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Site Name: Spasticlyts
Owner: Tenille
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 20th April 2010
Site Name
I’m not such a fan of the name; I’m just not accustomed to “lyts” being short for “layouts”. To me it just looks like a derivation of “lights”. The only good point I see here is that it’s easy to remember.
Coding and Validation
According to the HTML validator you have 14 errors and 21 warnings. I’m not going to address each issue individually, because I already notice that your coding doesn’t even have the correct structure at all. There is no doctype, character encoding, no <html>, <head> or <body> tags. Your coding should have a skeleton of this:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <html> <head> </head> <body> </body> </html>
Without even the correct structure, you are simply going to get errors on your pages, especially when this gives me the impression that you cannot code.
Your CSS has 4 errors and 1 warning. You’re better off using an external stylesheet; it loads quicker and is a lot easier to work with.
Empty values such as text-transform :; should be filled in; fonts with spaces like franklin gothic heavy should be quoted; values like height:px; should probably be height: auto; – all in all, your styling also needs a lot of work.
Generally your div coding is okay but you need to put in the correct structural tags. Without these, you cannot expect your site to be accessible or even browser compatible (that, I will get to shortly).
Browser Compatibility & Usability
I have looked at the majority of your site in Firefox. It looks pretty consistent in Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome – there’s not a problem there.
I wouldn’t recommend the font “Terminal” for your sidebar links. Firstly, the font is extremely hard to read. It is actually a lot more difficult to read something when it is in uppercase compared to when it is in lowercase. Not only that, but Safari doesn’t render the font in the same way, and it appears in Times New Roman for me. Anyone who also doesn’t have the font Terminal on their system will see the default font instead. This is why you should avoid using fonts that are unique or rare, as people most likely won’t have them.
Layout
I’m not too familiar with Robert Downey Jr but I soon found out he was the subject of the layout. The layout is pretty simple, but I’m not such a fan of the shots that you chose. I don’t really like the expressions on his face all at once – I feel that because there are minimal effects on this layout, just one picture could have been a nice focus. I do like the colouring on the image though. Your site name should probably have a bit of an effect around it so it doesn’t look like it’s “stuck on” the image, but is a part of it.
The red in the navigation isn’t very nice; the colour doesn’t fit with the layout and as I mentioned, the text is too small.
I think you could have put more effort into the styling and made it fit with the header image a bit more. I recommend Degraeve’s Color Palette Generator which will give you a palette of colours if you put in the URL of an image.
Your stylesheet could benefit from better use of fonts, using a few different fonts, and basically having larger fonts.
Content
In the sidebar you have headings “Navigation”, “Content” and “Affies”. Doesn’t “Content” go under the category of “Navigation”? “Affies” should really be “Affiliates”. Your affiliate at psychoshizzle.puzzledlyts.com is a dead link.
On the owners page, instead of having this rather empty subpage, you should put both your profiles on the one page.
On Tenille’s page:
editing photo’s should be editing photos
myspace should be MySpace
photoshop should be Photoshop
excell should be excel.
On Alicia’s page:
a christian should be A Christian
jonas brothers should be Jonas Brothers
dont care should be don’t care
music, I should be music; I
r&b, alternitive should be R&B, alternative
ipod should be iPod
its by should be it’s by
wiether should be whether
thats it should be that’s it.
Div Layouts
Seeing as you have a lot of these, I like the fact that you’ve categorised them a bit. The previews could be of better quality, though, and a little more spaced out on the page. The introductory paragraph could be more detailed; perhaps explaining the kinds of layouts, maybe put instructions on use, or who created them (Tenille or Alicia).
I’m not quite getting this:
Comment our myspace if you use any over there >>
MySpace should be capitalised and I’m not sure what the “arrows” represent.
It seems that these are all MySpace layouts. This is fine, but labelling these layouts “div layouts” gave me the impression that these were website layouts and not specifically MySpace ones. You might want to clarify that.
This layout looks a mess because of the background being unavailable. I see a lot of techniques employed in the graphics themselves but the layouts have no structure, and the image is often overlapping the text.
I initially thought there was a browser compatibility problem here, but a browser check shows me that all these layouts have a structure that is awful. The purple background on this one is blinding, not to mention, I cannot seem to see where the text on a regular MySpace page (“about me”, etc.) should be.
The pixelated edges on this layout image don’t look very appealing.
The majority of these layouts look terribly structured, the graphics aren’t of the best quality, and the layouts aren’t even placed on the page properly. However, I will point out the ones that actually look okay:
It seems that this entire Jonas Brothers section alone needs to be cleaned out and the layouts need to be revamped. I don’t think many people would use these layouts – at the very least, some of the graphics should be redone, and the coding should definitely be looked into.
Again with the Jonas Brothers lyrics and the individual Jonas Brothers’ sections – it all needs work. As mentioned, you’ve used a lot of techniques in the graphics but sometimes they are a little overdone or the blending needs refining.
Looking through all the other div layouts, you could really improve on some of these. I know you have a skill in image mapping, which I commend, but image mapping isn’t always the way to go. I also think that a lot of the layouts have navigation that is in an unsightly spot, or just not placed in a reasonable spot on the image. Also, if visitors were to have images turned off, this wouldn’t be a good thing for them.
I would like to point out another lot of layouts that are okay:
The reason these layouts are better than your others is because they are neater, better structured, have a good use of colour, are simple (and often simple is best, rather than having it overdone), and look better overall. No excessive blends or too many colours.
Layouts
You really need to better section out your website – a div layout is a layout itself. You also need to make it a habit to write with good punctuation on your pages – “I’m” and “I’ve” should be capitalised.
You’re right about the third set of styles; they actually are the best in my opinion. A lot of the other colours like green and orange are really, really blinding. Also, why can’t you keep this sort of structure instead of having the messy div layouts you have? It seems to me that you need to take into account that simplicity is key.
This layout appears blank/black.
Blog layouts
The last link is a 404.
I don’t like the way any of these are structured; they’re all a mess and verge way to the left of the screen. Here is a screenshot. They aren’t well structured and are very small. The text is also hard to read because of its size.
Twilight Icons
These don’t need their own page. A lot of these are a bit boring and could have textures and effects added, maybe some text. The pixel text isn’t appealing. Better fonts should be used, with appropriate effects on text. Changing blending modes of the text layer would have different and better results.
Premade Domain-lyts
Again, not everyone understands “lyts”. Write it out in full.
creadit should be credit.
Now this Jonas Brothers layout is a huge improvement and a significant difference from all the terrible MySpace layouts I’ve seen. Why can’t you create your MySpace layouts like this, just with MySpace content?
The Edward and Bella one needs work. the colours don’t work, and I don’t see why the image needs to be reflected. It looks strange. The background in the content section doesn’t repeat properly, is distracting, and is hard to read text on.
Photoshop actions
You’ve only got one and it’s really bright… surely you could use a better example with a darker image that might not have such a bright result? Instructions on use would be helpful.
Page graphics
I’m assuming these are just a form of “random graphics” intended for one’s MySpace page. They’re really quite simple; I hope there is more to them than just cropping and adding a border.
Polaroids
These are simple but okay – you could incorporate these into your rather plain icons, having nice borders resembling a polaroid – these can even be used in layouts. They would look a lot better than your current layout graphics.
Jonas Icons
I don’t know why you have a separate section for them. They can go with the TV icons under a subheading and “TV icons can be renamed.
Robert Downey Jr Icons
Same goes here. No need for a separate section unless you have thousands of icons.
TV Show Graphics
These are okay and simple. Compared to your layouts they are much better. I don’t think there is a need to squash all the images in a box with a scrollbar. Just let them run down the page. The colouring on these graphics is very nice. You might want to add a few graphics with more textures or more effects. Simple is good but it’s also good to see variety.
TV Show Icons
The same goes for these – much better and simpler. However since these are icons and can be more interesting, try to use different effects and colours, maybe use a few textures as well, and crop original subjects on the images a little off-center, to leave space for text or to add interest. Like your other icons on Robert Downey Jr and Jonas, add more textures, more effects – having variety is good.
Originality & Creativity
What I find ridiculous is that you ask people to credit you for using their resources, yet you don’t credit anyone and your credits page is nonexistent. I think I might see a few brushes from Swimchick.net; I see a lot of images of the Jonas Brothers which you obviously did not take yourself; you use Photoshop therefore you didn’t completely do everything on your own; you have a host who you do need to credit. I find the lack of crediting inappropriate especially when you wish for people to link you back.
I don’t find your website all that original – I don’t understand a hundred percent how MySpace works but some of your graphics could be better. Some need more effects, some need less. I would also recommend using graphics other than that of Disney stars and Twilight. I’ve seen a lot of graphics with these subjects and it’s not very original.
Organisation & Errors
Your site could definitely do with a cleanup, as some of your content seems old and is not of good quality. On that note – remember, quality is better than quantity. You might have a lot of layouts but the majority of these need improvement.
A lot of categories need to be thought over – “div layouts” aren’t much different from the general “layouts”, and “icons” could go in one section. I also pointed out the broken links you need to fix.
Overall Comment
I can see you have put effort into your site but it needs more work. It looks like it hasn’t been revamped in a while and that some of the layouts can be cleaned out. You have some fairly good layouts, but I think you need to rethink the effects you’re using on some of them. You’re overdoing it sometimes, and often text looks like it’s slapped on, or you’ve used too many images in the blending.
Overall you should clean up your coding a bit, and since you have a focus on graphics, I think you need to better that skill and try not to overdo graphics. I see your main problem as overdoing, as your simple graphics look better.
Try and experiment with different fonts on graphics, use blending modes and textures only where necessary, and try not to overdo any of the colouring.
I don’t like the layout either, but that’s my opinion agreeing with what Georgina said.
It is used where I live as “hyper” too, but I have heard that it could be offensive. 
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Jennifer
20th April 2010 at 8:29 pm
Even after reading at the beginning that “lyts” was short for “layouts”, I kept reading it as “lights” every time I saw it. Normally removing vowels to shorten a word does work, but not when the consonant Y is there, since everybody will read it as an I. Is there really a need to shorten it? It’s only three vowels. :S
Also, SPASTIC layouts? Really? It’s considered an offensive word in the UK (I’m not sure about other places) and isn’t giving the impression I imagine it was intended to.
P.S. Urk. Georgie, delete the first comment please, I pressed tab-enter too soon!
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Georgie
20th April 2010 at 8:42 pm
The first time I came across the word “lyts” I seriously thought it was just a variant on “lights”. Over time… I came to discover that it actually meant “layouts”. Seems to be pretty common on MySpace websites.
I’m not sure about “Spastic”, as it’s used here in Australia occasionally to refer to someone as being hyper, but I stress – occasionally.
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Shola
21st April 2010 at 12:54 pm
Spastic has gone through both pejoration1 and amelioration2 in Britain. It is still largely recognised as an offensive word as it isn’t Politically Correct anymore, but that’s P.C. for you. It was a perfectly accepted word fifty years ago and then society has stupidly crumbled to the sticks and stones taunts of the playground, consequently making the situation with the English Language today a minefield. Apparently I can’t say “queer” because Oxford have decided to remove it from the dictionary for the following reasons:
It’s offensive.
Apparently nobody uses it. It’s now Homosexual. (I forgot the name of it now, when a word is ‘lost’ in a language.)
I don’t say it in a antagonising way, and I still say it! You are queer, or you ain’t. I am sick of language recently.
1. E.g. “You’re are such a spas / Joey. – it’s offensive to anyone with a disability depending on how sensitive they are. It’s derogatory.
2. E.g. “You have a spastic personality.” – As Georgina said, it’s used to describe someone who is eccentric, or awkward.
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