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Review for Welovelaurence.com
Your splash page is not only useless, it’s annoying. It also doesn’t work in IE. At least, it doesn’t work in IE on my computer. The splash page itself is confusing and if I weren’t reviewing your website, I’d have left the moment I saw the site. There are no instructions whatsoever as to what people should do. Just a few images [a few, wait, let me cross that out. A lot of images. Have I mentioned that your website makes my computer lag?] and nothing else.
So I finally manage to enter your site through Firefox, and… wow, lets just say you weren’t kidding when you said there’d be a great deal of green. But it’s not a pretty green either. It’s one of those bright, in-your-face greens. Your introduction, while interesting, is confusing and… not very welcoming.
Information
Site: Welovelaurence.com
Type: Miscellaneous
Owner: Philip
Reviewed By: Sanosuke
Date Received: 2/10/06
Date Completed: 2/21/06
Preview
Presentation
Layout
the layout itself, while plain, is simple and effective. The colors, while I’m viewing this on a slightly brighter computer, fit together nicely. However, that’s not always the case, and you have to watch out for that.
While I have nothing against greens, reds, and yellows, your choice of shading kills me. The neon-green and bright yellow against a dark color does not do much for the eyes, especially after staring at it for a while. An example of someone who can use light colors against a dark background without blinding her audience is Joyce of Element: Rain Designs. Note how her colors are not neon, in-your-face, bright.
Your flash animations, while amusing, have very little use. A website should not keep it’s visitors guessing and clicking random things to get to where they want to go. The splash page is virtually useless and should be replaced with something practical. When I visit your site, I would like to have the choice of going to whichever section I wish to instead of clicking randomly and being forced into whichever section shows up.
Coding
You need the title="" tag as well as the alt="" tag for image-mouseovers to work in Firefox; otherwise, people using firefox have even less idea what they’re clicking.
The last little section in your about page shows up as:
</p></div><img id="botimg" xsrc="/images/wll_bottom.png" mce_src="/images/wll_bottom.png" alt="" width="657" height="22" /></div>
You have an ending </div> code, yet I don’t see a beginning one for it.
The “home” icon and the “email”/heart icon would be put to better use if they were closer to the actual content of the site; like, under the navigation for example [the wheel, question mark, and guest icons].
Content
About Intro
“About Intro” doesn’t quite make sense for the page; it sounds like this page is made to describe the intro? Perhaps “About/Intro” would make more sense. I read on, and I realize that… your page doesn’t even make sense. When it comes to an introduction, a nice, simple introduction would do. Introductions should include information as to what the site is about, what the visitor should expect, and any other information there is to know about the site. This is just confusing. But considering what I’ve already been through… I can’t say I’m surprised.
History
Your <p class=”afterh3″> makes the entire thing move to the left a little too much, and your paragraphs get cut off. A simple <p> would probably work better.
Again, this page is too wordy. The words seem to dance around the meaning that you’re trying to get out - if there even is a meaning at all.
Credits
While it is nice to thank all the people who have made this page possible, it would also be proper to credit the programs and the websites to those programs that you used. Do you really need a fancy credits page? Afterall, it’s just credits. You’re acknowledging the people who have contributed, and at the same time, you’re linking to the websites and programs that have helped. That should be it.
Overall Content
There’s really no description for anything. Again, only blindly clicking could tell me exactly what each thing is. That shouldn’t be the way of a website. While it might be cool to have a completely random website, it would be proper to actually have clues to lead visitors in the right direction.
Guest
This page is actually very amusing. I find the effects very cool and interesting. However, as a default, the helpbar should be there before the guest does any clicking, instead of asking the guest to blindly poke around before finding exactly what they’re supposed to do.
Wheel of Laurence
What exactly is this for…?
I think for the first time, you don’t have mouseover commands for the three icons at the bottom of the wheel. If you’re not going to put in the directions by default, at least have mouseovers on the icons so people know what they’re doing.
Final Statement
The concept of this website seems oddly amusing. At the same time, however, it’s confusing and there’s really nothing that tells the visitor what’s going on. It also doesn’t work on all computers, so it might be a good idea to at least make a non-Flash opening page that’ll lead visitors to where they want to go and warn visitors of Flash usage. [A link to download Flash might be nice too, for those who wish to see the site but can’t.]