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Site Name: Think-x
Owner: Saba
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 1st November 2009
Site Name
I’m sure you adopted this domain from So-Pink. Despite that the name is easy to remember and I have no problems with it.
Coding and Validation
Your coding is valid. Not all your pages are valid though.
I know you recently validated your coding and the validator says that everything is fine but you should not rely a hundred percent on the validator – I just happened to notice that you are missing a <body> tag after </head>.
You could also specify your header image as a background in CSS rather than using img src. This is so that if images are not working on a visitor’s browser, they will be able to see that there is supposed to be a header image as there will be an available gap for it.
Your CSS has 1 error and 3 warnings.
Outside of your stylesheet, you have pieces of embedded styling like the following:
<tr align=right><td bgcolor="dfdfdf"><a href="http://www.hscripts.com" style="font-size: 8px; color:000000; text-decoration:none;"><b> by hscripts.com</b></a></td></tr> </table>
Values should be quoted correctly – "dfdfdf". The problem here is that color:000000 should be color: #000000>.
Within your stylesheet you can do a lot of shortening of CSS:
body { background-color:#f6ebda; color:#1f1f1f; text-align:left; font-family: arial; font-size:9pt; line-height:15pt; font-weight:normal; margin:0; }can be shortened to:
body { background-color:#f6ebda; color:#1f1f1f; font: normal 9pt arial; line-height:15pt; margin:0; }
You can visit this tutorial to see how you can shorten your CSS.
Attempt to use <strong> instead of <b> and <em> instead of <i> from now on, for semantic – more meaningful – purposes. Screen readers for the blind will be able to provide more meaning if you do this.
Browser Compatibility & Usability
Your site is navigable and functions in Firefox, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer.
I hate to mention this but your header image is quite large. I have a large screen resolution, but as large as it is, it barely accommodates your header image. Therefore those on even smaller resolutions would have to scroll quite a lot simply to get to your navigation. The navigation would look better placed across the top of the page. “Content” should also be “resources” or “visitor” because “content” would simply refer to all the content on your website, regardless of shape or form.
The text can be easily read – dark on a light background – no problems here.
The layout width is also rather wide. You should take this into account when creating a layout. Your site might look okay on your screen, but what about others?
Instead of using a Javascript for the advertisement rotation you should use PHP coding. Not all browsers allow for Javascript.
Layout
You’re using a celebrity image, which is considered illegal if you don’t have permission from the photographer to use it. It is a much better idea to use legal images. Not only are they more unique but you can find photographs of models that are just as nice as the celebrity images you like to use.
Part of your layout where the image meets the background does not tile properly, but it’s not too noticeable.
I like the soft colours used in the layout and the header design. The blending of images is done well and the subtle effects and colouring are quite nice. You could have used a transparent PNG image so that the background would not have tiled strangely.
I already mentioned the issue with the width of the layout. It looks fine to me but there is concern for other users. User centred design is very important because you must cater for them to ensure that their viewing experience is not a bad one – they are your visitors and no doubt you care about them.
Content
About
“Support us” should really be “Support me” because you are the only owner.
that I have been using should be that I have used.
On the history page, Bebo, Photoshop and HTML should be capitalised.
a adopted should be an adopted
aswell should be as well
So i should be So I
alot should be a lot.
On the page with the link buttons, hostee’s should be hostees. Your code should also be displayed with <code> following conversion with a converter to convert the HTML into its entities – like so:
<code><code>a href="http://google.com">Google</a></code>
On the past layouts page, Current should be present.
The credits page is very good and you’ve shown why you are crediting these people.
textures,tutorials,fonts,etc should be textures, tutorials, fonts, etc.
Content
You have a lot of visitor content but what I have noticed is that in some sections you don’t have much. I know you have split the content into sections but this can be hard to navigate if you don’t have proper breadcrumbs to allow for easier navigation. I know you have something like this at the top of each page:
Home >> Content >> Resources >> Blog Icons
But it would be so much better if they were actual links. Also, whilst the article section is being prepared you should remove the image.
Going into the resources, I would have expected more actions. However, these look pretty good. The blog icons are also really simple but nice. I have seen blog icons on other websites; perhaps some unique smilies would be a good idea as well.
The edited pictures look good but they could just be made into premade layouts for ease of use, but I suppose this allows people to get creative.
Nothing much to say about colour palettes.
If the brushes were not made by you and only the “image packs and previews” were made by you, then this isn’t very original at all. Do you have permission to use these images? Some people might not like their work altered in this way and you could potentially be breaching copyright. If the artist wanted to make them into a brush they would have done so.
You should make your own brushes from your own images and drawings. It would be more original. And one brush pack would generally contain a bunch of brushes, not just one.
The fonts were not made by you so why are you redistributing them on your website? It’s fine to show and display these, but don’t copy the files and put them on your server for people to download. The right thing to do would be to link to the site where you downloaded the font from. Redistributing resources that belong to other people is not the right thing to do.
The patterns are really small. It would be nice to see larger more intricate patterns that could be used on layouts.
The domain layouts could just be called free layouts. They still have your old URL on them though. These layouts are very nice in terms of graphics but the text could really be made bigger as it’s quite small. You should also provide credit on the layout for where you got the resources.
The layouts that aren’t coded look okay, but I know you can put together something great if you code them. They would look really nice coded by the right person!
The icon textures and textures look pretty good. Having more variety of the larger textures would be great. Different styles would be more interesting because these simple ones seem to be quite common.
I’m not sure why blends are offered – it would be nicer to offer them in a layout. This is because people who use other people’s graphics usually have limited skills. If they can’t make very good graphics they might want something coded for them as well, which is why I would highly suggest coding a lot of these “blends”. The ones of Selena and Miley I don’t really like; possibly because the images are much too close to each other.
The icons are beautiful. I love the different effects on them and the subtle text you’ve added on a lot of them – they look great. The only thing I notice is that some of them are different sizes.
The quote graphics are very cute. I don’t really see much use for them other than for decoration but they’re very nice.
The dolls are nice but surely you must have used a base for them? If so, credit them.
There are only two mini blends. I don’t see the difference between these and the blends, only that these are smaller. Again, as nice as they are, these don’t really look useful.
I’m not a MySpace user so I might not understand the extent to which these resources could be used. However the album covers could be more interesting – more effects, different styles, and so on.
For the layouts, if you did not create them yourself, do not offer them. It is wrong to redistribute things that aren’t yours. You have already got a lot of content on your website that you have worked hard on. There is no need to taint that nice image with things that you didn’t make yourself.
I don’t see much difference between the layouts except for the background. Surely you could just offer the background codes with no need for a preview?
Did you really take all these “MySpace graphics”? I doubt you really did take all these photos and draw all these pictures. I mean, you don’t own the copyrights to the Mike Wazowski character, do you?
Are the imagemap previews meant to work? It would be nice if they did so people could see how they worked.
The headers are pretty simple. Then again I don’t use MySpace so I could be underestimating how useful these are to people who do use MySpace.
The “text codes” page reads “Page Graphics” in the title.
On all these pages you do need to display your code correctly as I mentioned above with your link buttons page.
Under the PNGs section, Keira Knightly should be Keira Knightley. The sitemodel PNGs are obviously more unique than the celebrity ones. Although I don’t think PNGs are a good resource and that most people are able to cut properly with the magnetic lasso tool, I do like seeing sitemodels on sites because they are usually unique.
The Amanda Bynes PNGs lead to a 404.
Some of the Photoshop tutorials are simple and I have seen them a lot of times before. On the pixelate tutorial:
pixalate should be pixelate
your done should be you’re done
texxt should be text.
On the adding beam/twirl tutorial:
below window should press up should be window below should appear.
More screenshots in the colorizing tutorial would be helpful.
i am should be I am
aswell should be as well.
The darkening eyeliner tutorial would be helpful with more screenshots too.
teh eye should be the eye
your done should be you’re done.
The first photoedit tutorial is really quite simple.
texxt should be text.
The seamless pattern tutorial is one tutorial that I haven’t seen before. I think you’ve done a good job on it.
I’m sure you are aware that Cutenews is not a safe script and can be easily hacked as it is very insecure. That said, I do not think you should offer tutorials when a lot of people are shifting to FanUpdate or even WordPress. These tutorials are also very straightforward and outlined in the documentation of the script.
The MySpace friend ID tutorial is really quite simple. I don’t know why people have difficulty finding their ID.
I think you should add more icon tutorials. Your icons are really nice and I’m sure a lot of people could benefit from more icon tutorials from you.
The premades are nice in terms of colour scheme. I’m assuming these are for MySpace or something similar. The 10th premade cannot be found, as well as the last “old” premade.
I’ve seen sunvectors before. They are very colourful but they seem to generally look the same. The last one cannot be found. I think you could make the credit more subtle though, by putting it in the very cornera and perhaps with a lighter colour. I don’t know if a lot of people use these but a tutorial on these would be a nice idea.
I’m not sure what sitemodel “rares” means. It would actually be nice if you included a little description about them, for a further description. All of these images are nice. If you didn’t take them yourself though, you should credit or make a note of where you obtained these images. I mean, this one has a copyright logo on it.
Reviews
On this page:
i do should be I do
actual layout should be actual set-out.
I do wonder if you will be offended by my rating at the end of this review, because you did mention that you find it offensive.
Hosting
A few mistakes on this page:
Ok should be OK
hosting.I should be hosting. I
and this only should be only
link is required back should be link back is required
vilate should be violate
php and ftp should be PHP and FTP
think-x.inf should be think-x.info.
You should remove the Cutenews option if you are no longer offering it.
Originality & Creativity
You have such great graphic skill and I can see from your website that you are very creative. Your past layouts look impressive however I feel you could spend more time on your free layouts because these don’t seem to have had as much effort put in.
I can’t say your website was totally original but you have a lot of resources for those who like using celebrity images and have a similar style to you. I know I definitely don’t share the same style but you have a great website here. What I would suggest is that you remove anything that is not yours, such as the fonts, the MySpace images and the brushes. I know you have the potential to create wonderful graphics and from this you can create more resources.
Organisation & Errors
You didn’t have a lot on your pages which is why I thought the mumbo-jumbo navigation was a bit over-the-top, in the content section. Things were split up into sections but I think that if you displayed these sections on the one page it would be easier for a visitor to find exactly what they were look for – they would find blends under the graphics and so on. Some people can’t tell the difference between resources and graphics.
There were a few broken links which you obviously need to attend to. You had some typing mistakes but I pointed out what I could see.
Overall Comment
You’ve got a great site aimed at a popular and distinct audience. However I do have some suggestions for you. I have reiterated them throughout this review but I’ll go through them quickly again:
- Don’t make the navigation too deep – make it easy to navigate in the content section
- Remove the content that you didn’t create yourself, so that we can look at the great content you really made
- Fix the broken links and images
- Add a few more icon tutorials and graphics tutorials.
Your website is great but that’s really all I have to suggest overall. Keep up the great work.
1 Comment so far — leave one?
Saba says:
OMG!
I am so amazed by your review.
WOW!
I was expecting a 2. !
Thank you very much for your great review and I will
most definitely take everything into consideration. I have been meaning to change the font links and all the content that does not belong to me, but due to school, it has been so hard to get the time!
Anyways. Thank you so so so so much.
bye bye
Love Saba
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