UrbanGenius.Org has 5 Reviews
Below are the reviews left by other members on UrbanGenius.Org. Jump to review form?
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/paintedskies.png)
paintedskies gave it
on 29th Dec 2008 and said:Hello. I'm Scott and I will be reviewing your website today. I'm not going to be nice all the way through, I'm going to be giving you my honest opinion on your website, so here goes...
Firstly, I don't really like this layout. It isn't the worst i've seen, but with a few improvements this layout could become okay.
- I'd reduce the white-space you have above your header. This is making the whole layout look unattractive. Also, I like the blue patterning, but I don't like the font you've used for your site title. Or the pattern for that matter. It's okay, though, just a bit hard to read.
- That fixed / floating nav is doing my head in. This whole craze started of at swimchick and in my opinion, it should stay there. Why can't someone do something different without everyone else following? It annoys me.
- I like the sidebar headers, but not so much the blog ones. I suggest not making them italic and uppercase. Try having them normal, I think it looks better.
- Try changing the main typeface to #555. It looks better and has a better contrast. Also try adding a bigger line-height. At the moment the main typeface looks like it's squished together.
Apart from that, I think the layout is okay.
Now, I'd just like to ask you why your 'about' page is contained inside the domain page? Surely it makes sense to have it the other way round. Try labelling the 'domain' page to 'about'. Then you can have an Aaron section and an Urban Genius section. It just makes it a lot more easy for your visitors.
ABOUT AARON - There isn't hardly anything here? Try adding the 'things I'd like to do' part and putting it underneath the summary about you. That way it fills the one page up a little more and saves me from clicking onto more links (yeah, I'm lazy). I think you could add a little bit more info about yourself. This just makes you look more lazier than me! I barely have anything on my about page, but I have still added enough information for the visitor to get a rough idea about me.
AFFILIATES/FREE ADVERTISING - Pretty self explanatory. It's nice to see you have some requirements for both. I have nothing to pick at on these pages as they're pretty similar.
CONTACT ME - What if people don't like using a contact form? Try adding your email somewhere else on the page so the person that wants to contact you that way can. This reminds me, I should really add a form to my website!
CREDITS - This page seems in order, but I've noticed one problem! You have written Lyndsay @ Lynday... surely it should be Lyndsay @ Victimizes? :P
PAST LAYOUTS / SUBDOMAIN HOSTING - Remove these pages until you get them sorted? It's pretty pointless for them just to be sitting there doing nothing.
RESOURCES -
The introduction, in my opinion, needs to be re-written.[blockquote]I will not make you swear that you won't steal or claim my content as yours, but I highly advise that you read the Terms of Usage before searching through any of my visitor content. All I ask is for you to credit me back when neccessary.[/blockquote]
I feel that is a little better than the previous one.
BUTTON BASES - They aren't the worst I've seen, but I really don't like these. I don't really see a purpose for them.
COLOUR PALETTES - The only one that I like is the third one in. At least they match and flow nicely. However, some people have no colour sense, so they will do nicely for other people!
FOOTER BUTTONS - I remember seeing this sort of thing about two years ago. People just usually use text links for their forwards / back links.
LARGE TEXTURES - I don't like them, but I'm sure people with graphic websites will. They're colourful, and if I were to use one, which I wouldn't because I don't really make graphics like this anymore, then I'd reduce the opacity a lot.
MSN ICONS - These icons are okay. I personally wouldn't use them, but I know people who would. :)
100x100 ICONS - These icons are also nicely made. Well done!
LINKS OUT - I'm sure this should be a resource list. At the moment I'm confused to why it is there because it doesn't look like one. Try to sort this out ASAP.
DOWNLOADS - The downloads seem to be okay, too. I'm not going through all of them because this review is quite long already, but the downloads link thing is confusing me like it did on your content page. Why is this here?
DOMAIN CHALLENGES - Maybe you should state that they only need to know a little bit of PHP. Do you want them to write scripts, a CMS or something like that? I have the feeling you don't quite grasp the difference between XHTML and PHP.
ACTIVITIES: JOKES - These are really irelevant. Especially the "You momma" ones. They're really disrespectful and I wouldn't ever publish them on my website. I know you're not aiming them at anyone, but they're old and a bit mean.
FASHION POLICE & CAPTION ME - These are a really cool idea! They both made me laugh and I can't wait until people start posting entries there. When I feel a bit annoyed I can look at these celebrities looking like idiots and it will cheer me up! Great idea.
GAMES - I don't think you should have these on your site. Maybe do a list of all your favourite game websites and recommend some awesome games. It would be a lot better!
Overall I gave your website 3*'s. It has some nice content, but still a lot could do with improving. You seem to be able to write very well, so that's also good. With some of the improvements I suggested I hope you will make your site a lot of a better place to be. I hope you don't take all the negatives to hear, because I didn't intend to do that. Enjoy!
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![[img: avatar]](/avatars/cecelia.jpg)
cecelia gave it
on 29th Dec 2008 and said:Hi, my name is Cecelia and I’m going to review your site (surprise!). English is not my mother tongue, so I apologize for any mistakes. I am only going to focus on the layout because it’s the only thing I can give constructive criticism to and I will do it by reviewing everything from top to bottom and then the layout as a whole.
Top navigation field: I like the idea with the fixed navigation so you always know where to find it, but I think I would re-think the styling of it. It’s sort of hard to make out what it says when you scroll further down on the site, so I guess I’d make the background non-transparent and maybe do with a background image to make it stand out (a gradient turning from a light colour to a darker one and ending in a border would be a classic, but it could probably be done in a better way).. Either that or include the navigation in the rest of the layout (it’s hard to make out the navigation – at first I thought your affiliate-links where the navigation)..
Header image: A bit too simple for me. It doesn’t really look like it’s something you’ve spend a lot of time on. Also it’s a big header compared to what’s actually on it, I am a big fan of white space, but it doesn’t really work here.
Entries (the styling of the div you call content in your html): Everything looks really great here – except for a lack of whitespace (in my opinion). A bit more distance between each entry – it creates a lot of confusion when it’s hard to make out what is what. And maybe also a tiny bit between the header, the meta stuff and the actual entry..Sidebar: There is not much to say about this, but I would also make sure there was a bit more whitespace between each ‘section’ in the sidebar.
Footer: Nothing wrong with this! Great with a site map and the link to the top!
Over all thoughts: A decent layout that works but doesn't give anything extraordinary. It looks like something we've all seen before and it would probably be a good idea to work on the header image and maybe also to add a bit of styling to other elements as well.
I hope you don't think I've been too harsh, I really don't mean to be, but it's just so much easier to criticize than to praise (and also praising won't make your site any better)..
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Lexxi gave it
on 29th Dec 2008 and said:Hello there. I will be reviewing your site today. I'm straightforward and to the point and I don't like to beat around the bush. So, I hope this review will be of use to you.
Layout
Personally, I'm not a fan of this layout. The first thing that I notice is the site name on your header image. They're so tight together and hard to read. Also, there is no holes in your letters r, b, a, and o. It's a little bit annoying and when I see this layout, I'm kind of tempted to draw it on there myself. I would suggest including those holes and spreading out each letter so that it would be easier to read. The next thing that really bothers me is the navigation on top. It follows me everywhere and I can't stand it. Either have the option to turn it off or make it so that it stays on top. Also, I find it kind of silly that your title says "simplicity gone 3 dimensional" when there's really nothing three dimensional about your layout. Then we go to the blue title text in your updates/blog entries. It's too close together! Again, my suggestion would be to space out your letters. It's unattractive and hard to read the way it is right now. Also, the grey text for your updates is way too light. It's almost blending in with the grey background. My suggestion would be to make the font color way darker.Coding
My forte is a bit more on the graphic side so I'm not going to go into too much detail on your coding. Your site has 23 errors and 6 warnings for HTML. It seems like simple things like forgetting to close tags and whatnot so I would considering giving it a closer look. You have 6 errors and 26 warnings for your css. The main problem is the .txt and the fact that the "rols" and "cols" does not exist. Also, you have some issues with the #navigation which concerns the opacity.Content
You have a lot of content, which is surprising since you've only been open for a couple of days. Anyway, I will be reviewing only some of the pages that were of interest to me.
MSN and 100x100 Icons: Your icons page was very unmemorable. All of them looked like they could've been done by anyone who doesn't have any design experience. It's mostly just a gradient background with text on it. Put some effort into your content. Nobody wants something they can make in 5 seconds.
Textures: Your textures are...pretty scary. I would suggest checking out textures by Feel Resources and the designers you see on deviantart and compare it to yours. Your textures are really bad quality. You gotta think about your visitors and ask yourself if they would honestly want to use them. They look like you went crazy with the noise filter and the pencil tool. Textures are supposed to be abstract and interesting and be a great component in blending images. Would you use these textures for your layouts?
CSS Templates: I can't really comment on them much because I can't view them. I would highly suggest you have live previews (seeing the actually layout itself) for these since many people are not going to download them if they don't get a good look at it first.
Icon Textures: Now that's more like it! These icon textures, from the preview, look much better then your large textures. They look much more interesting and well thought out.
About Aaron: Not really much information about yourself. Also, I would suggest you proofread, especially this sentence: "I'm hard of hearing but more involved in the hearing community since I there isn't really a difference. I obviously love webdesign- its what I do in my spare time." It makes absolutely no sense at all.
Overall
I wasn't really impressed with anything I saw on your website. Work on your color choices and making things easier to read for your visitors. Also work on quality over quantity. You have a lot of stuff, but most of it is mediocre. Also edit the urbangenius.org title on your main image. It's the name of your site and I understand you want it to stand out but, you also have to make it readable.Using Firefox on Mac | Report This?
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Dayna.png)
Dayna gave it
on 28th Dec 2008 and said:Reviewed using Firefox 3.0.5, Resolution 1440x900
Layout, Navigation & Sidebar
I see a huge white patch on the header image, that could be removed and the layout would definitely looks better. I like the font of the website title, it is different from the usual fonts everyone is using but it makes the text quite hard to read. Regarding the blue floral like design on the header image, it is simple and neat but I feel that more effects and such should be added to enhance the look of it. It looks pretty dull that way. The background is nice, navigation is something different too because it is always at the top. There are pros and cons to this. The advantage is that we do not have to scroll all the way back up for the navigation. Disadvantage is that it is too transparent when the background has a lot of text (if you scroll down to the content area, the navigation is not obvious at all, had some problem reading the text).
From your sidebar, "Urban Genius has been up since January 2009.", that is slightly confusing too since it is still December now.
Content
Aaron > Things I'd Like to do Before I Can't Do It: On this page, the title looks squashed together, there is no spacing between the words which makes it quite hard to read. This applies to all the other titles as well.
Aaron > Short But NOT So Full Biography: Since there is no content here yet, it will be better to remove the link to this page as visitors would only get disappointed upon clicking on that link.
Domain: I feel that the page about you should not be linked on this section. In my opinion, it is more appropriate to have a separate section about yourself. I would like to point out that the link back buttons is nice, the design is creative. :) Perhaps a few more buttons of different sizes?
Domain > Affiliates: My English is not that good but I feel that for this sentence "Please note that if you're not (you've) responded within a week, you were (will) not accepted.", it sounds more right with the words in brackets.
Domain > Past Layouts: Maybe add a screenshot here? Maybe its just me but I feel that a picture would be better.
Resources: I find it unnecessary to link downloads from here when it is already linked in the main navigation. This only makes it more confusing.
Resources > Resources Links: The "You?" links is linked to a #form, but the form does not appear on this page. You have ask them to email you (with a link to your contact form), so remove the #form links or link it directly to http://urbangenius.org/resources/stuff/contact.php.
Tutorials: The "request a tutorial" link leads back to the same page, do update that link to a form or something.
Challenges > Domain contest: I think this section is great. It makes the site more interactive. :)
Network: This is basically a site map? I think the heading "network" is rather confusing. I see that you have a owner section listed on this page. I would suggest adding that to your main navigation and maybe put the site map somewhere else like the footer perhaps?
I think there is room for expansion and improvements. I would suggest to start looking at the coding and CSS. Experience and try out more with the graphic software, play with it and maybe you can come out with some new stuff. :) I wish you all the best with your site =)
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RetroBlast's Response:
Aw, thanks I appreciate your advice! I will take everything you said into consideration and do some more experimenting. Thanks for pointing out details without being mean, lmao. Thanks!
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Greykitty.gif)
Greykitty gave it
on 27th Dec 2008 and said:First impression, I don't like that huge white gap at the top of your layout. At first I didn't see your navigation cause it's so disconnected from your main layout, I actually ignored it because it reminds me of those ad overlays a lot of sites have. It's a neat idea, but I don't think it's that great for browsing your whole domain with. It's hard to see when you have to scroll over text.
The Layout
Header looks nice, but there's too much white space. You could shrink down the height by about 100 pixels and it would be better. I would find a way to incoporate your navigation into the actual layoug. At first I thought those blue rectangular links were your navigation until I took a second glance and found they were just affies. The colors are nice, but I would use a darker color for your main font cause it kind of blends in too much whereas your seperator fonts and links stand out A LOT.Content
Blog, you should delete your text post. It looks bad to keep it around, and I won't judge your blogs since... you only have one entry. XD
The About page, you really don't need seperate pages for this, I would suggest anchor links and put all of it onto one page, also don't post pages that aren't up yet.
Resources, I would suggest hosting your own images as tinypic and photobucket etc aren't always that reliable and sometimes take a very long time to load. It took at least three minutes for three of your images to load for me. Some loaded faster than others, but overall they had rather slow loading times. Your graphics looks pretty nice though and thank God you don't use celeb images! Yay!
Downloads, nicely organised and they all look good, so not much to say there.
Tutorial page, again don't post a page if there's nothing there, also your request link does not work. You should put a blip in your updates/blog that you are taking tutorial requests.
Challenges is a neat idea, I like sites that host contests and whatnot for their visitors.
Activities, are nice, the jokes are kind of overdone, but eh. I like the fashion fail and the games are nice. Thank you for warning that they open in a pop up!
Uhm the Network I think should be called sitemap and placed at the bottom of your site next to the contact me and credits. It doesn't really need to be in your main sit nav.
Overall
I think your site is nice. It has a lot of potential, the only thing I didn't like too much was your navigation and the big white gap in your header. Oh and you might want to run your site through the w3c validator and take a look at your code. Came up with 14 errors and 3 warnings.
Anywho, good luck with your site!Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?
RetroBlast's Response:
Thanks for the luck. I will make some changes right now! =]
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