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Review for Onadoru Euphoria
As a yaoi fangirl, I’m intrigued by your site content-wise. As a web designer, however, I’m thinking you could do a lot to improve layout and aesthetics-wise. Then again, your site isn’t geared towards aesthetics but moreso text. But think of it this way: all a main layout is supposed to do is act as a flashing sign going, “look here!” As a first-time visitor, I’d have no idea what your site is about, because your layout is incredibly generic and doesn’t offer much of an insight as to what’s in store, and thus would be judging whether or not I want to stay purely on the layout I see.
Information
Site: Onadoru Euphoria
Type: Fan-related
Owner: Emeryl
Reviewed By: Sanosuke
Date Received: 12/8/2006
Date Completed: 11/29/07
Preview
Presentation
Your site was actually reviewed by Sutaru before I got to it, and she brought up a lot of good points that I’d like to reiterate.
Your coding seems to be fine, though on average, I wouldn’t use frames in a layout structured such as yours. A divs layers or tables layout with PHP includes would be just as nice and less confusing. Also, once again, it seems like your saving your images in the lowest possible quality. If you’re using photoshop (which it somewhat looks like you might be), a using an 8-12 setting probably won’t hurt you. Layout images really don’t take up as much space as a lot of people like to think they do. If space is really so much if an issue, you can use .gif instead of .jpg. One other brief note. I use a Mac, so I originally opened this website in Safari, and the coding was off. Did you specifically code this for Firefox or Internet Explorer? If so, I suggest checking the layout in both, because you might find glitches it that way (it’s what I do). If you see no glitches, then it’s just Safari being weird, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Mm, also, your updates could be a little more set aside. There’s no real break between your intro and your news.
Coding
For a site that is text-intensive, I generally don’t recommend using frames, because that ends up restricting the amount of space the text can take up. A bit more margin space between the actual end of the frame and the last line of text would be recommended as well. And just to make the links a bit easier to distinguish from your normal/bolded text, a different color of the links would be a nice touch.
I also wouldn’t go for a purely white scrollbar for your frame, simply because it doesn’t fit very well with the overall layout and stands out way too much. The white outside is alright, but at least make the background of the scrollbar the same color as the background of your frame, such that it blends in and fits in with your layout a bit better. A comparison:
As far as coding goes, everything seems fairly organized. In your CSS, for the .middle and .links tags, it is recommended for the top, left, width, height, etc. attributes to have units [ex: height: 160px].
Also, right now your pages look somewhat cluttered. I suggest adding more paragraph breaks between lines instead of just normal line breaks. That way, there’s more separation between ideas. For your main page especially, something like this would look a bit less cluttered:
This is a page for translations to
whatever the hell I wantboys’ love games. While these games are adult in nature, I have no intention on putting up anything other than translations. You won’t find free game downloads or CG galleries here. I will do the some manga, as well as some novels (Kyou Kara Maou), but the main focus of the site is BL Games.November 16, 2007
- Put up translations for Princess Shiratama 2 (a Patalliro doujinshi).
- Download 1.0 patch for Silver Chaos now. Download the English patch as well as the 1.2 patch! MiHD.
- We need proofreaders who are willing to fix up the scripts. Also, I turned 25 yesterday. Yay!
Notice the separation between the date of the last update [I’m assuming that’s what that is] and the opening message. Also, listing things with <ul></ul> gives your page more organization. Same goes for all your pages. Generally speaking, anywhere you have a line break [<br>] you can change it to a paragraph break [<p>] just to space everything out a bit more. Either that or two line breaks together [<br><br>]. And anywhere you have a list of things, you can list them with the <ul></ul> tags.
Layout
As Sutaru mentioned, your images are very low-quality. Everything has a grainy look to it, especially the corners of the layout:
Your navigation buttons, while interesting, are low in quality as well. They also don’t really seem to fit in with the overall layout aesthetically, seeing as the entire layout is made up of blues and white, and the buttons add a contrast of color that clashes. If you’re going to keep the buttons, then maybe making them a hue of blue instead would allow them to fit in better. Something like this, perhaps: [click on the images for a larger preview]
Vs. 
This effect was created in Photoshop CS simply by adding two layers over the original image. The bottom layer is #3378A1 (
) set to Multiply at 6% Opacity. The top layer is #ABB9E8 (
) set to Color at 88% Opacity. Or you could play around with your own combinations.
Some spacing between each button would be a nice touch; a breather, if you will. Not a big space, but enough to encourage the fact that they’re separate buttons. And, what is with the random “Main” link under the buttons? It doesn’t fit, and it is in a horrid white that’s hard to see against the light background. Why not make a button for it as well, since you already have the others set.
Content
Main
Since this is a translations site, I don’t see the point of making your visitors download Japanese fonts in order to best view your site. While those interested in playing Japanese games might already have Japanese fonts installed onto their computers, they wouldn’t need a translator if they already knew how to read Japanese. And playing a game in another language and only relying on translations to get through… well… I’m not sure there are that many hardcore gamers out there. [Or I could be wrong.]
Silver Chaos
Introduction
Your introduction’s character icons are… um… incredibly low quality. I’m not sure if you cut these images out yourself or if someone else did it for you, but the edges are incredibly grainy. Leaving a background [even if its just whiteness] and adding a border would do just as well. Also, spacing, spacing, spacing! More space between each character’s icon/speech would be nice.
I’m assuming that these characters didn’t really say exactly what you wrote down in the introduction. You could try separating what they say with what they’re doing by using * for actions [i.e: *A mysterious figure comes out from nowhere*] or italics or something that would separate the two.
Translations
I’m not going to bother reading all of your translations, because that would take forever, and I’d probably have shot myself half way through. But from what I’ve skimmed through, it sounds detailed, and just something someone interested in the game would love to read. One suggestion I’d have would be - if possible - to add screenshots to your translations, just to add something interesting to it.
And also, for someone who’s tired of reading, perhaps a “back” link that leads back to the main site would be a nice addition.
[Your “The End” link leads to a blank page.]
Silver Chaos: Eternal Fantasia
It’d be nice to get a small introduction to this. What is a fanbox, and what exactly is this? Also, your mini quiz game page stretches the frame because of the tables.
Silver Chaos Novel
Sidenote: You know, the images you used for the layout to the novel page looks surprisingly like characters from Kyou Kara Maou. [Actually, I think it is Kyou Kara Maou characters…]
Game Options
I take it this page needs a bit of updating, seeing as its not complete and as it is right now, its pretty much useless with just three links.
Kyou Kara Maou
I don’t think you need “Kyou Kara Maou[h]” in front of everything you link, seeing as I’m pretty sure your visitors realize by now that they’re in the Kyou Kara Maou section of the site.
Kyou kara Maoh! ~Oresama Quest~
I actually like the way this page is laid out, with the Japanese text and the English text. However, two points of advice:
- Making the Japanese and English texts different would make it easier to read. A different color for each language would do fine.
- Add an option for people who don’t have Japanese fonts installed on their computers, as there’s probably a lot more of them than there are of us. And as mentioned before, they wouldn’t need a translation site if they already knew how to read Japanese.
First & Second Books
Spacing is a big issue here. Have you ever actually read a novel where the paragraph breaks are line breaks? [Well, technically, yes you have. But they indent their first lines of each paragraph, which you don’t do.] Its incredibly hard to read as it is. I understand that you want to separate each page, but the way it is right now makes the entire page a hassle to read.
What I’d suggest is turning each page number into a specific header [<h1></h1>] and then paragraph-breaking/double line breaking between each paragraph.
Also, your translations aren’t very fluid. Taking a few lines from the last chapter you translated:
“That’s overreacting.”
Gunter shrugged his shoulders as if to say, “No way!”
“It’s not overreacting, you’ve slept for three days.”
“Three days?!”
“That’s right. But this morning you were sleeping as normal, and the physician said that if you recovered from you fatigue you might wake up. There’s nothing wrong with your body.”
Now, I’ve never read a Japanese novel, but I’m assuming its written pretty much in the same way any novel would. If this were an English novel, there would be a lot more detail. Right now, its hard to even tell who said what. Maybe that was the way the novel was originally written, but I highly doubt it.
Kyou Kara Maou Drama CD
The image previews are of incredibly low quality. This page also stretches very far out of the frame you set, and has a bunch of obscure symbols which I’m assuming to be Japanese characters that aren’t installed on my computer.
Kyou Kara Maou Dictionary
There’s one page. And it has what looks like one character file on it. And the character file doesn’t even specify which character its profiling. [Though, going on my limited Anime knowledge, I’m assuming its Yuuri…]
Kyou Kara Maou Photo Collection
I don’t see the point of this page if all you’re going to put up is a picture. No descriptions, no previews? Nothing?
Patalliro!
Patalliro Volumes
I don’t like the way these volumes are saved as .doc files, which is different from the way you had the others. I know that making pages for each seems like a hassle, but for my computer at home, .doc files are huge and hard to open, and will most likely murder my computer to pieces.
But I’d like to mention that I like how these pages are organized. The panel numbers are bolded, and there’s enough separation between each line. Why can’t the rest of your pages be like this?
Other Manga
Shinesman doesn’t need to be listed again here, since it has its own separate page.
Extras
It’d be nice if you separated the external links with the stuff that’s actually part of your site. Separate headers would be nice, or just a ***** separation line in between.
I like a lot of the pages here. I’m not an aspiring translator and I know nothing about Japanese, but for those who are/want to learn, it seems to be very informational and helpful.
Staff
What happened to rant #1? [Your list started from 2…] I’m assuming that’s the validations rant above?
A bit more separation between the section about your favorite characters/cat would be nice. Right now, its just one huge paragraph of words and images. [Sidenote: I love Wolfram too.]
And the rest of this review is just me adding in side comments, since I’m in no position to critique your personal views. [Then again, this entire review is just a bunch of my opinion.]
Rant #3: Professionalism?
I don’t think Google or Neopets count as “professional” sites… Then again, that’s up to interpretation. But if you’re interested, this is what someone else has said about validation and why people should do it.
Rant #5: Open and Honest
I think there’s a line between being honest and sharing too much information. My boyfriend and I talk about everything, my best friends and I do as well, but that doesn’t mean I’ll meet someone in the streets one day and randomly strike up a conversation about what kinds of fetishes I have, or what I think of rape. Its kind of the same as someone coming up to you and going off on a rant about the color, shape, texture, etc. of the stuff they recently flushed down the toilet. That’s a normal occurrence… but it doesn’t mean everyone wants to hear about it. Or, think about it this way: its like stripping down and running around outside naked. You can do it all you want, but that doesn’t mean people really want to [or care to] see you naked. [And in some places, that can get you arrested. Just like in some places, telling people that you support rape could probably get you arrested.]
If its on your own website/blog, then sure, by all means, go right ahead and talk about whatever you want to. But to someone you’ve just met and know absolutely nothing about, starting up a conversation about the stuff you like doing in bed probably wouldn’t be a good idea.
Rant #6: Annoying Things
I personally think this page would be easier to read when done in list-format [<ul></ul>]. Just because I’m a list-whore.
Rant #7: Is Age Just a Number?
It depends, I think, on the environment that you’ve been exposed to. I’m a teenager, and I know more about web design than my parents do. I know more English than my parents do as well, because they were raised in a Chinese environment. So to say that older people, by default, know more than younger people is a wrong statement. Older people have had more experience than younger people, yes, but that doesn’t mean they know everything more than what younger people do.
Take, for example, a 18 year old who started web design when she was 12 and a 30 year old who started web design when he was 28. Does that mean the 30 year old is more knowledgeable? Or does age not matter in this instance? [Or is this something completely different?]
Final Statement
I’m impressed by the information contained in your website. It looks like you took a lot of time and effort into putting this website together. Content-wise, Onadoru Euphoria is very well-developed. However, presentation-wise and organization-wise, it could do with a bit more work. One thing that urked me the most about your website was the fact that everything was separated by a simple line break, smooshing all of the text together and making it incredibly difficult and sometimes annoying to read through your site.