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Site Name: Popsicle
Owner: Danni
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 17th May 2009
- Previous reviews:
- Popsicle
Site Name
Easy to remember, no problems – you get the drill. I can’t wait to hear your new site name though!
Also Danni, before I proceed with your review: it has been a while since I reviewed your site so be aware that my format has possibly changed and that I may be a little harsh.
Coding and Validation
Your coding has 11 errors and 8 warnings.
Perhaps I didn’t specify the importance of validated coding in your last review but I must stress that it is quite important. It does help reduce the errors that can occur across different browsers beacuse those errors can be causing problems in certain browsers. It’s best to have everything validated.
So this is the doctype you’ll need at the beginning of every page:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">
And now the character encoding which should go in the head tags:
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" >
You have numerous other errors which are small. Most can be fixed if you take a look at my HTML validation tutorial.
Your CSS has 31 errors and 10 warnings.
You’re trying to colour your scrollbar, which is a no-no. You should just leave the scrollbar as it is; not having to inflict different colours on the user. Also, this causes many problems in different browsers. Coloured scrollbars only work in Internet Explorer. It may be an added bonus for people with Internet Explorer, but for those who use other browsers, they will not even notice the effect.
You have errors and warnings which are caused by your iframe code. You are saying 200 rather than specifying px – the unit value.
Browser Compatibility & Usability
Browsershots.org tells me your site is fine in most browsers.
I’m greeted with a popup on your site. I know it’s CSS-based but it is still rather annoying. Visitors don’t want to be threatened by you, and you do make it clear in your disclaimer that no stealing should happen, and so on and so forth. There isn’t a need to welcome and warn people in a popup. You welcome them with your homepage, and you warn them in your disclaimer.
You’re also using quite a large amount of JavaScript, which makes your site take quite a while to load. Try to avoid using so much JavaScript for little unnecessary things. You’re using a JavaScript to disable right click (well, left click in my case, because I’m using a left-handed mouse) and it’s quite annoying because if I want to do something like reload the page through the secondary click, I am not able to. Also, what’s it helping? Trying to stop people from stealing? It doesn’t work – people can view your source code or print their screen anyway. You might want to stop stealers, but the majority of people will not visit your site to steal.
The font size is rather small. Making it just a tad bigger would make it easier to read. I know the point size is comfortable, but think of those who have larger screens or who don’t have such excellent eyesight.
It’s hard to tell what’s a link and what’s not. Perhaps you should add a hover selector to your CSS like so:
a:hover {
color:#000000;
}
Just so we can tell what’s a link and what isn’t. Also, try not to change the cursor… it’s a bit weird noticing my cursor change from the default. It can also get annoying and confusing for others who aren’t used to it.
It’s pretty obvious what the navigation is! I haven’t seen drop down menus in quite a while. Quite common on “kawaii” sites though.
You’re still using iframes; which now I can think of more awful things about! Well, it isn’t much different to convert to sever side includes (SSI) or PHP includes. You have been on iframes for a while and they do have disadvantages. I wouldn’t be able to bookmark a page on your site because they all open in an iframe. Also, search engines don’t look at pages that open in iframes so that would be a disadvantage to you. They are also less professional. SSI or PHP inlcudes will give you the same freedom that iframes do; you simply have to find the time to convert.
I’m sure you’re aware how divs work and you’re just worried about the layout changes. That’s exactly what SSI and PHP includes are for. There is a time when everyone must escape out of iframes, so do consider it sometime.
Layout
I love this one! It’s cute and colourful and unlike in your previous review, the background doesn’t look so harsh.
I really like the way you have drawn this layout! A terrific job. So cute, and all the colours work so nicely too. The brown outlines are really subtle and I must say; a good choice of colour for that.
The clock in the sun is a rather cute addition, although you have to admit that people don’t really look at clocks on websites.
The colours in the CSS are nice; chosen nicely from the layout. The blue/cyan colour is a bit bright and hard to read though. Also, your scrollbar overlaps your cloud that reads “Danni @ Popsicle”. Perhaps it’s best to stick with a layout in which you won’t have problems with the overlapping bits.
Overall though, a very cute layout that is nice on the eyes.
Content
Me
Generally better expressed as owner!
About me page – wow, organised! You need an extra line break after ‘mangas’ – as you do in all the other lists.
Contact has a contact form. Terrific stuff. I like the background in the input boxes. You might want to change the color property in the input/textarea in your CSS though. It’s pink, and it’s hard to read what I am typing in the form. The font size is also too small!
Random facts – nothing huge here. Fun to read!
Gifts – ick! These xs you are using to link to the images are really hard to click. Text would be better, such as ‘affiliate gift’ rather than a small x.
Cinema – pretty self explanatory; just videos from YouTube.
Joined – self explanatory. I like the little descriptions you have on each page, by the way. For instance, ‘You can find me at any of these adorable sites!’ – handy.
Toybox – cool.
The ‘doll doll’ is cute. Though it opens in a popup and I had trouble opening it. Why don’t you put it on a page rather than a pop-up? I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt; you could still add a ‘back’ button as you normally do. Otherwise, use a little asterisk (*) or something to show that it’ll open in a popup.
You
Generally better expressed as visitor! I can’t wait to look through here because in your last review you didn’t have much.
Pixels – so uber cute. I remember those marshmallows! And boba – we have that in Australia except we just call it ‘bubble tea’ or something. I love that rotating earth pixel too.
Special adoptions are super cute. You should make more because they’re all adopted!
Big pixels – cute stuff. I always remember how someone told me how useless pixels were. Not for cute sites though; perfect display of talent.
The CGs are cute. Is there another word for “CGs” though? Do they actually stand for “computer graphics”? Because computer graphics could be called anything. I suppose you could call these vectors or such?
The icons aren’t totally awesome but they’re cute. They are a bit pale though because of the effects. Try not to use too many lightening effects.
Specials – pretty much like your other graphics but specially from each layout.
The origami French fries was a bit confusing because I couldn’t tell that “Example” linked to an image. It would be a lot easier for the reader to see the image rather than having to click every time they went to the next step, so perhaps these should be displayed on the page.
But awww, this is so cute. I just want to try it now haha! You really should make more of this interactive content. I barely see it around nowadays!
The bullets are really cute, especially the Pokemon. Bullets would usually be a bit smaller, but how did you make the Pokemon so small? Terribly cute! I love the Mario bullets too, even though animated bullets can be distracting.
The favicon tutorial is fairly good. I use IconArt too.
Instead of using textarea for the code, use <code>. Textarea is designed for text to be typed in, not for code to be displayed.
Real age and Feedback – just fun JavaScript things.
Site
I won’t make any comment in this section unless I need to, because everything looks fine.
The past layouts would be better if you had the images as thumbnails to a bigger image.
There’s nothing much more to say in this section! The credits page looks much better.
Originality & Creativity
very original and very creative!
Organisation & Errors
Well organised; no huge errors.
Overall Comment
Danni, your site is a lot better this time but since I have become more used to reviewing and know a bit more, I do have to pick at your coding because you didn’t correct the errors I pointed out earlier.
Coding is quite important so I recommend you try and get it validated. Cut down on all those annoying JavaScripts and remove the errors in your coding.
Your content is fine; it’s just little errors with usability that need to be looked at. Increase your text size. Your layout itself is big and it wouldn’t hurt making the text a point bigger or so.
Good luck with it!
