Review: Michelle @ Emotional tears

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Site Name: Emotional tears
Owner: Michelle
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 15th December 2009

Site Name

It’s alright; it’s easy to remember.

Coding and Validation

Your coding is valid and your CSS is valid.

Some parts of your CSS can be shortened, such as the following:

body, html, div, font, p, td {
color: #2d77a3;
font-family: verdana;
font-size: 12px;
line-height: 15px;
font-weight: normal;
text-align: left;
margin-left: 10px;
margin-right:10px;
padding-bottom: 0px;
}

can be shortened to:

body, html, div, font, p, td {
color: #2d77a3;
font: normal 12px/15px verdana;
margin-left: 10px;
margin-right: 10px;
padding-bottom: 0px;
}

Browser Compatibility & Usability

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

The website is easy to navigate, but you should include a “home” link in the sidebar as well as the footer.

Layout

I like the green and how it’s soft on the eyes. I particularly like its simplicity and the background, which is not too bold, but rather pale despite its pattern.

Though simple, I like the detail in the curved edges of the header and content sections. It all looks very neat and organised.

I think you could really improve the styling. The blue text and red navigation don’t go so well with the amount of green in the background and header image. Some pale browns and bright yellows (used subtly) would have gone a lot better. Even a little more green.

Content

Portfolio

Nothing much to say here. I’m not really a fan of the edit of Bill Kaulitz; looks a bit too much to me.

Tutorials

I don’t really like how your tutorials are organised. I see you’re trying to be neat by showing an image and a small description, but I don’t think this is necessary. The title of the tutorial should give enough away. I think you should just include a list of tutorials, a little like my tutorials page. It makes navigation between sections a lot easier.

On the basic image tutorial, you should explain that the slash is only used in XHTML.

On the introduction to HTML tutorial, you have some mistakes:
focus of those files were should be focus of those files was
they many of them should be many of them
codes which was should be codes was
it’s closing should be its closing
css should be CSS
you web should be your web.

Your showing code tutorial is incorrect. Firstly you should not be using textarea to display code. It is intended for user input and NOT for displaying code. Also, in place of <xmp>, you should be using <pre>. AudioRush has a tutorial on how to display code correctly. Make sure you capitalise CSS.

I don’t know why you have sections titled “coding” and “CSS”. CSS is coding. I think you might mean HTML, not “coding”.

On the image borders tutorial, appears.The should be appears. The.

On the “removing dotted border” tutorial, on your CSS should be in your CSS.

There’s no reason to link the “showing code” tutorial again.

Cutenews is not a secure script and personally, I would remove this tutorial. Besides, you should be giving credit for the script you’re using. Taking it off is just wrong.

The “drawing an apple” tutorial is very unique! Considering you do attend an art class, more tutorials like this would be very good.

Same goes for the tutorial on an artwork – this tutorial and the other tutorial could be put into an “art” section though. Also, the images here are too big and wider than your div.
in real should be in reality
ect should be etc.

On the mirror effect tutorial, 300px(width) x 125px(height) should be 300px (width) x 125px (height). The link to the layers tutorial is also not correct. Also, it’s not enough transparent should be it’s not transparent enough.

On the WordPress tutorial, by this should be with this. Also, to avoid the whole “remove the spaces” crap, type using entities. < will display < and > will display >.

On the resources page, re-distribute, claim should be re-distribute or claim.

Resources

The blank buttons are quite nice. Most people make their own though; they’re not as popular anymore.

It would be nice to include installation instructions for the brushes or have them in .abr format so that visitors don’t have to do all the cutting. These brushes are all quite nice though!

Nothing much to say about the colour palettes. You could make the five-colour ones a lot neater though, and explain “pixel colours”.

The emoticons are very cute! Some of the circular ones are a bit big, though. Otherwise, a very good job with some cute unique ones too.

I’m not really a fan of the glitter fills. They are kind of tacky.

I’m not sure how the gradients work, seeing as they are in a .zip file. Perhaps an explanation on how to use would be good.

The textures and patterns are good. I think it would be better if you had the downloads on your site rather than DeviantArt though; it could confuse some people who aren’t familiar with DeviantArt.

The pictures are excellent.

The stocks look good.

The textures take a while to load. I understand that .png is of very good quality, but keep in mind that these files are also larger in size. I like the range of textures here, though.

The wallpapers are very nice and unique. They are of a large size, which is good. Most websites seem to make such small wallpapers nowadays. You could look into making other sizes as well!

Again with the web icons, it would be nice if they were uploaded to your own site.

The premade layouts are very nice!

Graphics

The affiliate buttons are really quite useless. There’s nothing much you can do with them, and people barely use them. They also look a mess on the page with all the codes on them. Incorrectly displayed, I might add, as you should not be using textarea.

I’m not exactly sure what the arrows are for. Back and forward buttons? No one really needs them either. Most browsers have the buttons integrated into them.

The backgrounds are okay. The good thing is that they tile properly. I don’t really like the skull ones. They don’t look like they’re drawn well. The stripe ones and square ones look a bit too bold, and they are also simple to make. I don’t really think these would look very good as backgrounds because of the high contrast in a lot of them. Also, don’t forget that you should be displaying code properly here.

I don’t really see the blinkies as very useful.

The blog dates are okay. You should include a tutorial on how to use them.

The bullets are okay. I really don’t like the look of the animated ones though. They are very distracting. As nice as they are, the heart bullets are also too big.

The download/preview buttons are alright, but I don’t see many people using these.

The clocks are okay; quite a unique idea. I think you could display the code in .txt files instead of restricting them in a textarea box.

The dividers are nice, but I don’t see these being used too often. Avoid making animated graphics as they can be distracting.

You could really demonstrate an example of the “link hovers” in action. Do you mean that this image appears as a background? The flashy coloured ones look terrible and tacky. Again, you should be displaying code correctly.

The pixels look fantastic! This is where I think your graphic skill is best – after looking through your site so far I hoped to see something good here. You have those heart bullets here; this is where they belong. They’re too big to be bullets. I think you could definitely use your pixel art skill to spend more time on your other graphics, such as the backgrounds. Some of your graphics look so much better than others and you could really do with a clean out of the ones that aren’t that impressive.

The pixel words are okay, but try not to make so many animated ones.

Website

You should credit Photobucket since a lot of your images are hosted there.

On the FAQ page, Micheal should be Michael and url should be URL.

On the history page, you should capitalise Piczo, French, English and Freewebs.
biger should be bigger
then ever should be than ever.

On the link back page, you should be displaying code correctly.

On the owner page, writting should be writing.

Etc

On the main page insert those should be insert these.

You have some mistakes on your story “The Doll and The Girl”:
her’s should be hers
layed should be lay
more then enough should be more than enough
more then that should be more than that.

You have some mistakes on “Because of You”:
it’s patterns should be its patterns
head, all should be head; all.

On “Making Your Layout”:
colors that contrasts should be colors that contrast
too much flashy should be too many flashy
your not good should be you’re not good
that your a fan should be that you’re a fan.

There’s really no problem with someone using images of themselves on their website. It’s their website and they can put what they want on it, especially if it’s a personal blog. And often people like to keep things simple, so “blending” is not always desirable in a layout.

On “Making Your Content”:
somethings should be some things
it’s copyright should be it’s copyrighted
loose interest should be lose interest.

Also, the following really needs rewording:

Do not give away png’s of yourself if the quality is bad. In fact, do not give away png’s of any images which it’s quality is bad.

It should be written as:

Do not offer PNGs of bad quality, regardless of what subject is in the image.

They really shouldn’t be called “PNGs”. I could just save anything as a .png image and it would be called a PNG image. It seems that the regular thing to do is to “cut” a subject out of its background and call it a PNG, which in reality is pretty inaccurate.

On “Your Text”:
making your the best texts should be providing the best text
unproffessional should be unprofessional.

If you want to include more then one punctuation, put 3, not 2, not 4.

Not only is that grammatically incorrect (“then” should be “than”), but you’re telling people to use three punctuation marks? No. By no means is Hello!!! or Are you there??? correct. They are both examples of pathetic use of punctuation symbols.

On “Blogging and Commenting”:
people, they should be people; they
comment on their own opinion should be comment with their opinion
your busy should be you’re busy.

Also, on “Other advice”, you’re using the wrong word; your not should be you’re not. Short for “you are not”, correct? “Your” is a possessive form and should be used in cases such as “your dog”, “your mum”, “your cat”.

There is no need for a “top” link when people can easily press “home” on their keyboards. It isn’t as important as perhaps an index page link.

On the “useless content” article:
oppinion should be opinion
seperate should be separate
other then should be other than.

On the affiliates article:
Call the affiliate should be Calls the affiliate
they’re affiliates should be their affiliates

On the host article, chek should be check.

Under the reviews section, in “What I review”, A few errors is should be A few errors are, and your are should be you are.

To be honest, I don’t understand why you’re reviewing grammar when you can’t even use “your” in the right context. As you said, a few mistakes are okay but I have found quite a lot on your site.

On the queue page, queu should be queue.

On the icon competition page, the image is wider than your content div.

Originality & Creativity

You have a lot of generic content but I like your style. You really have put an individual style into your graphics.

I think you could definitely add a few more interesting layouts. You have some good resources like textures and brushes but a lot of your content needs to go, or be reorganised.

Organisation & Errors

Fairly well organised. You need to fix those grammatical errors, and the organisation of the tutorials could do without the images.

Overall Comment

Your site is pretty well done. There is a lot of content on your site, and a good variety. Some of the content needs to be cleaned out though, because it’s not very useful or of the best quality (such as a few of the backgrounds).

You have a unique pixelling style, this which I think you should use more in your graphics. It would be nice to see a few different styles from you with images, perhaps.

Overall you need to clean out your site to leave the better graphics. The tutorials are okay, but some of those need to go, or be refined. The best ones, and most unique ones are the artistic ones. You have some rather solid content on your site but I think it is evident that it’s in need of some revamping.

As for the articles, they are good, but you could add more points to the “good host” and “good hostee” ones. With some touching up and removing of several graphics/resources, your site will look a lot less cluttered and will bring out what’s good.

Rating

(out of 5)