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Site Name: Urban Circus
Owner: Pocci
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 20th December 2009
Site Name
I’ve heard a lot of site names with the word “urban”. Despite that, your site name is catchy and I like it!
Coding and Validation
Your coding has 2 errors and 17 warnings. Make sure you put alt text on your images, even if you leave the value blank. It’s nice to include this in the case that a visitor cannot view images and will be able to see the text describing that image.
You favicon code, <link href="http://www.urbancircus.so-pink.org/wp-content/themes/reinspire/favicon.ico" rel="shortcut icon"> should be in the <head> section.
Your CSS 7 errors and 4 warnings in CSS3. Note that since you are using the filter property, this will not validate because they are not recogised as being valid.
Make sure you quote fonts with whitespace, such as "Courier New". colour should also be color (American spelling).
You can also shorten some of your CSS:
font-family: arial; font-size: 9pt; colour: #353535; line-height: 16pt;can be shortened to:
font: normal 9pt/16pt arial; color: #353535;
You can read this tutorial at AudioRush.org about shortening CSS.
Browser Compatibility & Usability
Your site is navigable and functions in Firefox, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer.
The website is easy to navigate. I would suggest changing “blog” to “home” and “Urban Circus” to “website”.
The underlined text is rather light and hard to see but the size is alright.
Layout
Having been to your site quite a few times now, I have to say that this is my favourite layout of yours, so far. The hot air balloons are placed nicely in the header image. It looks really nice how you have included more than one and how they all follow along on a curve.
The grey background really tones everything down and brings out the colours in the header image. I like how you’ve kept the colour going right through the CSS.
The little blurb that on the right of the content section is a nice addition to the layout.
As for improvements – I’m not so keen on the background; mostly the black splotch because it’s rather dark. Lightening it up would look a little better. The link button to So-Pink would also look better placed in the “etc” section of your footer.
The opacity used in this layout is nice, but the fact that the content changes opacity on hover is a little distracting.
Overall, though, it’s a beautiful layout!
Content
Your name appears as “Pocc” in the footer, instead of “Pocci”, in Firefox.
Owner
everyday should be every day
I come from an Asian descent should be I am of Asian descent
leave it at there should be leave it at that.
Do not ever play tennis with me, I always end up hitting them on the roof.
I’m sure you mean “tennis balls” by “them”!
Urban Circus
This would be generally better as “website”.
The subnavigation links at the top of the page would look better if there was a bit more space between them and the title.
Don’t forget to credit WordPress.
On the advertising page:
its okay should be it’s okay
sites ; should be sites;.
This is more of a side note, but seeing as you have a lot of space in your footer, maybe you could fill up the gaps with people advertising?
Resources
There’s a good variety of brushes, but some of them look pretty common, such as the paint splats. I don’t see anything too original here. It would be nice to include a .abr download, to save users having to actually cut and create themselves. Of course these work in Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop but they require extra work!
There aren’t really many dividers. Dividers aren’t really used very often, so maybe instead you could include some nice backgrounds or designs that would be suitable behind headings and titles? You could add varying styles too.
On the colour palettes page, the title should read “colour palettes”. I’m really liking these vibrant colours; they go very well together and it’s good to see you have included some greys.
The paper stocks looks great – very decorative. The last thumbnail links to the incorrect image though.
The stock images are creative – I’ve never seen one of playing cards. Some more in different arrangements together would be a nice addition.
The textures look great; especially the first two! The last one looks a bit drab.
Reads
I like how you have included an “added” date for the tutorial. On this FanUpdate tutorial though, link the image to the larger version (remove the width attribute), to save people having to drag the image.
These are the parts you ONLY should be These are the ONLY parts you.
On the cards article:
take extremely long should be take an extremely long time
Your bound should be You’re bound.
This is a unique article! Some pictures for the collages and other styles would be a nice addition.
Originality & Creativity
Your website is very original and creative, right from your layout to your content. The brushes were a little generic but everything else looks original and is definitely very creative. Your graphic skills are excellent!
Organisation & Errors
Well organised! Personally, I don’t like the subnavigation links that jump to other sections of the page – I wasn’t really expecting that – but it’s not a huge bother.
Overall Comment
You’ve got an amazing site. I found nothing to complain about. Your site is well organised and you’ve done a great job on your layout and content. More stock images and resources would be great. Keep up the awesome work.
1 Comment so far — leave one?
Pocci says:
Thanks for the review
I’ll work on validating everything (which will take a long time considering how many errors I have xD). & Thanks again! 
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