(suggestion) prioritise searching

(Just an idea – if people disagree it’s fine)

I really like AJ’s interface and method of displaying the tracks, but I find that usually I only get sales when I have an item in the “new uploads” section. The tracks I sell aren’t particularly the same ones as those in the new uploads section, but I get the feeling most users discover my tracks by hearing one under new releases and searching for my other stuff. I reckon that when people want music for a project, they usually look in the new/most popular section first.

I’d like the whole system to be more search driven – on most stock audio sites the first thing you see is a search box – on AJ it’s hidden on the 3rd tab.

If you get clients to search more, well described tracks are more likely to get sales, and authors won’t have to do the thing where they stagger uploads to make sure they always have a track on the ‘new releases section’ to bait clients. AJ would do well to make this search box more prominent on the index page.

agree fully. Though clients are clearly still using the search bar since I do tend to sell the odd old song here and there, a bit more emphasis on the search bar would be good.

But at the same time every stock site will have a “this just in!” section so AJ is no different in this regard

I agree here aswell, very good points

Yea, I definitely agree with you there Tom H. That is a very good point.

I imagine that slightly more, let’s say, experienced users of AJ/Envato’s Marketplaces will probably be the ones using the search engine a lot, whereas newcomers might not immediately notice that feature.

I know it seems like an obvious thing to us, who are familiar with the site and design..:)

hey JType, don’t you want to be exclusive?

Ah yea and I agree totally with it too

Would also be nice to have a recent sales category that shows someones most recently sold files as well as the most popular.

I do admit that making search factors both more prominent and expanded would probably do a great deal to speed up business. As it is, I hardly notice the little search bar up to the right! That’s a very low visibility area in terms of webpage engineering… It should be as close to the left hand top corner as possible (pushed out by a little margin probably).

For example take a look at this very telling picture demonstrating degrees and areas of highest visibility on a typical google page: http://www.per-so-na.com/blog/uploaded_images/google-search-golden-triangle-744758.jpg

Such a model would be a very very good basis to direct really any webpage design from…yet the setup here seems not to follow such a trend.

Not surprising. There are a lot of trends Envato tends to ignore.

Just so you all know I do pass on your suggestions to those who make feature decisions, even if I don’t take part in the discussion itself when I don’t have anything of my own to add. As you may have seen Collis hint about around the Envato sites, there’s a marketplace redesign coming up and I’d say it’s a good bet any suggestions that are taken on board will appear in that revision.