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Site Name: Sunny Daydream
Owner: Heidi
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 5th-11th July 2010
- Previous reviews:
- Sunny Daydream
Site Name
I’m fine with the name, it’s easy to remember for me now!
Coding and Validation
According to the HTML validator your coding has 20 errors and 14 warnings. Your coding doesn’t have the correct structure. You have this at the beginning of your coding, which is superfluous:
<head> <link href="http://www.clompish.com" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> </head> 
Make sure you close all your tags and don’t forget that all images need to have alt text, even if you leave it blank (for example <img src="URL" alt="">).
Your CSS has 2 errors and 9 warnings. Under #footer, this line of code produces an error:
background-position: #FFFFFF url('http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh189/Moofish_rockz/CLOMPISSSHfooterbg.png') repeat-x;
It possibly produces an error because you are specifying background-position, and you are clearly specifying other values.
Browser Compatibility & Usability
Your website is looking consistent in Safari, Opera, Firefox and Google Chrome. In Internet Explorer the layout is not centered, but adding text-align: center; to the body in the CSS should do the trick.
The navigation is easy to spot, I’ve got no problems with it. The main text would be a little easier to read if the line height was at least increased, and it would benefit from larger text size as well.
Layout
I do like the layout. It has a unique feel with the links and the textured background, as well as the pale green and the little icons you’ve used for your accounts on networking websites. Altogether, although you’ve modified someone’s original coding, you’ve done a great job. I like the lightness of the layout but I think this needs to be accompanied by a lighter grey for the content, instead of the dark grey you have now. Something like #ddd or even #eee would do nicely.
I don’t have too much else to say about the layout. I like the subtle lyrics in the background of the header image and the way you’ve kept it simple.
I do like the font and I’ve got no problem with the font itself. However I believe that for this layout it would look better with increased text size and line height, to balance out the elements of the layout.
Content
Website
I’m assuming a lot of the other pages might be like this, but the page looks empty and I think you could increase the line spacing on this page, as well as the text size. It all looks really cramped and small. With the “updated” images, it looks worse.
Instead of “tou”, write “Terms of Use”.
There are only simple rules on the affiliate application page; perhaps it might be a better idea to remove this page and include the rules on the contact page.
Speaking of the contact page, try to remove the blue background of the contact form so it fits in with your layout. I suggest NL PHP Mail as a contact form script if it isn’t too much of a hassle.
Love the credits page – so organised and neat! Definitely one of the neatest pages I’ve spotted so far.
Some people may not be familiar with donating, so you may need to include more information on the “donate” page. People may also not understand that the button is specifically for PayPal.
On the history page unfortunatly should be unfortunately and Unfortuantly should be Unfortunately.
I’m not sure why but there’s a scrollbar in the content section of the “linkbacks” page. To avoid confusion you should call this page “link back buttons” or something similar; I was under the impression that this page included links to other sites.
On your third and fourth layout, the header image doesn’t seem to be loading in the preview that you linked to on your past layouts page.
On the “terms of use” page:
linkback should be link back
i allow crap should be I allow “crap”
not reply to and put you should be not reply to, and I will put you.
“Hate I might respond to” was a bit hard for me to catch at first. You could phrase it as “I might respond to hate mail”.
Visitor
I adore the third artwork – gorgeous and I love the colours. The others can improve with text placement and effects.
The avatars can be improved. The first three are the best, and if I’m not mistaken the third one uses my icon tutorial – I like the way it’s turned out! I like the effects on the avatars with the flowers but they are a little saturated. Some of the effects you use may look better on other photographs, so experiment with different kinds of effects on different images and see how you go.
I noticed that on some of your visitor content pages you are simply resizing images to use as thumbnails. This is perfectly fine but keep in mind that when you have large images, it is best to resize the original image and use that as the thumbnail, because you don’t want to slow loading time especially when the images are large.
The banners are good but like the work I’ve seen so far – it needs improvement on text placement. Text on a diagonal or sloping line isn’t always effective, however it works well when subtle and following sloping lines in an image.
The wallpapers are okay – the colours are much too saturated though, and though the last one uses a nice image, the brushes and saturation is just too much. Work on simpler effects as sometimes simple is best. As a suggestion, start with coloured overlays with a soft effect on images, then work your way up to something more advanced and start using textures.
The stock photos look great, especially the heritage buildings. (I feel like I have mentioned this before in your previous review.) I like that you’ve kept the size large as well.
I don’t recall seeing the premade layout before. Overall – I love it. It does need improvement though; the heart and tape brush aren’t so appealing as part of the image, unless you were planning to add text around that area. The header image looks fine as it is – in fact, I think it’s gorgeous. There’s a little too much bright blue going on in the layout so you might want to try Color Scheme Designer to generate a colour palette of matching colours other than bright blue. The content and sidebar also need more padding – the text is too close to the edge and could also have bigger line height. Other than that it’s a great effort.
The pixels need more refining around the edges but these will improve with time and practice. Shading is also something to work on.
The textures look fantastic, nothing to complain about there.
Since the reviews are closed it would be a good idea to remove the form. The completed reviews are a bit messy and I think you could make them look neater with more defined headings. Also, one of your reviews has a dead image.
Most of the pages in the review section are short so perhaps you could put some on the one page – such as the rules and application form.
Owner
Around the image, you could have some padding so it’s not to close to the text.
end;my should be end; my
starbucks should be Starbucks
enchoraging should be encouraging
I’m not sure what you mean by “Most all music I love”…
Writings
I do feel like I’ve looked at most of this already. Most of it can be improved by fixing up the formatting on each page.
Photoblog
I won’t be reviewing this since this is a separate website, sorry.
Hosting
I won’t be looking at this either.
Originality & Creativity
You’ve got a lot of original and creative content that you put effort in. I can see that you are continually trying with your graphic skills to better them. You’ve credited the sources you’ve used images from as well. I don’t have any complaints here!
Organisation & Errors
Very organised, though I think some pages could have been combined with others, so you’re not left with pages that have minimal text and aren’t necessary. I had no trouble navigating your site.
Some of the formatting on pages could be improved and made more interesting with headings. Otherwise, a job well done. Don’t forget the past layouts need fixing as well if you’re going to have live previews.
Overall Comment
You’ve definitely improved your website since last time I reviewed you. I would like to see you have a hand at your own coding soon enough. You’ve done a good job modifying someone else’s coding and the work on your current layout shows this.
Your graphics could improve. I am sure you designed the header in your layout yourself. I suggest trying your hand at basic typography as well.
Your graphic skills have improved and it’s nice to see you using tutorials and trying new effects. I think you could better the quality of your graphics in time and with practice. Good luck!
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Dan McGill
29th July 2010 at 8:16 am
I enjoy reading your reviews and think you carry the process out very professionally, however you stated something that really got to me in this one.
If you are giving people poor feedback for their (X)HTML not validating then you cannot then go on and tell them to use a blank alt tag (alt=”"). This is chiefly hypocritical.
Validation is not about being trendy and hip and displaying a badge on your website; one of the main things validation aims to improve on is accessibility. Alt tags on images are required for accessibility, and having a blank alt tag is cheating the validation process.
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Georgie
29th July 2010 at 8:29 am
Thank you for your input. I do realise that I made a mistake there. It’s a little bit out of habit, so I apologise for that. I do understand that all images need an
alttag for the purpose of providing alternate text for images – in future I’ll make that clear and avoid saying the same thing again.Reply to this comment »