!!! (I am grateful to be behind one set of blue bars -'other' as I am sure many are lost in the 'all cards' pile)  
 
 http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/community/viewdetails.asp?pid=396337&pag e=1&aid=135500
 
I usually go with the flow here but folks this is not good, we cannot follow-up on every card and check it's in the right place and then email the reviewers to move it! GCU you need to rethink this somehow.
 
Pamela
 
I checked the exact date this card was approved it was March 27th so a little over 4 weeks-just incase its helpful to anyone.

Okay....now I'm worried!
 
Is anyone from GCU reading this?

Greetings!
 
Everyone is making really good points about the new menu.  When I first started at GCU, we were able to change the category of the card after it was approved.  I really wish that we could have that feature again.  I have several cards that are not in the 'correct' category, because it didn't exist when the cards were created.  Now they're just out there...in the vast Universe.
 
I'm certain that there is potential for abuse, people putting their cards into categories where they don't belong, but, if that happened, I'm sure that someone would report it as in the wrong category, and action could be taken.
 
Perhaps, if the ability to move cards into new categories cannot, or will not, be reinstated, then there could be a second approval system, a place where we can email the reviewers to request a transfer?
 
This seems like a lot of additional work for the review team, as we already know how many cards they have to deal with on a daily basis.
 
And another thing:  Yesterday when I was looking at the cards which represented the wedding categories, I noticed that in the bridesmaid section, there were 4 cards with the same image and different text and 2 cards with the same image and different text, and a couple of other cards.  This not a knock against the artist of the same image cards, but, rather a note to GCU that it would be so much more appealing to a shopper to see a different image representing each subcategory, rather than repeating.  The way it looked yesterday, is that in a category of 2000+ cards, we had 4 designs to choose from.  So, I'm hoping that this card display gets more randomized (probably not grammatically correct) as the kinks are worked out.  And just to note, when I looked at that category, 2 of the cards displayed were mine (both different) so, whether they're my cards or others' I'd really like to see a nice mix and variety of cards that really represent all of the styles here in the Universe.
 
Personally, I want people to see enough variety that they say, "Ooh, look at this one, and this one..."  To draw them into the pages.  Sure beats the alternative:  "Heck, what kind of an Universe is this?  They only have 10 cards!"  
 
Just my 1-cent.