back to Completed Reviews
Site Name: Urban-
Owner: Hala
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 20th January 2009
Site Name
Why must your site name, Urban-, have a dash? I mean, is your site name read as ‘Urbandash’, or ‘Urban’, with just some sort of decoration? Dashes are really annoying.
I congratulate you on having a rather short URL, but in essence, you should have chosen another name altogether if ‘Urban’ was taken.
Coding and Validation
Your coding has 20 errors and 10 warnings. Admittedly, I thought it would be a lot worse. Still, you’re forgetting two major parts of every HTML document – a doctype and character encoding. This is what you need at the beginning of EVERY document:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" >
And why do you need these? They’re essential to make your site run smoother and believe me, it looks professional.
Worse, you don’t even have the proper structure of an HTML document. Where is your <html> tag? What about your <head> tag? All this tells me is that you really need to go and learn some basic HTML. Try Tutorialtastic.
After that, validating your coding won’t be much of a problem as the Markup Validator will assist you.
Get rid of that dodgy </script> after your title. What’s it doing there?!
Your CSS isn’t much better. It can’t be validated – see here.
<style> isn’t the right way to go; it should be <style type=”text/css”>.
Your CSS has many errors when I check it manually. The coloured scrollbar isn’t nice. In Internet Explorer, people will find it hard to scroll when the bar isn’t even visible.
Browser Compatibility & Usability
According to Browsershots.org your site has a different coloured background in Firefox. It looks okay in Internet Explorer as the background matches the background of the image.
Your default font is of an okay size, but it’s too squished together. Increase the line spacing.
Your navigation isn’t big enough. It should go before your welcome message or advertisements. Domain should be Subdomain or Site. No way are you on a domain.
Similarly, Content should be Visitor or Visitor Content. Saying ‘content’ refers to the contents of your site, whether they be a blog, photos, etc.
Also, Clear should be Home. ‘Clear’ is so ambiguous.
I prefer centered layouts but yours seems to be designed for left alignment.
You’re using iframes – dodgy. Don’t use iframes. Use divs instead. Try this tutorial on how to convert. Iframes are hell. They make search engines go crazy, and it’s annoying for visitors. How would I, for instance, be able to bookmark your credits page when it’s stuck in an iframe? Bit hard, isn’t it. So save your viewers the pain and convert to divs instead.
Layout
Why are you using celebrity images? You’re probably not aware, but using celebrity images is actually illegal. Care to read this article?
I like the way you’ve made the layout though, it fades quite well at the bottom. You’ve chosen a nice selection of colours for the site and layout name. But the colour I don’t like is the background, which looks different in Firefox. #FBC1AF is the colour you’re looking for. And you’d be looking for this code, which should work in Firefox:
BODY {
background-color:#FBC1AF;
}
Why is your content section so far away from your sidebar? The gap is so large! Move your content a little further down from the ‘Katy Perry’ tagline, and over to the left a bit. That gap is annoying and you could make your sidebar bigger or move your content to compensate.
Seriously – your sidebar is a measly 4.5 centimetres in width when I get a ruler and line it up on my screen. That may be a very physical form of hyperbole, but your sidebar is weborexic; so cut it out and widen it. It will also save you less space going down the page.
Your header image is too big. I have to scroll to see your sidebar (and your navigation) and it’s not pretty.
Your CSS has too many colours. It’s just so in-your-face. The green isn’t too great, and the reddish colour for your links isn’t even derived from the layout. Choose the pink instead; the one you used to write ‘Perry’. Avoid using so many different colours. In this case, less is not more.
Content
In your sidebar, adverting should be advertising. You have a dead image under your advertisements.
Also, your affiliates should be in a list. Now they look really clumped together.
Also, made my be should be made by me. Try listing your credits like this instead:
Vejc-Design – tutorials
AWBG, Top-Graphic – codes
Freewebs, Photobucket – hosting.
Notice I’ve actually written the correct spelling for Vejc-Design. You also need to change the URL..
In your footer, write © for a copyright sign, instead of just pasting it in.
Domain
Not good. Like I said, this should be ‘Subdomain’. And I think you have your old site name here – Artistic Beauty?
on should be On
it’s history should be its history
get us should be give me (you are the only owner, right?).
On your ‘About’ page:
so did i should be so did I
content sites should be sites with visitor content
FW should be Freewebs (not everyone knows what this stands for).
Also, stop using so many text effects! Now do you see how hard it is to read?! You don’t need to put things in italics or bold unless you’re emphasising. Sheesh. Just italicising the site names you had previously would do.
So you do have a co-owner? I have heard nothing of Farah. Interesting. Also, don’t put ‘closing date’; that’s silly.
Your hit counter is dodgy. Do you realise that every time I refresh your page, a hit gets added? Now, that’s not what I call accurate. At least you’re not writing ‘visitors’. But it you want to keep track of actual different visitors – try and get a unique hit counter.
On your contact page – if it’s not exactly “us”, then don’t say it.
Thankfully, the page about yourself isn’t too long.
Please, capitalise your Is, and capitalise I’ll and I’m.
Also, it’s best to say at the moment rather than atm.
Pfft. Some credits page. You didn’t even link to the websites. I thought it was nice how you noted why you’re crediting and what you took.. but without even linking? That’s not proper credit.
Content
Like I said, rename this section accordingly.
Now I am really annoyed at your tiny <h5> header. It’s so hard to read, whatever size it is.
On this page, your bullets are all different, and all the colours in your CSS make this page look messy. And no ‘coming soon’s. ‘Coming soon’ tells me your site is unfinished, and looks unprofessional. Fix up this page and make it neater.
On your ‘getting hits’ article:
Lets say should be Let’s say
with is should be with it is
is once a week should be once a week is
in-exchange should be in exchange
layout’s should be layouts
you know make them should be you know you should make them.
This article wasn’t badly written but not all sites are “mainly for the guests”. There are personal sites out there too and not everyone has to like what’s on a site. People are entitled to their opinions.
And please don’t use so many text effects. It’s annoying and makes everything really hard to read.
This is a nice form for asking you a question, but it should be in the site section under ‘contact’ or something. Also, the link to this page is green, unlike your other links. Hence, you should clean up and organise the visitor page.
The button bases aren’t bad, but more celebrity images? Those ones don’t look great. The quality isn’t too great. Try saving in .png format rather than .jpg.
Also, if the buttons weren’t made by you, you shouldn’t be redistributing them on your site.
Blah. Sorry, but blah. Even though you don’t have an Ashley Tisdale coded layout, I don’t want to see it. It’s bad enough having a ‘coming soon’ page, but worse knowing that you’ll have even more illegal celebrity images on your site.
‘Hilary Duff’ leads to an external link. It’s your old website. The layout doesn’t look horrible, but it needs improvement.
Your icons aren’t bad, but some could be saved in .png format. Also, take care to spell correctly. Hollabakc Girl doesn’t look very professional to me.
Female layouts. All celebrities, yet again. And Blake Livley should be Blake Lively.
None of these layouts look appealing. The Amanda Bynes one is badly cut and the images are blurry. Some of these are from your old site. A lot of the images in fact, are very blurry or poor quality.
I don’t even see why you’re calling these ‘layouts’. They look like modified images to me. No other layout parts, just some header image. That’s what they are. Layout images.
The image layouts are just as monotonous. Why is Vanessa Hudgens’ face so blurry? Not a great effect.
No male layouts. Sheesh. What else could possibly be ‘coming soon’ on your site?
Your one and only Ashley Tisdale blend looks the same as a result from a Vejc-design tutorial. Not exactly original, considering it’s also using celebrity images.
Your PNGs link is a 404. You’ve made an error in your coding forgetting the quotation after your photography link, causing that error.
Yes, I still can see your photography. Which isn’t even yours. You’re taking photos off Photobucket that don’t even belong to you, and distributing them on your site. Not only is that incredibly unoriginal, it’s stealing.
I don’t think I want to see your PNGs. They’re probably cropped celebrity images, and I’m typing this as I’m waiting for the page to load.
Hilariously enough though, they all lead to the same page. All these links. Well, whatever you’re planning to put here, if it’s of celebrities – forget it. Seriously.
The HTML codes are superfluous. No one needs these, and people generally know how to use these.
Iframes are not professional. They do not make it easier for your guests to navigate, at least, any easier than a site without them. Iframes have nothing to do with navigation. Any site can be easy to navigate if the navigation is easy to see.
I suggest you remove this tutorial. Iframes make it very annoying for me to review your site, and this tutorial isn’t even written very well.
On your Photoshop tutorial.. well, your ‘About’ introduction, you should not directly copy from Wikipedia. How would you like it if I took your ‘getting hits’ article and slapped it on my site with a tiny ‘x’ linking to your site? Plus, this ‘About’ page isn’t even necessary.
The ‘effects’ tutorial is useless; it’s not even a tutorial. All you’re doing is telling people about all the great effects Photoshop has.
You need to refine your blending tutorial. It has your old site name on it. And you need to explain or show more clearly how to erase the overlapping sides.
Your ‘improving makeup’ tutorial is a joke. Is this seriously an example of “improved makeup”? You’ve mutilated her face! You can’t improve an image by blurring it and then sharpening certain bits. It’ll end up looking like a messy blob. Much like your result.
In this case, the ‘before’ picture was better than the ‘after’ picture.
Your resources page is blank.
Blah. As if you’re offering reviews. You can’t even review when your graphics aren’t great, and half your content isn’t yours. You’re free to offer your opinion, but I sure as hell wouldn’t be calling it a review.
Tag-Bored
I don’t see why this can’t be called ‘tag-board’.
Clear
Just thought I’d mention that this doesn’t open up in your iframe.
Originality & Creativity
I saw a lot of celebrity images on your site, all which should be removed. A lot of your content was also not yours, such as the photographs and some of the button bases. Like I mentioned, this isn’t very original at all.
Your article on getting hits was a good attempt. More articles would be great; more original content. Your layouts, though unoriginal, were fairly well put together. I can tell you have the potential to be creative, but you really need to be more original.
Organisation & Errors
Your site was very disorganised. Some pages were alright but your visitor content page was a big mess. You had so many ‘coming soon’s, it wasn’t funny.
You even have a few broken links. It’s all not very professional.
Overall Comment
Hala, I can tell you’ve worked hard on your site but there is a lot you have to improve:
- Work on your coding and CSS.
- Optimise your graphics and save them in .png format where necessary.
- Instead of using celebrity graphics, use photography from a legal source.
- Remove all content that isn’t yours. Make your own.
- Organise your site more and make it more user friendly. Make text easier to read – don’t use so many text effects, and organise links.
That’s about it. I’d love to see more original content. Your site has quite some way to go, but I wish you all the best.
