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Site Name: Ispirata
Owner: Emily
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 18th August 2009

Site Name

It’s a short unique name and it’s easy to remember. Personally, I keep typing “inspirata” – but I love how you got the name; it’s very unique.

Coding and Validation

You have a few warnings, but these are simply from XHTML slashes – take the time to validate to XHTML when you can; I highly recommend it, as more and more devices are taking advantage of it, as it is regarded as the “better” HTML.

A lot of your other pages are validated; great job – good to see you are validating the actual content and not just the layout.

Your CSS has a few warnings. Properties such as -moz-border-radius-bottomleft and variations of moz code are not valid or recognised by the W3C as they’re designed only for certain browsers such as Firefox.

Your CSS can be shortened. For example:

font-family:rockwell, georgia, serif;
color:#b1f547;
text-shadow: #252525 2px 2px 0;
font-size:30px;
font-weight:400;

Can be shortened to:

font: 400 30px rockwell, georgia, serif;
color:#b1f547;
text-shadow: #252525 2px 2px 0;

There are other ways to shorten CSS coding. You can view this tutorial by Audio Rush or visit CleanCSS.com.

I can’t spot any other flaws in your coding; it’s so clean and overall very well done.

Browser Compatibility & Usability

Your site looks the same in most browsers, and it is navigable and functions in Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Opera.

There’s just one slight difference and that’s with the shading on headings and such; it doesn’t show up in Internet Explorer, naturally!

At exactly 800 pixels in width, your layout wouldn’t quite fit into one of the smallest resolutions (800 by 600 pixels). Space for the sidebar and windows need to be accounted for. Just keep in mind that your website might need to be scrolled horizontally to be viewed properly in this resolution.

The headings are very clear and can be easily read. The main text could be made a tad bigger.

You’re specifying alternate fonts in some of your styling: font-family:rockwell, georgia, serif – but make sure you do this with most of your styling because not everyone will have “Rockwell” as a font on their computer.

Layout

The use of green in this layout to add interest to plain greyscale is excellent. I have loved your layouts in the past and this one is no exception. The uniformity of the layout with its intricate details of flowers and patterns is unique and eye-catching.

The background is fixed – that’s a plus. Busy backgrounds that scroll are not a good look.

The tagline and top section of the layout looks great. I like how the navigation is placed between two “layers” of header, resembling something like layers in a cake. The placement is very well done and the coloured bold lines in the layout are striking and divide the layout subtly into its parts.

The image of flowers used in the header image is a little bit fuzzy but otherwise a good choice. I especially like the navigation in its spot, as I mentioned, and the hover effect looks terrific.

The use of shading, colour and techniques in this layout all work together to create this amazing layout. I really have no complaints apart from the slightly fuzzy quality of the flower image.

Content

About Emily

Just one mistake:
those freaks that actually likes should be those freaks who actually like.

Website

Nothing wrong here!

Articles

On the Cutenews review, depracated should be deprecated.

On the FanUpdate review, it’s flaws should be its flaws, and it’s own should be its own.

I just thought I should bring to your attention the website FanUpdate.co.uk if you have not yet heard. It’s where FanUpdate is now being redistributed.

On the ‘domain discrimination’ article, it’s host should be its host, and it’s cover should be its cover.
I really like this article, as I probably mentioned in your previous review. If possible, you should include subheadings as you have in other articles. It makes things a bit easier to skim if there are points that stand out as such.

On the iframes article:
Asethetics should be Aesthetics
content, it should be content; it.

On the graphics article, it’s image should be its image.

On the layout article:
both you, the owner should be you, the owner
suprised should be surprised
stylings should be styling
Useage should be Usage.

Your review on Twilight had me in stitches. Granted, it was much more of a rant than a review (so some people could be a bit ticked off) but you had your valid points. I just had to agree; personally I have no real opinion on the book and I’m just neutral.

On the review of A Thousand Splendid Suns, it’s predecessor should be its predecessor.

On The Name of The Rose review, Reveiw should be Review and monastary should be monastery.

Free Stuff

The photos are excellent and of good quality. They do take a long time to load though. The thumbnails as separate resized images would be preferable, instead of resizing the full image, because the entire image has to load.

The same goes for the desktop backgrounds. They look excellent though. High quality and beautiful. I was actually searching for backgrounds in this size. It would be a good idea to have other sizes as well though.

Nothing wrong with the forum sets; beautiful and well made.

To be honest, I only vaguely remember what the layouts looked like before, but they look impressive now.

Archives

Self explanatory.

Originality & Creativity

You’ve used so many of your own photographs, I can see, and you have a lot of original articles in an original, professional style.

You don’t have many graphics but those that you have are wonderful.

Organisation & Errors

I only spotted a few grammatical mistakes, which can be easily fixed. Your website was very organised and the sections were very neat and orderly.

Overall Comment

You have a great website, and I enjoyed reading through your articles and looking at your photographs.

There are barely any flaws in your website and the content you have is excellent. You don’t have to take my suggestions, and you may not be interested, but writing more articles and reviews would attract a few more visitors, as would more of your graphics.

Keep up the great work.

Rating

(out of 5)