Review: Morning @ Written
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Site Name: Writtenx
Owner: Morning
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 3rd September 2009
Site Name
It’s not a bad name, and it’s easy to remember. Using an “x” is rather common in site URLs though.
Coding and Validation
Your coding has 42 errors and 25 warnings. You don’t have a doctype or character encoding.
Firstly, you need a doctype to declare your document as an HTML document. You have good basic structure but are missing these fundamentals. The doctype below, HTML 4.01 Frameset, best matches your coding since you are using an iframe. You need to place this at the very beginning of every page, before <html>.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">
You also need a character encoding to define the character set of your webpage. The most common one is UTF-8. You should place this in between the head tags.
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
The majority of errors in your coding are coming from your music player.
Your CSS has 12 errors. Most are due to the invalid coloured scrollbar coding. Coloured scrollbars are not necessary.
Your website take quite a while to load because your CSS is embedded. You should be using an external stylesheet.
Additionally, embedded styling like the following, can be given an ID and specified with CSS:
<div style="position:absolute;background-color:3A3A3A; left:200px; top:335px; width:600px;border:none;">Specify with CSS:
#divname { position: absolute; background-color: #3A3A3A; left:200px; top:335px; width:600px; border:none; }And the HTML:
<div id="divname">
Additional information on classes and IDs can be found at this tutorial.
Overall you coding needs some attention. You should have validated coding because this means that the chances of errors across multiple browsers and platforms are slimmer. You should also validate the coding of your pages, NOT simply the layout. This tutorial can help you.
Browser Compatibility & Usability
Your site looks the same in most browsers, and it is navigable and functions in Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Safari.
I experienced a few problems with your website in Opera, and the browser froze about three times. You should look into this issue. It is most likely because of the music on your website. I highly recommend removing it. It starts automatically, which is not desirable. Let me outline a few points to consider:
- People may already be listening to music on their media player and will be annoyed by a sudden burst of music coming from their web browser.
- People will have multiple windows open and will be surfing different sites at once, and trying to figure out which window the music is coming from is frustrating.
- The music you put on your site may not be the music people want to hear, or even like.
- It slows down your site loading time, which is terrible for dial-up users.
- If you make the music start automatically, people may just leave your site.
- If the options to stop or start the music are at the bottom of the page, like yours, visitors can have a lot of trouble trying to stop the music if they wish to continue viewing your website without music.
It is something to consider. Personally, the music wasn’t horrible to me, but it did distract the music I was already listening to and I didn’t appreciate it. If you must, include the music, but don’t make it start automatically. Nevertheless, your website can still take a long time to load.
You’re using iframes, which is a no-no. Iframes are not accessible. They do not work on all browsers and operating systems, and they make your website harder to navigate. Iframes can easily lock up and freeze. Another disadvantage for the visitor is that they will not be able to bookmark a single page on your website because it’s trapped in an iframe. Also, your pages are not even indexed by search engines if they open in an iframe. Emily has written a great article about why you should make the switch to something like divs and server side includes, which I recommend, since you are on Webs/Freewebs.
Usability-wise, the navigation is fine, even if I am aware that you used a CSS template as a base. The font colour however, needs to be darker. I can barely read it on my screen, the grey on white. Additionally, the homepage looks squashed and there is quite a lack of paragraphing in the page.
I would recommend removing the scrollbar code though; it makes your coding invalid and it only works in Internet Explorer. There is no problem with the default scrollbar.
Layout
Simple header image, great colours, overall nice on the eyes. The one off-putting thing about the layout is the alignment. It isn’t centered. Should you convert to divs and use a CSS layout, you can easily center your layout so it looks centered in all resolutions. The code position: absolute doesn’t function as a method of centering at all.
The layout image is rather pixelated. You should have saved it as an optimised JPEG (this depends on what kind of program you have) or a PNG.
There’s an unattractively large gap beneath the header and before the content. There should be less space here. The scrolling marquee is also distracting. This button should be displayed in the sidebar or displayed static.
There should be some padding at the side of the layout. (See the screenshot.) The text is much too close to the edge.
You should fix this little error in the layout.
As I mentioned with the iframes, it would be wholly suitable to display your iframe content in a div, and have the layout coding on each and every page.
Content
“Written is completely copyright to Morning 2009″ should be rephrased. You didn’t do the CSS coding yourself, and the music on your website isn’t yours. This kind of copyright statement is misleading and you should state something like:
Content on Written is copyright to Morning, unless otherwise stated. 2009.
Myself
Your loves and hates on the “About Me” page need not be capitalised unless they are proper nouns.
On the fanlistings page the yourself should be them yourself. Also, you should not say “my fanlistings”. You should say “fanlistings I’ve joined”.
Since you don’t have any gifts, you should only make a page for when you have some.
Domain
Completely misleading. Not only do you not have a domain, but not everyone is familiar with the term and you should well be using “site” or “website” to label this section.
On the history page there are a few mistakes:
Heres should be Here’s
now its should be now it’s
2009 should be 2009.
see it it should be see it, it.
On the affiliates page, “affiliates” need not be capitalised.
On the affiliation application page, “we” should really be “I”.
Thats should be That’s
buttonscan should be buttons can
suppose should be supposed.
The following can be rephrased:
Currently we are accepting/not accepting affiliates at the moment.
You don’t need to write “accepting/not accepting”. Just add the word “not” when you’re not. Also, “Currently” and “at the moment” mean the same thing; take your pick.
On the credits page you have written Lovable Pixam with the URL http:/lovablepixam.com/ which should be http://lovablepixam.com/ so that it links correctly.
On the advertisement page there are a few mistakes:
views! should be views?
back, It should be back. It
monrh should be month
ect should be etc.
On the link button page you should not be using textarea to display code. You should convert the code into its entities and display it with <code>. Textarea is intended for user input and NOT for displaying code.
You have no awards so don’t make the page until you have some. It makes your website look incomplete.
On the past layouts page:
workedubery should be worked uber
Css should be CSS
my site open to now should be my site opened, until now.
Portfolio
The novels are a creative and unique idea even if you only have one. However, with the random facts, you shouldn’t write “Do not steal or claim these as your own” – surely you didn’t write these random facts on your own – you must have done some research.
Resources
Premade layouts are coming soon.
Site namers are all too common.
On your CSS codes page… “Best to know HTML before you use these”? These are CSS codes, not HTML. CSS can be learned on its own. It doesn’t necessarily need HTML as accompaniment.
The purple header on the CSS is extremely hard to see.
Reviews
Yo will be score should be You will be scored. You need a criteria somewhere here so people know what you’re reviewing. I don’t think your reviews will be very detailed or effective since you have a new website and you still need to improve your own.
Originality & Creativity
You had some original personal content and the novel idea and portfolio section is unique. However, your website didn’t show much creativity. You had an organised website but I didn’t really see anything that stood out.
Organisation & Errors
There are a few spelling/grammatical errors to fix. Other than that your website was fairly well organised.
Overall Comment
I would highly suggest converting from the iframes and using divs, and removing that music. You’ve done an okay job on your website, especially for a new one. There are things that need attention however, such as your coding.
Your website is well organised but it needs some more excitement, and more unique things added. You also need to work on creating a better layout and perhaps coding a bit more independently. Good luck with your website.
