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Site Name: Manhattan Love Song
Owner: Ocean
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 11th July 2009
Site Name
It’s a pretty name – quite long but still easy to remember.
Coding and Validation
Your coding has 76 errors and 67 warnings.
All these errors need to be fixed. 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 Transitional, best matches your coding. You need to place this at the very beginning of every page, before <html>.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.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">
However, in doing this, you must use © for the © sign in your meta tag.
Additionally, all your meta tags need to have the slash at the end removed, as you are validating to HTML and not XHTML.
Also, all element values must be quoted. The following:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css" type="text/css">
Is not acceptable. ALL values must be quoted. You are neglecting to do this in many places in your coding, which is causing multiple unnecessary errors. Each error constitutes a possible browser or operating system error; therefore each error must be fixed where possible.
Another key rule with validating coding – specify an alt attribute (alternative text) for all images. Screen readers such as those for the blind will be able to read these more effectively and give a better description if you put some alternative text on your images.
You’re using a table to organise your layout, which is not recommended. Tables are harder to build and not all browsers account for them. It is fine when tabulating data (such as using tables for your affiliates as you are currently) but not when creating a layout. Tables are not accessible. Screen readers for the blind, in particular, will not read them in the order desired.
Also, having your layout split into parts actually results in slower loading time. More images means more HTTP requests, compared to a single image. A table might be easy for you for your network links and such, but the entire layout image should not be a table. I would like to point out though, that it is a good thing you have provided alternative text for these links.
Attempt to use <strong> instead of <b> and <em> instead of <i> from now on, for semantic – more meaningful – purposes. As I mentioned with screen readers it does give more meaning for them.
All your other errors need fixing. This tutorial should help you to validate.
Your CSS has 8 errors and 7 warnings.
You should not be using coloured scrollbars. There is no point in providing invalid coding and adding colour to scrollbars that is only guaranteed to work in one browser (Internet Explorer). There is no need to inflict a coloured scrollbar on a user, when there is nothing wrong with the default scrollbar.
The warnings are from the floated divs used in the Cutenews entries. Floated elements need to have width declared.
Browser Compatibility & Usability
Looking at your site at Browsershots.org, your layout is looking consistent in most browsers.
The navigation is very clear; no problems there.
The text size is good; easy to read.
The crosshair cursor is unnecessary. Visitors may be confused with a custom cursor or a cursor that changes as they navigate a website.
I already mentioned the issue with the tables. They are not accessible, take more time to load, and have other disadvantages. Try to use the div element instead of tables. This Tutorialtastic tutorial can help you sort it out.
Layout
The layout is very impressive. It’s very pretty and the images used are of good quality.
The set-up of the layout is very nice; it’s very organised and everything appears to be in its place. As I mentioned with the tables though; use CSS instead.
Great job fitting the layout all into a compact size, without it looking too cluttered. The layout will definitely look fine in smaller resolutions.
The detail in this layout with the navigation and footer is very nice; it really suits the theme of the layout. The stylesheet has a nice variety of fonts and soft colours to match the images used in the layout. Overall this layout is put together well.
Content
You need to invest in a better counter for your homepage. As a matter of fact, I just refreshed the page numerous times only to see the number had increased each time. Incredibly inaccurate.
Main
On the ‘about’ page there are a few errors:
It’s purpose should be Its purpose
rolls should be roles.
Ocean
On the profile page, Ocean and I should be capitalised. This page needs to be looked over and sentences ended and capitalised.
I’ve counted to infinity twice.
Sounds like a ridiculous claim; it’s a rather silly thing to place on a profile. Sticking with the basic facts would be more appropriate.
The pictures are coming soon? Is your site finished or not?
Even though you have only one category of fanlistings, you should give the page the title of “Fanlistings”.
The poetry is a separate part of the website so I won’t be reviewing it.
Graphics
The icons are fairly good. Some of them are a bit dull and hazy – the Avenged Sevenfold one and several of the ones with models, for example. They could be brightened up.
The layouts are not bad – the Valentines Day one is quite unique, but the use of iframes and tables isn’t very accessible so attempt to use divs and CSS instead. The White Solitude one is quite nice. The colours work well, but the navigation shouldn’t have the dotted underline as that dodges the text. The quality of the layout is very good, though.
The Summer Heat layout is very unique in how the navigation is set out. In Firefox, the links are too long; you should specify a width in pixels for these links.
The customised graphics page has the title of “coming soon”. I understand that you don’t have anything on this page but the title should read “Customised Graphics”.
On the request page, didnt should be didn’t.
Visitor
On the graphic thieves page:
cant should be can’t
Its should be It’s
wont should be won’t.
This article is good, but you have to keep in mind that some people do give graphics to friends once their website has closed.
You shouldn’t even be displaying the Photoshop parody on your website if you didn’t write it. You’re publishing work that isn’t yours, and that is stealing. It should be marked as a parody or a joke at the beginning of the page instead of the bottom.
The facts are copied and edited from a website. It isn’t original.
The “Company Policy” is just a copied “read”.
The “glamour shots” tutorial is not bad; the end result is quite pale, though.
The copyright symbol in the meta tags tutorial should be changed to ©.
The history links tutorial is quite useless; there is a reason why back and forward buttons are integrated into a browser.
A lot of the things in “fun” are from other websites and they need to be given credit.
Site
On the affiliate form, MSN and Facebook need to be capitalised, and ect should be etc.
The portfolio would be better suited in the section about you.
The hostee page could have a form to people to apply for hosting. Or you should at least mention whether you are accepting applications or not.
Information
On the FAQ page, same exact should be same.
Originality & Creativity
Most of your website contained original content; others were quite generic or just copied from the internet.
You have very creative layouts and graphics, but a few of your graphics are a bit hazy and dull in colour; brightening these up would be a big plus.
Organisation & Errors
Fairly well organised. Errors were mostly in writing with the lack of capitalisation of letters, and misspelled words.
Overall Comment
You had a very well designed layout and your graphic skills are clearly very good. A bigger variety of graphics would be better though. The main thing you need to work on is your coding. Attempt to use divs instead of tables. Breaking up an image into pieces loads a lot slower than if it was one whole image, as more HTTP requests need to be taken.
You have a lot of content on your website that is outdated and copied; the “reads” for instance. You should stick with your own works and continue creating your own designs and graphics. Your website will stand out more when you have content that is yours.
You state that your website was created in 2007, but you don’t seem to update it often at all – you’re only on the second layout, and I expected more content from you, especially more designs.
In summary, you should improve your coding and add more content to the website, removing all unoriginal content and content that doesn’t belong to you.
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