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Site Name: Back To Basics
Owner: Gina
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 8th January 2009
Site Name
Personally I don’t like Back To Basics, but it’s easy to remember and so is your URL.
Also, sometimes I get a popup when I access your site, sometimes I don’t.
Coding and Validation
Your coding has 322 errors.
Obviously this is the worst coding I’ve come across. And I realise then that the problem is – you have the wrong doctype. You’ve put XHTML Strict as a doctype. You should have HTML 4.01 Transitional, resulting in less errors.
All this at the beginning of your document:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
needs to be replaced with this:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
All the remaining errors are caused by missing alt tags on your images. In most doctypes this is essential for validated coding.
Many warnings are caused by your Cutenews entries as Cutenews automatically codes your entries in XHTML.
Your CSS has 48 errors. Mostly because of special effects you’re using or because your CSS isn’t in English in some places.
Browser Compatibility & Usability
According to Browsershots.org, your site looks different in all screenshots as you have a popup advertisement that comes up on many browsers. However I have checked your website in Internet Explorer and Firefox and your layout looks the same and looks great in both.
The navigation stands out and I like the way you’ve put it together as a drop-down menu of sorts.
Your default text is of a good size. Because of the background colour and texture it’s a little hard to read sometimes, but otherwise okay.
Layout
You firstly shouldn’t be using celebrity images as they’re illegal. Read this article. I highly doubt those photos of Paramore are your own.
The layout looks very nicely done. I notice you have two different styles in which the header image differs. One is yellow and one is blue. On the blue one, the text ‘Back to Basics’ is a little bit hard to read.
I don’t like the layout that’s yellow because it’s a little too bright and doesn’t match well with the teal colour.
Everything looks nicely put together. The background is very neat, but your layout as a whole is quite large.
I mentioned that the navigation is clear and unique, and so are the advertisements with the numbers.
Overall the layout has a good design and is easy on the eyes.
Content
On the sidebar:
Affilate should be Affiliates
AFFILATES should be AFFILIATES.
Main
This section would be better named “site”. People associate “Main” with the homepage.
On the history page:
Hoster should be host
I don’t know if the horizontal scrollbar on your old layouts was intentional, but this would look better as a scrolling slideshow.
You’ve got a lot of interesting things in your Webmiss section. Most won’t be reviewed because they’re just copied and pasted from sites with personality quizzes and such. I can’t really see the icons on your ‘Faker’ page and I don’t really get the point.
On your awards and gifts page:
Easterpresent should be Easter present
Christmaspresent should be Christmas present.
Portfolio
Some of the thumbnails on your layouts don’t fully load. The navigation is annoying here because the second page is actually the new layouts. You should make them separate or just have the “layouts” link to the first page.
These layouts are lovely, but I don’t know what ‘Myblog’ is. A site? Or your own blog? A link would be nice. And also, you should be removing these layouts with celebrities.
The headers are nice, but celebrity images are illegal. And I get a popup advertisement on a lot of these when I click ‘download’.
Lovely icons; again you shouldn’t be using celebrity images. Your navigation also gets confusing with the multiple pages and categories.
These “tubes” use celebrity images.. they seem really pointless and just like cut out images.
Interactive
On Site of the Year:
honourary should be honorary
gigants should be giants
this year should be This year.
Under ‘coding service’:
nevertheless should be however you
Then you are exactly right here! should be Then you are right where you should be!.
This section is definitely interactive and a great way to get visitors involved.
Exit
Under ‘Copyright’:
incorrect,will should be incorrect, will
not-binding should be non-binding
fromviewing should be from viewing
might be should be will be
mailinglists should be mailing lists
his page should be his/her page
prohibited, offenders should be prohibited; offenders.
Good job on the credits and well done on crediting what you took.
Everything in this section is well organised, like the affiliates and link buttons.
Other
Self explanatory.
Originality & Creativity
You show that you can get very creative. Your layout is very unique and the way you’ve put it together is unique.
However I can’t say I saw original graphics. Celebrity graphics aren’t original – they’re not even your own. Try using a legal image source. You can definitely use your creativity and make graphics just as wonderful.
Organisation & Errors
Well organised and not many errors at all. I only have a little problem with the navigation and how I must click it again to drop down the menu sometimes.
Not many broken links. I would also like to note that the popup ads are quite annoying and you should do your best to remove them.
Some parts of your site aren’t in English, like the layouts when you download them. English instructions or notes would be favourable.
Overall Comment
Gina, you’ve got a great site here. While most of your works consist of celebrity images, you have excellent graphic skill. You should definitely branch out into using legal images or your own photos if you have any.
I enjoyed looking at your portfolio. You offer them for download though.. when generally a portfolio is for viewing graphics only.
Your site was pretty well organised. I only suggest that you remove the celebrity images and ads, work on your coding, and your site will be great.
