Archived Review
- Reviewer: Julie
- Review date: 21st Nov 2008
Layout
A simple layout. Very simple...Perhaps a bit too much. It lacks a bit of "spice". Sure, it's a tutorial site and the focus is on the content, which consists mainly of text, but maybe it could use a bit of...I don't know...I'm not much into dark layouts,
to tell the truth, so perhaps it's only my bias at work. But you got this rainbow bar at the top. It's like you put all the color on the top and forgot to put any lower. :P
Content - Tutorials
The very first thing I notice is that you used an image for the Reflection tutorial (as in, the entire tutorial is an image). This is a big no no, for multiple reasons. First, it's bad in terms of accessibility. Sure, people who use Photoshop tend
to not be blind, and you might take it for granted that the majority of them will browse with images on. However, if you want any chance with search engines, then you're much better off with actual text, because it can't index the content
of the image. Second, it seriously takes up loading time. The image takes over 300KB, which is very large.
The second thing I noticed is that you haven't even written these tutorials yourself! This brings to the inevitable question of whether you actually have any permission to post these tutorials at all. As someone who says of herself
"I love writing, designing, and coding. Mix them all up, and you get a web developer.", I'd expect you to be actually able to write your own tutorials. If you don't want to because you think there are already plenty of good tutorials out there,
well you might as well not have a tutorial site at all. You could even have a sort of resource site where you link to tutorials you find particularly useful and/or well written.
Content - Jobs
I see you are even looking to hire, which I believe makes my previous point even stronger. If you're paying people for a job, I hope for you that the job in question is legal.
Content - Articles
So, if I understand correctly, these are articles who have also posted on helium.com?
I don't really have to say about the articles. They seem to be good (too lazy to read all of them :D).
One of them is titled "The difference be The difference between web design and web development". I guess the mistake will be obvious if you read it carefully.
You seem to have put a lot of care into writing these articles, which makes me wonder a lot about your tutorials! If you are able to write quality articles on how to create and maintain a website, surely you can either a) create quality tutorials
or b) not copy other people's tutorials.
When you mention other websites
I see that, in your tutorials, you clearly mention the author. If you do have permission to publish these tutorials, then my apologies for my assumptions. In that case, however, you should make an actual link to his website. The same applies
on other pages. For example, on your about page, you mention helium.com, but you haven't linked the site.
Content - Polls
The poll archives page doesn't exist.
Coding
Mmm, you seem to use a lot of Javascript. I have a personal hatred of Javascript, but that's another story. However, aren't there some of these things that could be done otherwise, like using PHP? It would have the great advantage of working
for people who turn Javascript off.
I must also ask again a question previously asked: who made the layout? I'm asking because your stylesheet credits someone. No real problem because of the license, just wondering.
You should use relative font sizes. They would be more friendly for your users, who can there resize the text as they wish.
Else, I don't really have anything to say about your markup and CSS. You seem to know your stuff.
Summary
I will repeat it again: if you do have permission to use these tutorials on your site, then go ahead and do so. However, if you do not, then, please, remove them.
As for the rest, you are doing a good job. And, well, I'm really short on words today. I must have used them all on other reviews.