Sutori, the new “voice of the consumer” website from Blast Radius is now live. John @ Blast was kind enough to send a beta invite my way last week, but I didn’t get the time to dip my toes in, so I’ve done it on day #1 instead. :)

I like the concept. I really do. Consumers tell stories about their experiences with companies, good or ill. It’s a first person online community Consumer Reports. I plan on posting a “story” about one of my favourite companies, Lush Cosmetics. My goodwill meter for them will be “I think I’m in love” :).

Now on to specifics about the site – I think a few things need some work to make the site more robust and user friendly.

The “About Us” section is a compelling story and I think we (the community) could benefit from having it more prominently displayed – after all, it is a good story and that’s what the site is about!

The layout is clean and inviting, but the homepage in my opinion is missing some context. For example, the “striking a nerve” header – what is? Are these the most recent stories submitted? The highest rated? How are they chosen?

Or the “featured post” – why is it featured? How is it chosen? Is it based on community feedback?

Finally the font and layout of the most popular tags is visually confusing/ uninviting. A Zoom Cloud type format would be a great choice from a usability/ experience perspective.

I really like the Goodwill Rating meter with your goodwill towards a company ranging from “Livid with rage” to “I think I’m in love”.

Overall a good site and one I wish much success to, because after all, it is about our voices. I’d like to see a few more features and design/ layout tweaks, but I’ll leave those to another day, and see what the Blast team comes up with after incorporating more beta feedback.

Tags: Sutori; Blast Radius