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Site Name: Smuffle
Owner: claire
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 20th March 2009
Site Name
I like the name “Smuffle”. It’s quite cute and unique.
Coding and Validation
Your coding has 42 errors in HTML 4.01 transitional, but at least 100 in XHTML.
You’re missing a doctype. You would be better off validating in XHTML because you use WordPress and that automatically codes your posts in XHTML. However, you can try validating to HTML first.
If you’re validating in XHTML you need to place a backslash before the ending bracket in your meta tags. All tags should be in lowercase as well. You have the following:
<Link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.smuffle.ohpanic.info/drawn-style.css">
That should be:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.smuffle.ohpanic.info/drawn-style.css" />
In fact, many of your tags are in capitals. You need to make them lowercase for them to be valid XHTML. In fact, if you put your entire imagemap tags into lowercase, you’d have a lot less errors. You also have a </P> lying around, which you don’t need.
Your layout image needs a backslash before the ending bracket. Along with your map name, you also need an id.
The parts of your imagemap that are links should have alt="" added to them, as well as a trailing backslash.
You’re using divs named “content” and “main” twice. If you’re using then more than once, you should be using div classes, not ids. (Read this tutorial.)
Also, make sure you close every div and you don’t have extra ending tags lying around. I’m sure with time and patience, you will come to validate your site and its pages.
Your CSS is valid.
Browser Compatibility & Usability
Looking in Browsershots.org, your layout looks the same in most browsers.
The navigation is clear but rather than imagemaps I prefer actual links. Some people actually browse the internet with images turned off.
The text is easy to read.
I like the use of colour but with the links, the letters seem too far apart. Try reducing that a bit.
Layout
The layout has a very individualistic style. I like the set-up of its components.
However the layout is really quite large. The main image of the rendered girl is too big and “in-your-face”. I am on a rather large resolution and already your layout image takes up half my screen. How would laptop users feel?
The layout is also quite wide; I have to scroll to the right all the time to be able to read your content properly.
I like the design and the way the layout is made. It is really quite creative.
The CSS is quite nice. I would use a little more yellow and brown though. You should also try editing your h1s because whenever I hover over them, they change like a link. 
Content
Clairessa
Some errors on this page:
Baptist should be Baptised
Cancer should be Cancer
reoccuring should be recurring.
A well written page, simple and short!
Smuffle
With your credits page, you should really write why you’re crediting – what you used, or took, etc. Don’t forget to credit Vicky (your host), PhotoBucket and WordPress!
‘Site’ should be ‘Site History’ or something like that.
Freewebs should be capitalised on this page, and host’s should be host.
On your advertising page, ASAP and URL should be capitalised.
You have such little content on these pages, you could really just combine it into one page with separate headings.
Art
With your icons, I don’t see the point of having separate pages for each category. They are set out very nicely, but it’s annoying for me to press ‘back’ or open things in new tabs, when you could just have all the icons on the one page, under different headings.
Your sketches are excellent! You’re a great artist. I love the last one though, because it’s coloured and stands out.
I love all your portfolio works; they show some great graphic skill.
I’m not quite familiar with barbershop, but the singing is great!
Resources
Your navigation is starting to annoy me, particularly with your articles and tutorials. It would be a lot simpler to have a list of the tutorials on the same page as your other resources. The subpages are really quite annoying.
On your blogging article, you have some really great points, and I really enjoyed reading. However – I am not entirely sure what a TMI is. Please clarify.
Lovely textures! Some of them look more like scans or stocks, but nevertheless are awesome! The way you’ve phrased this:
Since photobucket limits the size of the image uploads, just let me know if you want a bigger size of the image emailed to you in the tagboard.
is a bit odd, and should be:
Since Photobucket limits the size of the image uploads, just let me know in the tagboard if you want a bigger size of the image emailed to you.
Some of your tutorials are simply titled “graphics tutorial”. Try and name them more accurately as you did for your links!
Your shiny button tutorial has centered text instead of being aligned to the left.
I like the idea of the image mapping tutorial but be nice – put your codes in lowercase for those using XHTML.. ah.
I don’t use Photoshop actions but I love yours! I love the last three, especially, after seeing them on your icons.
You don’t really need another page for the PSD actions – put the download links on the same page, showing they’re available in two formats. (Like you did on the brushes page.)
These brushes look really great! You only have the first one in both imagepack and ABR, though.
Tagboard
Self explanatory. I would prefer comments on blogs rather than a tagboard so I wouldn’t have to check both – but it’s up to you.
Originality & Creativity
You definitely have creativity, girl! Your artwork and all your resources really show this. You’ve got some original designs, apart from the television show images which I do see a fair bit of on the internet.
Organisation & Errors
Well organised – even though I didn’t like the unnecessary subpages you had. I suggest cutting them down.
I only spotted a few errors, and the errors in your coding. No broken links or images!
Overall Comment
Claire, you have a small, well-kept site. It’s quite organised and you showcase some very great designs. Your layouts are always very creative, as I’ve seen from your past layouts and from visiting your site a while back.
The only suggestions I have are not to make your layout so big in future, and to work a little bit on your coding. Perhaps also try using stock images instead of those celebrity images, to be a bit more original.
I especially like your graphics tutorials. I have hardly seen tutorials on curves and things, so that was really nice to see.
I’d like to see more content in general – other than that, your site is great.
