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Site Name: So Vamped
Owner: Manda
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 29th March 2010
Site Name
Hello Manda. This is my first time reviewing after over a month’s break, so excuse me for any hiccups in this review.
I like the name of your site; it’s easy to spell and easy to remember. Like you, I don’t particularly like the extension.
Coding and Validation
Time to run your coding through the almighty HTML validator. There’s only one error. I was expecting a few more since you didn’t seem very happy about errors!
That minor error spans every page in which you include your archives in the sidebar. You have coded it like so:
<li><a href='http://so-vamped.info/2010/03' title='March 2010'>March 2010</a></li>
You need to surround list items with <ul> and </ul> – always.
<ul> <li><a href='http://so-vamped.info/2010/03' title='March 2010'>March 2010</a></li> </ul>
Also, since you use <3 on a few pages, use < instead of just < so it doesn’t cause validation errors.
And your CSS is valid. You have a number of warnings but this most likely affects the readability of certain elements when used together – you can remove these warnings by changing colours around but these are not huge problems because you haven’t used the elements in such a way that affects the appearance of your site.
Browser Compatibility & Usability
Time to look at your site in all browsers. I have looked at the majority of your site in Firefox, and it looks fine. It also looks good in Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. Well done!
I think the links in your navigation could definitely be spaced out a little bit more. I don’t like the use of “go home?” instead of just “home”. Using “home” could allow for more whitespace between the navigation links which would make individual links easier to differentiate.
Since I first visited your site I had some real difficulties reading your text. Don’t get me wrong – I love the layout design, and I’ll get to that later – but these muted colours aren’t doing it for me. The main body of text is a little difficult to read because there isn’t much contrast between text and background colours. A much lighter colour for your main body of text, such as a lighter purple or a colour closer to your bold text, would make things easier to read. As for size of text, it’s fine, but the text in the sidebar could be just a tiny bit bigger.
Layout
When I first saw this layout, I was amazed by the beautiful header and its muted colours. However I didn’t like how you took this into the CSS. As I mentioned earlier, the text is a little hard to read. The colours are amazing and your choice of colours together was a good one. However my screen isn’t all that big and the header image is quite large for my liking. It’s a wonderful header image, wonderfully made with perfect width, but the height is just a bit too big. I don’t really like having to scroll down on nearly every page just to see the content.
I read your page about your layout because I was interested; I don’t know Kerli but I like the base image you chose for the main background. The other smaller images are very nice as well. This is a good example of the use of different images of the same person – definitely looks good since you’ve adjusted the general colours of the images as well.
There’s not much I can say about this layout against it apart from the colours of the text. I really like how you’ve brought the stars into the CSS as well, bringing out those on the side of Kerli’s face. The text on the header image is placed very nicely and I really like the slight “vintage” feel. You’ve done a terrific job on this layout!
Content
Webmistress
I like how you’ve set up these pages with links to subpages – it’s definitely very organised and creative. I think that as you go along, the little blurbs for the pages would be unnecessary if you have many links – so keep that in mind as you start to add more and more.
On the “favorites” page, There’s should really be There are (“There’s” = “there is”).
I really enjoyed reading about your pets; I’m sorry that you’ve lost a few. I had to let go of a few of my own pets since we couldn’t afford to take care of them, and I don’t have photos either. All your pets are gorgeous though, and I like how you’ve organised the small pictures so nicely.
On the movie case page Dalmations should be Dalmatians.
Writings
It’s really a shame you don’t have this up yet! I do look forward to seeing it, personally, but I don’t really like to see links on websites to pages that aren’t ready yet, though.
Visitor
Upon looking through your icons, I noticed you use a script. I was hoping everything would be hassle free, but it isn’t. Firstly, you’ve left the default text on the page from the script!
Also, when I press “back” after visiting a category, I have the misfortune of being taken back to the homepage of your site instead of the icons page I was anticipating.
Last of all, when I click “View All” to view every single one of your icons, I receive the error:
Currently no icons are listed under their respective directories!
You might want to look into this since some people will be wanting to look at all of your icons at once, and because it just needs a little fix-up.
On the CSS templates page, it’s main purpose should be its main purpose. Just a little mix up there. “It’s” is short for “it is”, and in this case you’re referring to the layout’s main purpose, hence, “its”.
I like the templates since they are so basic, and I like the fanlisting layout too, because I don’t see very many of those. You’ve done a good job here. The next step, if you’re willing to, would be to make fancier templates and/or layouts using images.
Domain
Usually I don’t like the use of “domain” as a link, since not everyone would be familiar with the term (and it is getting annoying with Piczo users using the term “domain” – ugh). On this page exhanged should be exchanged.
On the “about” page, it’s current extension should be its current extension. Same mistake you had before.
I don’t see any problems with the rest of the pages in this section! I haven’t checked your credited sites if you credited where you got the images of Kerli from, but be sure that you do.
Fanlistings
As much as I would love to continue, Tilted Halo is a separate site so I won’t be including it in this review.
Originality & Creativity
This might be a tad biased since I am familiar with your style but I find that you use images of subjects that other people rarely use. I really like your style – you’ve obviously gone for a lesser known star than Lady Gaga; your fanlisting collective shows me quite a unique style, and I notice that you tend to use these “muted” effects on your images. I love it!
I believe you have a unique style and a really good way of editing your images. I don’t fancy your icons all that much since they are smaller and seem to be a lot simpler but I think your layouts are definitely fantastic.
Organisation & Errors
Everything is well organised. The only recurring error I saw apart from the ones in your coding is in the footer – “more” in the bottom doesn’t lead to the credits page as it’s an incorrect link.
Overall Comment
I think you’ve done a spectacular job on your site, Manda. For your first personal site with some resources, this is something you’ve done really well on. The time you have spent on it has definitely not gone to waste. It is very well organised and I’m impressed with how neat and organised your site is.
I know you’re personally not big on “big” sites but there is definitely room for a little more – I’m looking forward to seeing that writings section and perhaps a fix on the icons section along with some new icons would be great. I know this is just a personal site and you have a lot of pages on yourself, but I can envisage that when you complete the writings section you will be reflecting a lot more of yourself and of your site as a personal one too.
Keep up the awesome work.
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