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Site Name: Hypnotic
Owner: Rafa
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 18th February 2010

Site Name

I love the name; no problems here.

Coding and Validation

Your coding has 9 errors and 7 warnings and your CSS is valid.

It would be a good idea to use strong, em, and ins instead of b, i and u. This is because screen readers for the blind will be able to put more emphasis where it is needed.

Your FanUpdate entries follow the template in the options, and this needs a bit of cleaning up as to where tags go and whatnot. It’s not a huge problem though.

Browser Compatibility & Usability

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

I was thinking that you could title this section “owner”, since you have information about the site under “site”. It would be nice to make a little note about “portfolio” and that it opens in a new window as well.

I don’t really have a problem reading any of the text or links, but I think the text should be just a bit bigger.

Layout

I really like the style of the layout. It’s not every day someone can successfully pull off a collage-styled layout with lots of different colours and elements overall. You have done a really good job.

I like the scattered and scrappy look and how not everything goes quite together, but it works well through colours and textures. I like that you have kept most of the content section cleared up and simple to bring out the header image, but I don’t really like the olive green section at the top right of the content. It looks a little too out of place.

I don’t have much to say about the design of the layout itself but it looks fantastic. I can see that you have very good skills. Another thing I have to point out that I dislike though, is the sidebar. While I like the use of many colours in your CSS, they don’t look good on the dark background in your sidebar. Perhaps cut down on the bold or italicised text; they will make the sidebar look just that little bit cleaner.

Content

In the sidebar there are a few mistakes:
Owend should be owned
photoshop should be Photoshop
Contact us should be contact me (since you are the only owner of the site, I believe).

About

There are a few mistakes on this page:
spanish and english should be Spanish and English
essencial should be essential
interesting readings should be my writing interesting
interesting making websites should be making websites interesting
Has to do should be is to do
The CSS should be CSS
net bookmarking should be net, bookmarking
a good CSS should be good CSS
eventhough should be even though
can be, should be can be;
and awesome CSS should be awesome CSS,
a crappy should be crappy
CSS, I have should be CSS – I have
TV/Series should be TV Shows/Series

Resources

These actions all look great, but the fourth one could probably use a different image; I’m not too pleased with the way it looks. I like how you’ve included the “new” tab on the new action though.

On the backgrounds page there are some mistakes.
Get the background should be display the background
in your own should be to your own
the URLHERE text should be “URLHERE”.
I know it’s fancy and nice to include the Javascript with the textarea but you should be displaying code correctly with code or pre. Textareas are intended for user input only. It might also be a better idea to include the CSS for the background rather than the HTML:

body {
background: url('URL HERE');
}

These backgrounds are very nice but they don’t tile as nicely as I’d imagined. The newspaper one and the coloured stripes, for example, don’t look that great when repeated.

On the Icons, Icon Textures, Magazine Stocks and Textures pages, Our newest would be better expressed as The newest.

The icons look fantastic and I love your style. I really love the icon textures as well – they are wonderful and very different from other textures I have seen.

On the favicons page, Html kit should be HTML Kit. Again on this page, you should display the code correctly instead of using textarea.
You also have spaces in between code such as < head >< /head >. To avoid having to put spaces, use a converter to convert the HTML into its entities.

On the fonts page, font should be fonts. You should also remove this page – you are not allowed to redistribute fonts that aren’t even made by you. You wouldn’t like it someone else redistributed your work.

The magazine stocks should be credited from the magazines these are from.

On the patterns page, A text should be a text; ok should be OK or okay. I think the patterns are okay but I’m not really fond of the colours on some of them and their combinations.

The textures look great, and I like the variety.

Tutorials

On the main page PHP Include should be PHP Includes.

There isn’t really a point in the black and white image tutorial. It’s too simple and people can find this option easily within the menu. On the other hand the blue tones tutorial is really nice and more advanced. Also, settings like mine should be settings to mine.

On the Creating Brushes tutorial, ctrl + a would be better capitalised like CTRL + A or Ctrl + A. This is a simple tutorial as well but it’s better than the grayscale one – that one is too simple. Also credit where you got the brush from.

On the Installing Actions tutorial there are some mistakes:
effect, you save it should be effect and save it.
and everytime should be every time
appear, now should be appear. Now
I know this tutorial is small but perhaps making separate tutorials for creating and installing an action would be a better idea.

On the Image Masking tutorial you have some mistakes:
color, we should be color; we
ctrl should be CTRL or Ctrl

On the loading brushes tutorial, Photoshop should be capitalised, and easy, all should be easy; all. Again this is a simple tutorial. It is good to have on a website but isn’t as original. So far I have noticed that your image masking tutorial is the most unique.

On the Rounded Corners tutorial, Conrers should be Corners. This is also a relatively simple tutorial.

However the Screen Borders one is much better and I haven’t seen this technique being outlined in a tutorial.
border, to see should be border. To see
border.): should be border.)

The shiny text tutorial is okay but I have seen it displayed on many websites so it isn’t that original.
Ctrl should be CTRL or Ctrl
layer, like shown should be layer, as shown
windoe should be window
gre should be grey.

“Using textures” is a great tutorial. Some people are very unfamiliar with textures and using them, as well as their effects. This contains some good tips on using textures. Perhaps it would also be a good idea to include a few graphic examples. I think you don’t need to mention the merging layers because so long as you choose the correct file extension when saving, it should not save as a .psd.

On the Vintage Effect tutorial, shift + ctrl + n should be Shift + CTRL + N or Shift + Ctrl + N – it’s just so much easier to read when at least the first letter of each function key is capitalised.

The 404 page tutorial is quite simple, but it’s okay.

I really like the way you have set out this page. You are using pre here to display code – which is what you should be doing on all appropriate pages!
side bar should be sidebar
into .php should be to .php.

Site

On this page, Photoshop and MySpace should be capitalised.
half resources space should be half resource site
let that for should be leave that for
more that should be more than
make the site get better should be improve the site
liked my job should be liked my work
filled it up should be filled it in
you won’t regret should be they won’t regret.

Portfolio

I won’t be reviewing this since this is an external link.

Originality & Creativity

You have quite a creative website and you show your good graphic skills in your layouts and a few of the graphics you have on your site. However I think that you could go further with your designs – some layout tutorials or image tutorials (some rather advanced ones) would be a great addition to your site. I see a lot of great pieces on your portfolio at DeviantArt and I think that visitors could definitely benefit. If you are comfortable with it too, offering layouts or custom designs would be a good addition to your site, in my opinion.

Organisation & Errors

Everything was well organised. Some editing needs to be done in your writing and you need to correct your mistakes.

Overall Comment

You have a fantastic, well organised website with lots of unique pieces. You have an evident style in your layout and graphics and a few good tutorials. I think you could really improve by adding more unique content and having a lot more tutorials that reflect some of the skills you have.

The sidebar in the current layout could be improved a bit so it matches better with the layout. Otherwise, keep up the great work!

Rating

(out of 5)