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Review for Reincarnation
If I were to rate your layout out of five, I’d give it a three. I really like the fact that the banner is small and the layout is simple, but the monotone purple throughout the layout (aside from the main image) is a definite put-off. The navigation links are about 50 pixels off both in Internet Explorer and Mozilla, and the headers don’t grab my attention. Plus, your layout takes a surprisingly long time to load.
Information
Site: Reincarnation
Type: Personal
Owner: Sandra
Reviewed By: Megumi
Date Received: 1/29/06
Date Completed: 3/18/06
Preview
Presentation
As I said before, the solid purple is much too dull. I like the contrast of the peach (in the girl’s skin) and the purple in the banner, but in the content and navigation areas the only two shades are purple and darker purple—and the background is the same color as the content boxes.
↑ I think that the version title, “My Other Self”, is too close to the tendril of hair for comfort. And, speaking of the title, I don’t think it’s really appropriate for the layout. The two pictures are exactly the same, except that one of them is turned sideways…unless you’re trying to tell me that the girl’s “other self” emerges when she turns sideways, and gets blurry. If you want to keep the title, try finding another picture of this girl, but with a different expression, or something that makes this title meaningful.
← The content area does not match the width of the main image.
The content area ends too abruptly. You used an image to transition into the layout, why not out of it? Provide something to signal the end of the page.
The navigation and content headers are functional enough, but they lack interest—a colored background (peach) would direct visitors’ attention to the them before the links, which is the point of headers. Also in your navigation, you justified the links, which looks awkward with longer links like “Awards and Reviews” and your copyright notices, and emphasizes the lack of padding on the right side of the navigation. This is because you put your links in a list (which is great) but didn’t adjust the padding which automatically appears on the left side of lists:
.nav2 ul {
margin: 7px;
text-align: left;
}
I left 7 pixels of margin so that the links weren’t “hugging” the border, and aligned the text to the left.
To distinguish the links from one another, I suggest using a bullet. It doesn’t have to be a regular round one; you can make your own image, instead, putting this in your stylesheet:
.nav2 ul {
margin: 7px;
text-align: left;
list-style-image: URL(’bullet.gif’);
}
The content boxes don’t seem to have enough padding, either; the text has little breathing room. Also the text in your welcome message is too dark; it’s readable, but uncomfortable. Finally the updates boxes are too close together.
At first I wondered why you recommended an 1024×768 resolution to view the layout; then I realized, with my resolution of 1152×864, your layout was slightly off-center. In your coding, you positioned the table absolutely, which makes the layout view perfectly in 1024×768 resolutions but not in others. To center your layout:
#main {
margin: 0 auto;
text-align: center;
}
The margin value, auto, aligns the layout to the center in most browsers, and text-align: center; does it for Internet Explorer.
The rest of your coding is all right; you use an excess of tables, but they’re pretty neat. However, if you wanted to convert to CSS floats instead of tables (which are simpler and easier), check out TutorialTastic.
Content
Written words and spoken thoughts. All you’ll find here are all my thoughts. Share your other self to us. As we welcome you to Reincarnation.
This paragraph does not make any sense whatsoever. The first sentence is a fragment; the second uses all to many times (and I doubt you’re sharing all your thoughts with us), the third references us instead of me (unless you’re talking about your “other self”), and the fourth is also a fragment.
Site & Layout © Sandra
PNG © Beloved Melody
Brushes © Seishido
Font © DaFont
First of all, the PNG is not copyright Beloved-Melody; you got the image from them, but it’s really property of the artist. Likewise, the font is copyright the creator of the font, who then submitted it to DaFont. I also think that an Unless Otherwise Stated would do the first line good; the layout is not totally copyright you, as you used brushes and images from external resources.
About:
This site has been online for more than 5 months with the name, Sastra Symphonia Sandra.
The first has should be changed to had; the comma is unnecessary; and the title should be italicized or underlined. (Think about writing a bibliography. You underline/italicize titles of media.)
But I closed it down because I have no interest in running it. Anyways, I’m busy enough for updating The Falling Snow.
Again, have should be had. Anyways seems to contain an extra s; and I’m should be I was.
I doubt that “those days” were really that “terrible.” But what is is the insertion of the word “Yes” entirely randomly. It’s as if you’re trying to convince me that you’re telling the truth, yet you have no reason to lie.
Credits: The blurb for Beautiful Beast contains the word “loong”, and the one for Sinful Prodigy needs a period. W3Schools has an extra > after it.
Linkage: I don’t see why you have more credits on this page instead of the “official” one. For that matter I don’t see why you have the credits for your layout on the layout itself, and not on the “Credits” page.
About Me: Biodata is your header for this page. I don’t know what “biodata” is, because it isn’t a real word. I know that bio is a summary of one’s life, and data is usually facts/research; so data seems redundant. I wonder why you couldn’t have just stuck with “About Me”.
For a blog/personal site, you sure don’t provide a lot of information about yourself. You give us the generic facts but no analysis of your character, nothing on your “life story”, boring as it may be. Finally “Hobbies and Passion” is redundant; either one would work, but not together like that.
Poems: I won’t critique your poetry, since I don’t know much about that myself; however, I will comment on your organization. Instead of filing them by date added, I recommend an index of all your poetry on this page, with links going out to seperate poems. As it is, the visitor has four pages to go through to find the poem they want.
Review You: If you want a seperate review site I won’t stop you, but why on earth do you have one if you are already a reviewer at Crystal Tears Designs? You are doing them a disservice, taking away potential reviewees for yourself. I just don’t get it.
Please use your own layout. No premade layouts, unless it was made by you.
I think that a review should be focused on a site’s content instead of its appearance. Does that mean if they can’t make layouts for themselves, but have great content, they can’t be reviewed? Secondly the second sentence doesn’t make sense. If you made it, it would be a premade. Finally, you say “[C]lick here to view archived reviews/pending sites” but the pages lead nowhere. Instead, try saying “No reviews have been completed yet.”
Final Statement
Your site is just okay—nothing really grabs my attention, except your grammatical errors. It’s like broccoli—not good, not bad. Your poetry intrigued me, but you didn’t turn it into the focus of your site; instead, you have all these technical pages like “Credits” and “About”, and even your blog, taking precedence. Good luck.