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Site Name: Teza Dream’s Official Site
Owner: Teza
Reviewed by: Georgina
Reviewed on: 19th April 2009
Site Name
A bit long – I would have thought ‘Teza Dream’ was fine. If you like it to be your ‘official’ site, then that’s cool; I’m just not used to it 
Coding and Validation
Your coding has 10 errors and 7 warnings.
I’m sure my friend Jorja went through some of these. You’re missing the alt attribute in some of your images though. This means alternative text, for people who cannot see the image. Even if it’s blank, you should put alt="" somewhere in the image tag.
It’s not hugely important, but if you want to have less errors in validation, you should remove the two allowtransparency="yes" that you see in your Cbox code.
All your <br /> should be <br>. The backslash is only used in XHTML – a different form of HTML. These only cause warnings though, not errors. It’s possible to get things validated without changing these. Let’s see what else there is.
For that SOTM banner, remove the backslash in bold here:
<a href="http://www.scribblethis.karlakay.net" target="_blank" title="Scribble This"><img src="http://i464.photobucket.com/albums/rr1/scribblethis/votebanner.gif" alt="Cheese scribble from scribblethis.karlakay.net!" border="0" /></a>
That’s what I meant by the backslashes. I see you’re using a counter but it’s hidden. You will notice that too has a backslash at the end of the image tag. Remove that too. They don’t do anything mean; they’re only for when you convert to XHTML, when things change a bit.
The counter image needs an alt attribute too.
Haha, your live signature on your blog entry has that backslash too. See, XHTML is quite common nowadays, which is why XHTML codes are offered when you visit a lot of sites. Your signature too, needs an alt attribute.
You forget to put a </div> before </body>, which ends your big div.
Also, near your cbox code, you have <div> which actually shouldn’t be there.
Fixing all those will give you valid HTML!
Your CSS has 5 errors.
Ah.. float:center – you can’t do that. It should be float:right so that your layout will look better.. I will go into more detail of this in a moment.
Towards the end of your CSS, this comes up:
border-bottom: 1px solid ##4B088A;
Yep, that extra hash shouldn’t be there!
You’re using coloured scrollbars as well – which is a no-no. It leaves your coding invalid, not to mention only works in Internet Explorer. You may like IE, but if you ever discover Firefox, it’s smoother and faster, not to mention is the browser most professional webdesigners use.
Browser Compatibility & Usability
Your site looks different in Firefox and Internet Explorer according to Browsershots.org. I’ll go through this in detail later.
The text size is good, and the navigation is clear. Great job!
It would be nicer if the links were a different colour when you hover over them. Set a:hover in your CSS to a different colour.
Instead of normal links, you might want to try vertical CSS block navigation.
The header image is quite large. It would be better smaller; some people use quite small screen resolutions so it would be better for them if you didn’t make such a large image.
Layout
It’s quite a cute layout with a good choice of colours. The pink background for the image is too pink; it should match the purple background.
I have a little problem with the image you used. I know you’re trying to get a coloured background behind the fairies, but you haven’t removed the white very properly. I understand this can be hard if you don’t have programs like Photoshop, so perhaps it’s best to use a white background or a very light background, to maintain the focus on the fairies. You know they can stand out without a coloured background!
The header image is quite large, as I have already mentioned. You could reduce the size of the text in which you wrote your site name.
Your content div – the spot in which your content appears – is quite narrow. There is a big gap to the right of the layout when I browse through. This is only in Firefox though, things look alright in Internet Explorer.
First, instead of putting the div heights at 1000, put them at auto. This makes things look a lot neater, and you won’t have so many unnecessary scrollbars.
Secondly, there is a lot of unnecessary white space around your content. Your content is set to float:left. It would be much better if you tried float:right and increased the width. This makes things neater and fills up the space. Simply fiddle with the widths a bit.
Also, I see you’re trying to center the layout, but this only seems to work in Internet Explorer. This might be a rather advanced step for you, but OhPanic’s tutorial on centering layouts is a great tutorial that will get your layouts in better shape.
Content
In your sidebar, add border="0" to the image tag; this ugly border appears around the stars you use to link to people.
About Me
On your biography page:
Dream, I should be Dream; I.
Wow, very interesting biography! I must say, after making it to Major 2/Grade 10 ballet myself, I must move along to get my official teacher’s diploma and whatnot. Anyway, I hope you get a chance to try jazz, tap and contemporary. I did them myself previously and they were very fun.
Very impressive resume! You have a few question-mark characters here when you write ‘St Patrick’s’. You might want to edit your file and retype what appears to be a curly apostophe, into a straight one. Basically, just take a look at the page; you’ll see some “unknown” characters.
The other pages here are fine; there are more of the unknown characters in your testimonials page.
The Works
This section was alright, but with the film synopses and so on, try to keep the same layout instead of having them open in another window with just the purple background.
The page ‘apply for a project’ is blank.
Writing
These pages should also be integrated into the layout rather than opening in a new plain window.
The poem Honey, Smile is linked, therefore leads to a blank page since it is ‘coming soon’.
I obviously won’t review the poems; that’s just rude to critique someone’s personal works. I like them though; they’re a nice addition. Personally, I had so many of my own that I opened up another site for my writings 
Media
Urgh. Your gallery page is empty; you mention “here are two pictures of me” – don’t see any. 
The video page is empty. There is no video
Photography is coming soon. You should take this page down until there is something!
Fun Factory
To be honest, the bullets on this page are distracting. Try a non-animated bullet.
These pages should also be coded to open as integrated into the layout, not just a plain page.
50 Questions – fair; not much one can say about a quiz.
Reviews – fair deal. Nothing wrong here.
Fanmail – nice. Hope you get more!
Playlist – all good. Thankfully it doesn’t auto-start! Thumbs up. Can’t say I love the music though… then again we all have different tastes. I’ll stick with my Poets of the Fall for now.
Toybox – fair deal. Cute stuff. Adopt more!
Gifts – self explanatory.
Calendar – cute! Credit where you got the calendar icon from. Best of luck in your dance exams.
Nice poll. Add some more.. people can get bored easily. I voted for Mackenzie.
Charity – nothing wrong here. I often dump my loose change into the donation boxes at Maccas.
Credits – not bad. Don’t forget to credit where that little calendar icon was from! And the Tinkerbell (I tihnk I remember the fairy’s name now, haha) pictures.
Dedication – sweet
Contact Me
No problems here. Because your div is so narrow, your form appears at the foot of the page.
Originality & Creativity
I’ve never come across a very personal site like yours. I actually enjoyed my visit. It’s not very often you come across a site dedicated to someone’s hobby of dancing!
Cute layout; very original content like writings and personal things. You sound like a very nice person.
I guess you’re limited with your graphics programs (Photoshop can be as expensive as hell if you can’t find a cracked version) but I can really see that you put effort into your site.
Organisation & Errors
Fairly well organised. I would just fix/tweak the layout a bit. Try not to make it too large. My mum has the smallest monitor in the world and I know there are people with tiny monitors who wouldn’t like looking at big layouts. One of the smallest resolutions is 800 by 600 pixels; keep that in mind!
I know you have pages that are coming soon, which is why they aren’t linked, but you have a lot. It doesn’t look that impressive. Perhaps you should just pop the link up when it’s all ready.
You write very well. I couldn’t really pick at anything.
Overall Comment
Your site wasn’t bad to run through, Teza. You’re an interesting and talented girl. I understand you’re still trying out HTML and whatnot, perhaps having a bit of trouble with it too, but the best thing you can do to consolidate is to read up on some tutorials.
If you’re having trouble making a layout (and this is what I used to do when I started out), find a freely distributed layout on the internet, and study that, and perhaps switch the colours around and add an image. It really helps you learn little things, by looking at others’ work. If you take a template and edit it, make sure you give credit though.
There are a lot of simple, but professional-looking layouts out there that can be easily edited with your cute Tinkerbell image. This really suits your site, as it’s, well, your ‘official site’.
Of course, I suggest you work on your coding little by little. First, take the little points I mentioned about increasing the width of the div. That makes a huge difference. Float it to the right as well.
Your content is great and original; it really makes your hobby shine.
Graphic tutorials are out there too; if you don’t have those programs you can always download some good ones off the internet, like Gimp. If that fails, you don’t have to make a snazzy image – simple is always best.
I admit your site didn’t “wow” me, but you definitely have some potential. Remember that even the greatest webdesigners need help sometimes, and we don’t know everything. So don’t hesitate to read tutorials or ask people for help when it comes to coding.
Sorry I sort of trailed off. You seem like a determined girl, so best of luck with your site and with future endeavours!
