Rogued

Rogued

***-- (Rated by 5 people, viewed by 152 people)

The website of a teenage British girl containing blogs and portfolio.

Added by Sophie in Personal

Rogued has 5 Reviews

Below are the reviews left by other members on Rogued. Jump to review form?

  1. [img: avatar]
    bubblez gave it ****- on 23rd Dec 2008 and said:

    Hello Sophie! I am Bubblez. I might be harsh or too honest. I hope you don't mind. While I am reviewing, I will use Firefox 3 on windows XP. Here we go...

    000. Site Name
    Easy to remember and type into the address bar.

    001. Layout && Components.
    Image: Very Winter-y. I like the snowflakes. I think for the text 'rogued' info, the font color should be dark grayish to black. The
    white text just stands out.
    CSS: I like the simplicity of your css. The colors are really warming and goes well with your layout.
    Color scheme: Nicely chosen. Colors goes well with each other.
    Overall: It's lovely layout, I must say. Your sidebar is well spaced-out and is centered I believe. :) Great job! I think you need
    a paragraph break between your footer file. It's way too squished between your blog and the "back/home/forward" section! =)
    002. Html/CSS validation.
    ** Having these validated will affect how fast your site will load. Validating it may take some patience and time but after it is valid, it is
    worth it=)

    CSS: Six errors. Your first error says that the file you have for style2.css can not be founded. I am guessing it's because you have 2
    stylesheets. For your other errors, I am not too sure of what it means. I am sorry! :(
    HTML: You have 28 errors and 1 warning. Some of your tags are not closed or they are missing. I am noticing that you are trying to aim for XHTML strict or something like that. You should read tutorialtastic's tutorial on Validating the site into XHTML strict. I think it will
    help you understand the coding because it is quite different from normal HTML. However, the choice is up to you :)

    003. Sitely Content
    Very well-organized. Everything is in ABC-ordered.
    ** Advertising: Rules are easy to understand.
    ** Affiliates: Wow big font! lol. Rules are clear and easy to understand.
    ** Contact: Nice form.
    ** Credits: Nicely categorized.
    ** History: For this sentence: "this site was my most successful overall", it should be "This site was my most successful site overall".
    Interesting history!
    ** Hosting: Very clear but in my opinion, for a blogging system, it should be only Wordpress or FanUpdate as Cutenews is an insecure script.
    ** Link me: The text on this buttons should be in a pixel font. :) But's my opinion and the choice is up to you.
    ** Past layouts: Wow! Your layout styles are different for each layout. They are nicely done from looking at the screenshot. =)

    004. About you page.
    ** Very interesting to read. North east needs to be one word: Northeast. For this sentence: I would watch more, probably, if we had Sky TV, but we don't, so I don't, it should be this.. I would watch more TV if we had Sky TV but we don't have SkyTv.

    005. Visitors..
    ** Affie iamges: Nicely done. Different images. I like set number 3 though.
    ** Backgrounds:Wow, nicely done especially the striped ones.
    ** Bullets: Lovely. I love the smaller pluses. I might use them to organize my site more often=)
    ** Button bases: I am not so fond of some of the patterns/textures backgrounds.
    ** Color Palattes: The credits needs to be in a smaller font. they ruin the color palatte.
    ** image effects: Wow many effects. It's helpful especially the thumbnailed image.
    ** link effects: Wow there are so many effects. I didn't know there was that much link effects out there. It is useful.
    ** Misc. Effects: Wow, that's so much xD
    ** Gradients: I think you should show a preview of each gradient.. so that the person downloading them will know what they actually downloading.
    ** Movie Reviews: I won't review these because this is in your perspective. There are no wrong or right answeres for these. =)
    ** Reviews: Same thing as above. =) the form is nicely created. :)

    006. Overall!:
    Your site is great. It is filled with content. But some of your content are that very original or you can find it at different sites. Butyour content is high quality. I am very pleased with your site. There are some few things you need to change such as validating your HTML and CSS and fixing your grammar mistakes. I enjoyed browsing your site and good luck with your site =)

    Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

  2. Kyle gave it ***-- on 23rd Nov 2008 and said:

    Hello Sophie,
    My first impression upon visiting your site, was "decent".
    There are some features I enjoy, but there are also some I dislike.
    My review is completely based on my opinions.
    Shall we begin?

    Header Image:
    I'm not sure what you were doing when creating this, but I don't like it. First off the choppy, pixel, repetitive images were an instant turn off. Not to mention the plain, obsolete, background. Your idea of having brushes in the background was a bad choice. You should have added more brushes and/or effects, personally. Try adding some brushes that would flow with whole site. The flowers seem out of place. Your choice of cutting the images was okay, but the way you executed it was poor. You should not have cut the images randomly and left them like that. I would have faded the edges or added some texture. You should have also used more than one image from that model. Its repetitive and annoying.

    Css/Coding:
    Probably the only thing I really liked. Your css matched your header image, kudos. The coding was simple and sheik. Though I would have enjoyed a bit more, it was the best feature.

    Content:
    First of all, call it "Visitor" or something. Content is everything on your site. I was disappointed, you didn't have anything appealing. You didn't have anything I would use. I would recommend adding something more popular, like brushes or textures. The quality is not the best, you should try improving that. Also for what items you have, you need to add more. I quickly went through everything in a matter of minutes. Definitely not to my taste. I wouldn't go back for the content.

    Theme:
    Your site seems 2-Dimensional based only on 3 color, blue, pink, and black. Add more colors. Venture farther.

    Overall, I was not impressed but I was disappointed. This was a typical teenager website. It could definitely use some major work, but in time I'm sure it can be great. So Sophie, take this review as advice and I wish you the best of luck.

    Using Firefox on Mac | Report This?

    Sophie's Response:

    Your review is okay, but I didn't really think my site was 'a typical teenager website'.

    I agree I have to add some more content, but as you can see from my latest blog I just deleted 2 folders' worth. You only gave me 2.5 stars - what would the score have been if I still used celebrity images?!

    I'll use some of your ideas, but I think you could have been less critical on the design front. Thanks for reviewing me:)

  3. paperheart gave it ****- on 23rd Nov 2008 and said:

    Your layout goes very well with the css. The ony problem is its aceleb image which is illeagal.
    I would reccomend when making your new layout, be more creative and lay off al those copyrighted celeb images. Your site and css looks fine in both internet explorer and mozilla firefox.Which is very good, i must say. Your navagation links are very neat and tidy aswell i must say. lets check out your pages now :]

    Owner:
    Your text is the perfect size and youve even split your writing into paragraphs. The fanlistings at the bottom shoud have a title. For example "Fanlistings"

    Content:
    From first glance everything looks fine.
    Ive noticed in your "mini blends" page you have been uing celeb images. Again you shouldnt rely on celeb images. Be more creative, Less is more.
    I think the movie reviews is quiet a good idea, but why stop at two?

    Domain:
    Why haveyou got a terms and conditions page when at the top of everypage it clearly states the rules.Hoting should be on your sidebar navagation. Most people don't look through lots of pages just to find hosting.I have looked through your past layouts and you have used a lot of celeb images.

    Reviews:
    Laying out what you will be reviewing is a good idea and the word is "criteria" not "format".
    Why have you got a queue? Is that just free advertising for them? Theres no reason to be a queue.

    Tutorials:
    The tutorials are very basic and you really only have them on blogging systems. Try doing them on psp or photoshop or layout techniques.

    Main:
    why have you got a link bac to our blog? Thats what the little blue arrows are for at the top of your browser.

    Overall i think this is a very good site, but it would be even better if you didnt use celeb images.

    Using MSIE on Windows | Report This?

    Sophie's Response:

    Thanks for your review!

    I deleted the celebrity images, now the only one left is the layout. I won't use celebrity images for any more layouts, though. Thanks for your ideas!

  4. [img: avatar]
    Shadow gave it ***-- on 22nd Nov 2008 and said:

    First Impression

    I'm split on the header. For starters, it's a celebrity image, copyrighted, which is a turn off. But the concept is interesting. The colors aren't completely unbearable either. The background gradient works here because it doesn't distract from the rest of the layout.

    Blog and Sidebar

    That sidebar is small, ridiculously so. 151px? I think it can stand to go up another 100px. Shrink the blog container if need be. I think the advertising could be moved down after your short blurb. The key here is priority. The navigation as is gets lost. It would look better on top. This is how I would suggest the sidebar be prioritized:

    Navigation, prologue, your blurb, advertisement, affiliates, link me, reviewed by.

    Notice that I left the domain part out. That's something that goes into a page itself with more information. I'd also leave the blurb out about yourself for it would unclutter the sidebar further. But prioritizing is key here. Put the more important stuff at the top, the other things come after. You also need more padding for your sidebar.

    Along with more padding on the sidebar, you need more for the main content as well. It's significantly larger than the sidebar. I would cut off about 100px off of the main content box. The font size is okay.

    The other pages

    Owner: Hi, fellow Piscean! You have a lot of information here, well-written at that. The lack of padding in the main content is very evident here though.

    Content: Noooo, everything is content on your site. From the layout down to the footer. I know what this part is--visitor goodies and freebies, right? A better name would be "goodies" or "freebies".

    I don't care for the affie buttons (I assume those are the buttons you can use to link your affiliates?).

    Your diagnonal stripe backgrounds are hard on the eyes. I think it's more the closeness of the stripes more than anything, but it's really trippy.

    The bullets are...meh. I mean, they're bullets; you can't do much with them.

    So far I haven't seen a celeb image creation on your site other than your layout. So far, so good. With that being said, I don't like any of the button bases. They're generic--anyone who can work a graphics program could make those.

    You have color palettes, but the problem is that all but two (the all blue and the black, brown and orang-ish ones) clash in some way. But you are on the right track. Take a look at COLOURlovers and take a look at some of the schemes there. You can get some inspiration from those to create your own schemes as well.

    Remember when I said I haven't seen a celeb image creation other than your layout? I spoke too soon. The icon bases. Infringing on copyright. There are a lot of stock image sites where you can use the pictures for free (or with small terms like crediting and written permission--but it's still free), and you won't have to use those celebrity images as a crutch.

    That goes for the mini blends and the .PSD's as well.

    The filter effects used for your HTML codes do not work in anything else but IE. If you're going to offer codes on your site, stretch that textarea a little longer, or even better: <code> tags with the HTML codes between them eliminates the need for textareas!

    All of the misc. codes should be gone from your site, especially these:

    No right click and no right click with popup: Popups are annoying in itself, but having no right click on top of that? Furthermore, if someone is going to see your source, there are ways around that, rendering it useless.

    Go back/forward link: We have those on our browsers already.

    So far, your visitor section is as generic as it's gonna get. If you really want people to come back to your site, you need to offer something that isn't overdone (I would say never done before, but everything's been done before).

    Domain: A lot of forms for things, but not enough information about the site. You have a history page, which isn't very long. I will say this, after looking at your layout history, you are seriously using the celebrity images as a crutch. I see potential--branch away!

    Reviews: You only have one review completed, which was well-written. I hope that you're not that sweet in all of your reviews! :) You need more submissions, obviously.

    Tutorials: A 404 page...wait, no. It works, but...I think I need to figure that out in the coding section.

    *winces at the Cutenews tutorial* Cutenews is insecure. I highly discourage anyone to use it. You don't have too many tutorials. You explain things pretty well, except that you don't need the font installation tutorial.

    I noticed that there are unknown characters in your tutorial pages. I would look them over and change them to what they're supposed to be, which looks to be apostrophies.

    Coding

    You're familiar with ID's and classes for divs. However, this is what I see in your code.

    <h3>Prologue</h3>
    <h2>
    Hi, and welcome to
    <u>rogued</u>
    .info! This site is my personal blogspace with lots of content and resources for you. I spent a lot of time and effort on this site so please leave a comment and I hope you'll come back soon!
    </h2>

    This is a no-no. You can do something like this:

    <h3>Prologue</h3>
    <p>
    Hi, and welcome to
    <strong>rogued.info!<strong>This site is my personal blogspace with lots of content and resources for you. I spent a lot of time and effort on this site so please leave a comment and I hope you'll come back soon!
    </p>

    Notice that I got rid of the underline. The reason for that is because it is not recommended to use underlines for regular text. <h2>'s are used for headers and headers alone.

    This:

    <link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href='http://rogued.info/style.css'>

    Should be in your header, between <head> and </head>.

    Oh, scratch that, you have it duplicated for some reason. Get rid of the second instance of that, which is in the footer part of your file.

    And remember the problem with things showing up as 404's:

    <ul id="navigation">
    <li><a href='owner.php'>Owner</a></li>
    <li><a href='content.php'>Content</a></li>
    <li><a href='domain.php'>Domain</a></li>
    <li><a href='reviews.php'>Reviews</a></li>
    <li><a href='tutorials.php'>Tutorials</a></li>
    <li><a href='index.php'>Main</a></li>

    This is the easiest thing to fix!

    <ul id="navigation">
    <li><a href='/owner.php'>Owner</a></li>
    <li><a href='/content.php'>Content</a></li>
    <li><a href='/domain.php'>Domain</a></li>
    <li><a href='/reviews.php'>Reviews</a></li>
    <li><a href='/tutorials.php'>Tutorials</a></li>
    <li><a href='/index.php'>Main</a></li>

    Using target=_blank is discouraged. If people want to open into a new tab/window, they'll right click. <b> and <i> tags are discouraged. You'll get the same effect using <strong> and <em>.

    Your style.css needs some serious trimming down. For example, I don't think you're using any tables. You can get rid of that. If you are using tables, you shouldn't be anyway.

    You don't need to define a cursor as default: It will do that...by default.

    All in all...

    I see promise in your site. I suggest looking here to help you along the way. A lot of your work needs to be done in the coding area. You also need to branch away from what you're used to in the graphics department. You have great concepts for layouts I'm sure, but you need to explore other options other than using celebrity images. There are several stock photo sites you should go into. Your graphics to distribute to others aren't up to par. We see what you're capable of. Go big! Not too big though, remember, quality over quantity. Prioritize, and please, please, please with chicken wings and fries on the side, open up that sidebar! Good luck!

    Using Opera on Windows | Report This?

    Sophie's Response:

    Hi, thanks for your review! I know I need to get away from the celebrity images - I'm currently making new graphics to replace them - but they might be there for the next few weeks while I stock up. And thanks for the tip on the sidebar, I haven't been told about that before. 3 stars is pretty much more or less what I was expecting, but hopefully in the next month or so I can get my site up to 4. Thanks!

    UPDATED 22 Nov 08:
    PS - I do use tables, in my review section. I try to stay away from them usually, though.

  5. [img: avatar]
    Lilian gave it ***-- on 22nd Nov 2008 and said:

    Hi there Sophie. Welcome to Review Me! I'll be reviewing your design.

    There are three elements I love about this layout. They are the floral patterns in the header image, the colours and simplicity. In return there are many elements which require consideration, however I'd say you're on the right track. Here are my suggestions.

    The header image contains beautiful floral patterns, which are obscured by a fragmented mish-mash of a woman's face (Christina?). The pixelated areas make it seem hurried and busy. There is no focal point in this piece which justifies its chaotic nature.

    There is a nice area where half her face is in colour and the other is in black and white. However, given how lovely the pattern behind her is I would recommend scraping the abstract polygons altogether and rearranging the flowers into a composition.

    I do believe your site title is legible, but the value of the text and the rectangle it sits on is very close. Since it's borderline it may pay to darken the text or lighten the rectangle slightly.

    The typography (including that in your header) fits its purpose even though it is in Arial, which to me is a very ugly franken-font. Speaking impartially, it pays to build a good font stack in case the specified font (in this case Arial) isn't on the target computer.

    http://unitinteractive.com/blog/2008/06/26/better-css-font-stacks/

    Justified text creates spaces between words - we read those spaces as gaps which creates a very choppy reading experience. Given people scan when they read online - as opposed to general proper reading - it would be optimum to change the alignment to the left. Two other things you could do to improve readability is soften the colour of the text (black on white is very harsh) to a dark grey and increase the line height.

    In addition to this, the sidebar text is the same size as the content text. Decrease it to differentiate it, or assign it a paler colour. Some padding between these two elements should also be implemented.

    The meta information underneath each title runs into the body text of the entry. Again, another issue with padding that is easily resolved.

    The gradient doesn't fade out very subtly - it seems to stop on a light grey onto white. I'm assuming this is just a simple mistake. Using a lighter grey should solve this.

    The navigational links don't have a very big hit area. Since they are on separate lines anyway why not set them as blocks i.e. {display:block;}?

    All in all, the layout is a very good effort. With some changes it could be even better. Good luck.

    Using Firefox on Mac | Report This?

    Sophie's Response:

    I'll definitely consider using a different font in the future, and use a grey font colour. I need to change the sidebar size, so I will alter the padding at the same time. Thanks for your review!

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