Hurt's me to say this but I think Renderosity's latest layout stinks. It was not always like this, and Renderosity used to be a fun place to shop. Now it has the visual appeal of a go-daddy domain place-holder page with all the offset thumbnail's and ad-boxes. You would never know this was a artist store from the homepage.
I think Renderosity has lost its curb appeal, and its functionality. Its nearly impossible to brows the product pages and galleries. What's up with the site schitzo schema?. Why was this considered an improvement?

The front page is designed so that you are able to see what is currently going on with the site along with sales etc in one place. This makes it easier so that you do not have two search around the site for those topics. :)

I appreciate the awsome administration at Renderosity. All the people and products are great, but I see the infrastructure is limiting oppertunties. Poser users are PC users right? I always shop for content on my installed system not on a tablet. These are good front page design goals, but they need to be suited for the dominate platform of the visitors. It appears the site is attempting to be optimized for mobile. I believe in time data may reveal its not achieving that objective with the inconsistant mini-panels. Its way too distracting and cumbersome to scroll. However I could be wrong, maybe the site demographics prefer it. I also hate jump-cut videos and really have a hard time following so it may be a generational thing and the target audience prefers it this way.

Bear in mind that if your site is not mobile friendly it will negatively affect your Google search ranking

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/faqs-april-21st-mobile-friendly.html

So it isn't just me. The front page is a visual shock therapy. Instead of visiting Renderosity 4 to 5 times a day as I used to before the beautification I limit myself to a quick stop once a day. I click on Renderosity and immediately move my eyes up where Marketplace is going to appear in order to avoid the immediate shock of the front page. It is difficult to imagine that this was actually designed. It looks more like it came out of a shaker.

How did we all survive before this front page hit us? Everything we needed to know was in the Newsletters.

Not separating Poser from D|S is another big problem. When I look at Marketplace and all I am looking at is Genes 1,2,3 I Ioose all desire to look for something I can actually use.

Do I ever miss the beautiful Renderosity that used to be my second home for so many years.

FrankT posted at 5:38AM Fri, 27 November 2015 - #4241098

Bear in mind that if your site is not mobile friendly it will negatively affect your Google search ranking

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/faqs-april-21st-mobile-friendly.html

Sure - but that does not mean exclusivly mobile. Either case - mobile friendly or not the current site isnt gatting a great search rank. Its got a PR of 5/10 and this chart reflects that http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?o=lt&y=t&b=ffffff&n=666666&f=999999&p=4e8cff&r=1y&t=2&z=30&c=1&h=150&w=340&u=renderosity.com

Im sorry; I have to agree with the OP. The front page now has about as much allure as an "Everything Must Go!" flyer from Dollar General. The sheer amount of advertising, now inexplicably coupled with ads from Rooms To Go et al, is overwhelming any idea that this is an artists' site. Have sales fallen off so much that it's now necessary to make every single page a rumpus room for ads?

I think I have to agree, it looks cheap and it hurts my eyes as they have to dart around. Just today, after a long while, I thought I have a look around , but the store and all it's thumbnails for the products do look like a cheap as if no one really cares about the look of the Image. I only click on thumbnails that appeal to me, but sadly and in all honestly, NONE does since the RMP was changed.

I only shop from my PC / iMac and would never even go to any of the 3DStores with my Mobile or Tablet and I believe that is for many of your customer the case.

Not sure what went wrong here, but it sure did give a former good looking Store a cheap dollar store feel with TO much on the pages which makes me close out very fast and go to a store where my eyes can rest and I find what I want with a couple of clicks.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but it upsets me greatly as I am a customer here for many years and I know how good the Store used to be, both in looks and easy navigation.

Hey everyone- would you mind telling me what exactly you dislike about the front page? How would you change it? What suggestions can you give us to make it look more visually appealing? Let us know.

Many of your customers have told you in this forum what they think about your 'revolution' and what they like and what not. Obviousely nobody from Rendo was interested to change anything to the good. Why should your customers repeat their suggestions again and again? Just read YOUR forum by yourself and you'll have enough information about what is going wrong here. But I'm pretty sure, nobody will do so (as obviousely nobody has done in the past...). But sitting it out will not work or you'll be alone sooner or later while your customers have walked away to sites that are more customer friendly in any aspect (which is not very difficult since your 'revolution'...)

Must have been doing something right, back in 2011, when there were just over 8000 artists online.

Rendo Sept. 2011

Well... I know that Alexa is not 100% accurate, but seems that many old users did not like the Revolution... ratings are falling down since the 2nd half of August.

I hate to sound like a defeatist and I say this with the heart full of sadness because I still like this place, even if I spend less and lesser time here. It's not only the frontpage but the whole look of the site... the gallery is a pain to navigate and the interface is confusing, especially if you use a PC.

TBH... it does not invite to buy products in the marketplace.

I appreciate that the admins listened to some complaints and have fixed some flaws (removed the size limits on images... removed the infinite scrolling restoring the page numbers), but once that the user base is alienated and disappointed, it becomes very difficult to make people come back.

The change should have been less traumatic and maybe should have been created TWO different versions of the site: one for mobile devices and one, more traditional, for PC / Laptops. Let's hope that during Xmas time some of the old members who left this summer will decide to give to Renderosity a second chance.

Good luck. Even if I am around rarely, I am NOT leaving anyway because I like to browse the galleries once in a while.

@FrancescaV82 You are right, it is difficult to over-come negative outlook once people begin to feel alienated and disappointed. I specifically zeroed in on your statement, "The change should have been less traumatic". There will no doubt be site upgrades again in the future, and I wonder if a good suggestion for the future would be to roll-out changes in sections, instead of the entire site at once. That way we can absorb the changes in bite-sizes so when the bugs surface, the trauma is minimal and can be worked on and fixed before rolling out the next section. It might be easier for the programmers too, they wouldn't be so over-whelmed.

The problem is that everything is just a jumbled mess, and the Rendo ad banner up top is animated. Also, that vertical banner of unlabeled products on the left needs to go. You also need to have all the products labeled on the MP home page rather than just have a bunch of unlabeled carousels/slideshows.

hopeandlove posted at 5:52AM Fri, 04 December 2015 - #4241277

Hey everyone- would you mind telling me what exactly you dislike about the front page? How would you change it? What suggestions can you give us to make it look more visually appealing? Let us know.<

Its an art site. Make it beautiful, intuitively navigable. and focus on the art. Menus should organize store products (application content) as you would a paint set. Make items browsable with filters & criteria including category, type, color scheme, and vendor. Reduce or eliminate external ads, put internal ads in hideable flyouts or at the footer. Promote products based on its curb appeal, hidden values and the renders it inspires rather than a blaring hype using sex or discount offers. It looks cheap and like Renderosity is chasing art sales to the bottom of the barrel. Use lightboxes to isolate and highlight products/gallery images without ads or other distractions. Again, and most importantly: Make it beautiful, intuitively navigable. and focus on the art.

Finally for the ultimate in flexibility and client satisfaction - you could allow the user to customize their own front page content "blocks" to highlight their favorite views (what's new product, gallery new) , favorite vendors views, topic/theme gallery and product filter views, forum views, Prime News and Product views, and selected functional widgets and admin tools.

Do resist the urge to make more than one functional change at a time and only incrementally adjust based on quantitative, objective metric analysis including user feedback that supports the goal, or roll-back before implementing the next change. This improves consistency and assures results. The Revolution rollout was very risky as its name implies. Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming#Key_principles

Let me take some of your suggestions to the team and see what everyone says! Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I greatly appreciate you guys- truly!

I have been expecting since August that the awful front page would change. To me it seemed obvious that it was an amateurish mishmash right from the get-go. It is so bad I figured it was a temporary work-in-progress placeholder and I am surprised that serious discussion is only taking place now in December.

Regarding Google Rankings, a site like this can probably take them with a grain of salt. You can use the directionality of how good Google ranks changes but you probably don't have to worry about the absolute measure.

This is a specialty market with a lot of growth potential, It is not a general commodity market such as Google addresses. If you look for Poser or Daz or 3D models, Renderosity will come up as a leader. Then you address your users and potential users making sure not to ailenate your market while trying to expand.

The front page and the "new" renderosity approach since August makes me think of a Jackson Pollock painting done without talent. It's more of a brute force assault on the senses rather than quality geared towards making visitors (me) want to see more.

And perhaps that's the way I would look at the changes if I were the project manager: Do they make a customer want to see more or are they just an assault on the senses?

It's not technology. Its fundamentals.

Maybe get some recent graduates of RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) to offer opinions on your layout if you don't trust your customers and vendors?

Sorry guys. I'm just not enjoying browsing or coming to your site as much as I used to.

Alexa's "Estimated" rankings of sites as of today. A lower number is better (#1 is better than #100).

Renderosity:

Daz3D:

my.smithmicro:

Runtime DNA (RDNA):

Content Paradise:

ShareCG:

Of the things that I see in these relative graphs (personal opinion only), when Rendo instituted changes the site's popularity took a negative turn and RDNA got a slight bump. Daz and ShareCG were on the rise already so it's hard to tell if people started looking there for content as a substitute for shopping at Rendo, but the Rendo stumble may have helped fuel the rise. And/or it could signal customers long term beginning to give up on Poser, which doesn't really have well-supported characters, and going for G3 products while making a more permanent commitment to Daz Studio. Content Paradise, which used to be a major player, is not even in the running anymore. When Smith Micro ignored customers and aligned the site more to their enterprise business practices rather than the artistic market they were supposed to be addressing, Content Paradise pretty much died. A free posting site with minimum vendor and customer support such as ShareCG beats the pants off them. Finally, when Smith Micro brought out Poser11 in November it has given Rendo a slight bump, and RDNA a blip-bump. Throughout the year RDNA has been generally improving. Poser 11 introduction appears to have taken some of the steam out of Daz popularity for the moment. It remains to be seen whether the program delivers on its promises.

Also note that while Daz is more highly ranked than Renderosity over the period, it is also more stable (both good things for a company). It's rank ranges from a low of 14.5 to a high of 9 over the period while Rendo ranges from a low of about 36 to a high of about 24 over the same period. The way the graphs are presented, however, it makes the improvement (changes) in Daz look more dramatic than they actually are numerically.

Conversely, ShareCGs rise from a low from worse than 100 to a high of 50 is much more dramatic than the graphs appear to show.