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Matthew’s Review of Regator.com

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Matthew Kammerer

Published

February 23rd, 2009

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Regator (http://www.regator.com) is a ‘bite of the blogosphere’s best’. The website is described in their header as the web’s best blog posts — from the web’s best blogs.

The home page

My first glimpse of Regator leaves my eyes wondering around the page. The logo in the top left and the header in the top middle seem to carry equal importance but after this I am confused as to what I should look at next.

Videos are showcased in one simple player.

The categories are very intuitive and I like that I can play all video and audio posts easily, this is a great feature. The layout of blog excerpts is great and I like how easy it is to find what I would be interested in. I wonder if you may have a problem with retention rate because the blog posts do not open in a new window. A computer user with low skill set, who I am guessing this site may target, may not be able to find their way back to the site unless they recall your name or hit back. I am unsure how to solve this problem but it is something to consider.

Oops, I’m already registered

While trying to register for the site I first entered the CAPTCHA wrong (I hate those…) then I got an error telling me the user name was already taken. I then recovered my password via email very easily. This process was relatively painless and offered the user descriptive feedback on errors.

Ah, the blog

It has become a common occurrence that sites have a different look to their blog. I am growing on the idea. I like however, that Regator links back to the homepage using the term ‘homepage’ in their navigation. I think this should be easily understood by users.

What I like

I really like the video tour. I am a big supported of anyone who offers these as it is normally my tool of choice to learn a lot in a short amount of time when I am using a new site or tool.

Videos are showcased in one simple player.

I also really like the tips when you enter your personal Regator page. These boxes describing each option offered really increases the user experience. In addition, the breadcrumb style navigation when you are wading through the categories really helps me feel like I know where I am, this is a great touch!

Where you lost me..

There is no hierarchy of navigation on Regator. On first impression of the site my eyes are fighting to present me with main navigation. There are 3 options I see and none are stronger than the other.

The options are not actually links.

I also think that the options on the profile settings should be links instead of just text next to radio buttons.

Suggestions

Re size navigation to establish hierarchy: since there are multiple locations that navigation are present then it may be helpful if top level navigation is larger than other navigation options.

Make links in article excerpts stronger: the links in the excerpts of blog posts are a light gray and do not look like links, even on hover.

Make it easy to contact you: I am a strong believe that contact should always only be one easy click away. I see you accomplish this by feedback in the footer, but maybe add it to the header with your navigation in the top right.

The email format makes it uneasy for the user to contact Regator.

Add JavaScript to deter spam: instead of using (at) [dot] jargon, consider researching alternatives to encrypting your email address and simply allow a mailto link be present on your page.