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Site Name: Vivid-Avenue
Owner: Kendra
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 22nd November 2009

Site Name

It’s very unique – a bit hard for me to get the hang of and type, but I like it.

Coding and Validation

Your coding is valid.

Your CSS can’t be checked with the validator automatically because I encountered an error. But you have a parsing error at background-attachment:; and background:; a couple of times because you have left them blank.

Elements with float need to have width specified as well. Don’t forget to quote Courier New as a font.

You have a lot going on in your CSS and you can shorten parts such as these:

border-right : 0px solid #202020;
border-left: 0px solid #202020;
border-top : 0px solid #202020;
border-bottom: 0px solid #202020;
font-family :"Lucida Grande";
font-weight : normal;
font-size : 14pt;
text-align :left;
line-height :20pt;
font-style : normal;
font-weight : normal;


Simply to:

border: 0px solid #202020;
font: normal 14pt/20pt "Lucida Grande";

Also, headings only go up to h6 – that is the smallest. I don’t know why you have further ones.

Reducing these errors would reduce the number of errors occuring over different browsers. You have also specified styling within your HTML, such as <div class="sidebar" style="text-align:center"> when you can do this with CSS.

You are using a lot of Javascript. I suggest cutting it down a little. And with the Javascript you are using for the advertisements, a PHP code would be more appropriate.

Browser Compatibility & Usability

Your site is navigable and functions in Firefox, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer.

Throughout your review I didn’t enjoy the size of your header image. It has a large height, and I actually have to scroll before I can see any content on the page. You might not have experienced this, but people with smaller resolutions will have to scroll even more. As nice as the image is, it should be a bit smaller, because visitors don’t want to see the entire layout every time they load a new page, then have to scroll to see what they’re after.

The website is easily navigable and though I prefer large text, I have no problems reading what’s on your site. Everything looks relatively neat and organised.

Layout

Because of the uniformity of the layout, it would have looked better centered, seeing as you also have bold lines indicating the edges.

I already mentioned the issue with the size of the header image. Despite that, it is a very nice layout with good colours and CSS. I don’t really like celebrity layouts but I don’t really see many of Lucy Liu. Some celebrities seem to be overused on layouts, layouts that aren’t usually designed very well.

The choice of images for the layout is very nice. The colours in the image are incorporated well into the CSS. You have repeated a few photographs in the image, and have blended them nicely with nice effects. Some photographs stand out more than others in the header image – this is a nice effect considering the brushes and textures you have used.

One might argue that the cut off edges of the individual picture aren’t very nice, but I think they create a sort of tessellated and bold effect.

I like the subtle notepaper background behind your content – that is a good feature. I like how you’ve used blues, greys and teals in the CSS. Overall it’s a layout put nicely together – there’s nothing much to critique.

Content

Owner

On the main page tv should be TV.

On the contact page, instead of just having text URLs for the “links”, try and link them to the actual site.

I just clicked the link to your ask/answer page – it would be nice if this was integrated with your layout!

The photos and portfolio images take a while to load. Personally I have problems with Lightbox as it sometimes takes a while to load, and I prefer just images without anything fancy. But, I think you should include a “next” button through here, as closing the window and opening a new image is a little bit annoying.

Tutorials

Your “Basics of Paint Shop Pro” tutorial is quite handy but some screenshots of the tools would be useful. You also have a lot of mistakes:
Psp should be PSP
it’s actual should be its actual
“selection type”on should be “selection type” on
exactly is is should be exactly it is
really though should be really thought
psp should be PSP
chage should be change
save them on there should be save them there,
break down should be breakdown
it’s own layer should be its own layer
myspace should be MySpace.

I’m not sure what “defaults” are but this definitely sounds like a MySpace tutorial rather than an actual PSP tutorial. On this page, firs should be first.
Also, rather than having the screenshots as links, you should have them displayed on the page so that users don’t need to click the link to make sure they’re doing it right.

The same thing goes for the screenshots in the blending tutorial. On this page like the one should be Like the one.

The black and white photo tutorial doesn’t load.

All these Paint Shop Pro tutorials are very basic. They also look very old and tacky. A lot of them relate to MySpace or you mention “comment on my MySpace” in them. However it looks like overall, these tutorials need an update. These effects are generally simple (adding borders?!) and if possible you should create them with less MySpace-esque pictures.

A lot of the other sections don’t have many tutorials in them. I think that you can put all the tutorials individually on the main page, instead of having categories. They would still fit and there wouldn’t be too much navigation through the pages.

On the Paint tutorial on making a pixel:
your zoomed should be you’re zoomed
Christmas tree, should be Christmas tree;
smoe should be some
i should be I
backround should be background.

I don’t really think the Twitter tutorials are useful at all. The navigation on the website is pretty self explanatory and people have previously recorded videos about this. It’s just such a simple concept – you’re telling someone how to use a website. It’s not very practical.

The same goes for your WordPress tutorials. Unfortunately they are just simple, self explanatory concepts. Adding a page and a category are simple things to do, compared to even installing WordPress and fiddling with a few other settings.

The link on your FanUpdate tutorial is outdated; you can link it to http://fanupdate.co.uk.
ususally should be usually
ot this should be to do this
So basically If should be So basically, if
url should be URL
(it’s should be (It’s
listen should be listed.

Since you mentioned in your FanUpdate tutorial that it was better than Cutenews, and I’m sure that you’re aware of how dangerous the Cutenews script is, you ought to remove those tutorials, which are explained and covered in the documentation anyway.

I would not recommend the banner rotation because not all platforms support Javascript, and there is a PHP code that can be used for the same purpose.

Also, you are teaching people the wrong thing with the textareas. Textareas should not be used for displaying code. They are intended for user input. <code> should be used for displaying code after the HTML has been converted into its entities. AudioRush.org has a tutorial on how to display code correctly.

The arts and crafts tutorials, on the other hand, are more unique and interesting. The little note you have on the earrings tutorial should be placed at the top of the page as a warning, though.

On the lipgloss tutorial, you have some mistakes:
spoonif should be spoon if
p to should be up to
if looks much nicer in peron should be it looks much nicer in person.

Visitor

In your games section, the form is not appearing for the word scramble.

I don’t know much about MySpace but I will comment with my opinion. The album covers and comment boxes are quite simple.

My first MySpace default layout (style 1) is not loading. The second one also doesn’t seem to match the preview – same goes for the sixth one and the seventh one.

There actually are a lot where the backgrounds are not loading or where there is a 404:

• /def6.htm
• /hag.htm
• /bubs.htm
• /purple.htm
• /another.htm

On the default layouts style 2, this page is a 404, as is this one.

The problem I have with these “MySpace layouts” – are all these backgrounds made by you? It isn’t right if you’re offering these “layouts” with backgrounds you didn’t make. All that seems to change on these layouts are the backgrounds. It’s not really very interesting. Also, a few of these backgrounds look like they are from MemoryLast.net.

This layout is a shocker.

The premade signs actually have very nice effects on them. I have to say though, the headlines and “about me” signs look pretty plain – but I guess that’s MySpace for you.

Onto the resources now. While the cupcake emoticons are cute, I’m sure you are aware that they are a little big for emoticons. The others are very nice though!

The hiatus signs are a bit old. Not many people really use them anymore, and they tend to make their own as well.

I neglected to mention this when looking at your other pages, but you are not displaying code correctly. Your code should be displayed with <code> following conversion with a converter to convert the HTML into its entities – like so:

<code>&lt;code&gt;a href="http://google.com">Google</a>&lt;/code&gt;

Same thing goes for the text styles page. These are a nice idea but people usually style their sites on their own and through experimentation.

Nothing much to say about colour palettes.

It would probably be a little more useful to include thumbnails as the whole image, and not just a cropping. It’s hard to tell what the image actually is with just a cropping. This goes for most things you have displayed on your site.

The brushes are very nice but they should also be in formats for Photoshop and/or Paint Shop Pro. It would be more useful for the visitors and they would not have to cut the brushes and define them.

I don’t see bookmarks often – they’re pretty uncommon. I think you could create some very different ones though.

Bollocks… no class of 2008. Haha. Also, this page should be displaying code correctly.

I don’t really like any of the graphics you are offering. They’re simple and lack any sort of creativity. From your portfolio and your layouts I know you can do better than this. All these graphics just look typically MySpace.

The last pixel on your pixel page is not showing up.

I think you could do a lot better with your icons as well. These do not show the best of your graphic skill. The text on them should be more ornamental. On some icons it just looks like it’s been slapped on – such as the Twilight icons. Some of these Twilight icons look a little pixelated – the quality isn’t the best.

The blank buttons are very simple. I don’t like them. They’re not very useful and people usually make their own.

Hosting

On this page you’re a personal blog should be you are having a personal blog.

Extras

Calender should be Calendar
Plug you site in on should be Plug your site on.

On the reviews page, sites, you should be sites; you.

I want to make a note here that I found Bobo on the interview with Swimchick, but I was led to a page that said “CLICK HERE TO REPORT THAT YOU FOUND BOBO” but I wasn’t able to click.

On the teenage pregnancy article:
who’s girlfriend should be whose girlfriend
just do it should be just to do it.
I would personally say in response to this article that people might get married because they want to move ahead and have a baby, and they might have strong beliefs in having sex after you’re married, so they will go right ahead and get married.

On the GPA article:
mm should be my
gpa should be GPA
was thinking should be I was thinking.
With your little explanation on “there”, “their”, and “they’re”, you could write an article about grammar!

I’m not familiar with “preppy” very much at all. You should include a description in your article.
obsurd should be absurd
Lets should be Let’s
myspace should be MySpace.

On the MySpace features article:
sometimes I should be Sometimes I
don’t any poin should be don’t see any point
who posts should be who post.

On the site tips, MySpace and FAQs should be capitalised.

On the blogging article, dicussion should be discussion and yuo should be you.

Site

The site map page is empty.

You should make a note that the toolbar goes to an external site.

Your search bar works, but when I type something with a typing error, I get a blank page instead of “no results found”.

I find your statistics really interesting (probably because I spotted my name in the commentators section).

On the terms of use page you have a mistake:

I am receiving any profit from any of these image

I’m sure that should state that you are not receiving profit from any of these images.

The past layouts page reads “past layout” instead. You also need to update this page with your new layout, and the one you had before the current one (with the flowers).

On the history page head aches should be headaches.

Originality & Creativity

I don’t think your website was very original. You had a lot of tutorials which are common, and your content didn’t look like anything very unique. You have a lot of MySpace graphics and plain graphics that aren’t really that impressive.

I’ve seen your past layouts and I know you can do better. You have creative designs but you need to work on your content. A lot of it looks old and outdated and you definitely have better graphic skill than is evident in your content.

Organisation & Errors

You had quite a few mistakes in your grammar and/or spelling so make sure you correct those. A lot of your site is kept error-free and your writing style nice, but some tutorials look like they have been rushed.

Some pages on your site did not load, or loaded blank. These also need to be fixed.

Overall Comment

Kendra, you have a nice layout on the outside, but I have to say that your content does not reflect your skill. Your portfolio shows your best works, but the quality and type of content you have is of a much lower standard.

You seem to have a lot of MySpace content. I personally don’t like MySpace content. However, if you are offering this kind of content you need to think about what you are offering. Are the backgrounds on the “layouts” yours? Could you improve the styles of the banners and such?

I think your visitors could benefit from some site layouts because your coding and graphic skills are quite good.

I think you just need to clean out a lot of your content in the visitor and tutorials sections and keep those pages organised. More DIY tutorials, and more articles would be great, as well as some better designs. Those, and your portfolio, stood out the most on your website.

Rating

(out of 5)