Archived Review
- Reviewer: MirandaAdria
- Review date: 23rd Dec 2008
Hello. =) You reviewed my site, so now I shall review yours.
Coding
I ran your site through W3's Validator and you have 11 errors. I would check them out and try to fix them.
Layout
I love that color purple. It's not too bold, not too soft, and it makes the site pleasant to look at. The animation of the cat is a nice touch. My only problem with the header really is that the title of the site is text, as opposed to incorporated with the layout itself. Perhaps you could paint a wooden sign with the name of the site and make the sign the link back to your main page.
I can understand why your links are in alphabetical order (sincw Wordpress likely did that automatically) but it breaks up the flow of your pages. Your Animations and Drawings should be listed on after the other. I would suggest making your own HTML box widget in Wordpress, and putting them in a more logical order.
About
I would like to see a little more information about you in your About page. Certainly, you have a main site (http://mithmeoi.net/) that people can visit. However, for those that end up not visiting that site, there should be a little bit more info for them on your portfolio site.
I love the rollover effect you did on the images. I like when people think of the little details.
Animation
I'm going to give you the same critique you gave me. (Quite frankly, I find it just a bit hypocritical that you tell me I should have thumbnails for my commission/exhibition pages, but you have not done the same for your Animations... however, I digress). I would suggest having thumbnails for the videos, so that visitors have a quick idea of what the video entails.
I would also recommend hosting the videos on your own server. Having them on Youtube almost seems like a lazy gesture to me. The benefit of having the video on your server is that you can customize exactly how you want it to be presented on your site. Youtube has that big icon in the corner and it's just a big distracting when this is supposed to be someone's portfolio.
However, your Flash animations are wonderful: the obvious benefit of uploading the animation to your own server. ;)
Commission
Your commissions page is pretty straightforward, but I think it would be best if you made your email address a link. That way, people can access the address more efficiently.
Contact
Also straighforward. However, I think you need to check your form. I tried sending you a message and I received this:
Failed to send your message. Please try later or contact administrator by other way.
Also, if you use any IM services, I would put the names on this page as well.
Drawings
The system you have set up for your images is fine. However, there's no way for the visitor to go back album without clicking Drawings and then the respective folder again. I would suggest having a link back to the complete album on each page so people can easily go back.
I clicked on one of the images and saw you have a light box script. To make your life easier, I would simply have the lightbox script on the main gallery pages, so that people can click a thumbnail and open the image right there. Having the images on single pages just seems like more work for nothing.
Links
Your links page is straightforward. I would personally like to see more links. Perhaps you could add links to artists that inspire you, but that create art outside of what you normally create. This would show clients that you have a much firmer grasp of what kind of art is out there.
Final Thoughts
Overall, your site is well done and fits in with the kind of art you create. However, I gave it a 4 because I feel there are things that could have been given more time and consideration.