Archived Review
- Reviewer: Kaytlin
- Review date: 20th Feb 2010
Layout: You have a really cute layout! From the small screenshot I saw I didn't think I would like the website, but after clicking on it I have to admit it's adorable, although there are things I don't like about it. I really like the white bar that lines the top of the page with your friends and affiliates on it -- very original and cute. The patterned wood background is nice as well. The image in your header is pretty small and the words are a bit difficult to read, I have to lean in. I think you should maybe make your site title bigger next time, as well as leave out the "[dot]" in "alovewar[dot]com". The text in your main content area and sidebar are both very small and light on the white. I'd make the text in your sidebar at least the size as your main text is right now, and make the main text a size or two larger. Both should be darker, in my opinion. I also dislike the green you used for your underlined words and "ask" box. It's very bright and hard to read. A more jade-ish green from the moose in your header would match better anyway. Also looking at your sidebar, I think that the "ask me" box is silly. You should just have a contact form or something located on a seperate page on your site. Also, this:
What does this handy dandy little fella do, you ask? It tracks your IP in case you do something mischievous here--so watch it. :]
before your eXtreme Tracker is a little juvenile and just takes up space and makes your sidebar longer :/
I'm not going to review your coding because I'm not the best person to advise you about that, plus it seems like the reviewer before me did a good job with all that xD
Content:
Glancing at your navigation, I would rename the section you have as "content" to "resources" or "visitor" or something like that -- "content" is EVERYTHING on your site, not just the stuff for visitors, but blog entires, information etc.
Okay, so now I'll review the "Domain" section...
Domain:
When I visit a website I prefer to have the main information about the site on one page, then, if nessecary, additional links in an unordered list. It just looks nicer and seems warmer to the visitor, in my opinion. Yhe "site history" is a little long and all the alternating italicized, bold, and underlined text is sort of distracting, however. I also think you should get rid of the "Site Gifts!" page. All the other subpages are fine. Cute link back buttons! :)
About: The first thing I notice about this is that the picture you have of yourself seems too large for your layout. The picture should also have padding. An easy fix to this is:
img {
padding: 5px;
border: 0px;
}
in your stylesheet. This sentence:
HEY. YOU. Immature = Im mature. So suck it. (:
is unneeded, and I don't quite understand it anyway. I'd combine your "basic info" and "offline life" sections -- they are both talking about your offline life, as far as I can tell. I'd maybe cut down on all that you wrote here, it's a little extensive for my taste but others disagree with me so whatever you like. One question I have though, is why doesn't Catherine have an about section if she's co-owner?
Content: As I mentioned before, I'd rename this section. You seem to have a lot of visitor content! Good job :)
Downloads: In your brushes, I assume FailForward was an old site of yours? I'd change the credits on your brushes, just so people aren't confused. Since you don't really offer 'downloads' of the brushes, but instead stamps where people have to make them into brushes themselves, I'd link to tutorials of how to make images into brushes. Not everyone knows :) But using stamps is a good idea, since there are many different graphics programs out there and it'd be nearly impossible to create downloadable sets for every program. All the brushes are very cute and original except for the quotes (they aren't very high quality and anyone can type quotes out and stick them on images -- I don't see the point.) I noticed your textures are taking long to load, if I were you I'd resize them and make thumbnails to link to instead of using "height=" and "width="...the textures themselves are okay, but I don't see myself using them.
I love your emoticons -- you should definitely work on these and add loads more, you're talented and these will bring people back to A Love War. I would get rid of the vectors -- they don't even look like real vectors and infringe copyright anyway. Use of nonroyalty-free images = bad. What would these be used for anyway? I don't see these being attractive in layouts.
Graphics: Your icons are nice, just make sure the images aren't infringing any copyrights. The signatures are okay; I don't see myself using them but someone else might. The illustrations page is the best I've seen yet of yours -- I'd just suggest making your own thumbnails, again. Your photography is very nice as well, again about the thumbnails...and maybe organize it into "people", "flowers", "food", etc. The twitter icons are cute, but really big. I also have seen similar ones to these around before -- did you make them?
Video Editing: The particle illusions is a good idea -- only you state yourself:
"... I did not make any of these particle illusions..."
You should check and make sure the people who did make them are okay with you redistributing them. If so, you should at least link to their websites, if you can.
Domains: Your button bases and website signs are nice. I don't know why anyone would ever use a "site namer", and the ones I've gotten: "Innocent Breeze", "Dramatic Impulse", and "Joyful Rain" aren't exactly great, in my opinion.
Tutorials: Your tutorial about displaying twitter in the sidebar could be very helpful to someone, and you explained everything extremely well. Your eye color thing for Photoshop is neat too -- I'd only suggest not using celebrity images for your example.
Articles: Your articles are nice for the most part, I particularly like the one about stage fright. The only article you have that I don't like as much is the "Make Money Online" one...and that one would be okay without reccomending "Blogvertise". I think it's a very bad idea to blog for money, and makes your website seem cheap.
Misc. Your win-a-domain thing is a very nice feature to offer. I personally don't like the "Best Site Award" idea, but whatever floats your boat :) The "Guess the Amount of Jellybeans" is a cute idea! Very original. A lot of sites do "Find the pencil/turtle/whatever" so Freddy isn't as original :P The Birthday Calendar is nice, maybe you could put a list of everyone who put in their birthday on that page, with a link to their website and when their birthday is? :)
Conclusion
All in all, I think your website is well on the way to greatness. With a few changes, your site could become extremely popular and the go-to for graphics! :)
