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In A Dream has 5 Reviews

Below are the reviews left by other members on In A Dream. Jump to review form?

1. 

   Peter gave it on 29th Jan 2009 and said:

   Hey! I'll be reviewing your site now. Why else would you see this?

   First Impression:

   Nice colors and patterns! The green wood on top of the grey (floral?) background looks a little bit odd at first.

   Layout:

   The green wood pattern seemed out of place overlapping the grey background image, but it has grown on me since. I like the red floral header, and the flowers that appear to be growing out of the text. The font you used for the text is very complex, and a little bit distracting. The outline around the main wrapper (#page) is unusual, since you don't use that shade of grey anywhere else in your layout except for image links, I think you should change the color to something else. The outline and background colors for the content area don't seem to match the red in the header. Try getting the exact color of the header background (or if that's what you did already, try getting the foreground color) and light/darkening it. The green background for the sidebar is good, but the outline seems a little off.

   The text in your sidebar shouldn't be justified like that, it looks to spaced apart. Under “Dreamer”, you don't say a whole lot. Instead of having “from dancing to cooking and everything in-between.” you could list some more of your interests/hobbies. When I first looked at your site, it took me a few seconds to find the navigation, because half of it is cut-off (I have to scroll down to see the rest) in my browser, and it is relatively small. I would suggest making the border around it thinner and a different color, and putting it closer to the top of the page.

   I just had a neat idea. What if you had your navigation say “Dreamer”, then “Writer”, then “Blogger”? That would be pretty cool, right? :P

   I don't really think you need the updates section, you can cover that in blog posts/edits. I really like the current books section. I really enjoy reading, and am interested in what other people read.

   The footer is really big for such little text. And WHOAH that is a lot of space below everything. :P

   Content:

   Dreamer:

   Wow, there is a lot in this section. I like how you not only have lists of stuff you like or random facts about you, but also your dreams etc.. There isn't much to say here, but I like it. :)

   Writing:

   You should probably change “Lyrics” to “Songs”. I know they aren't technically songs since they don't have music to them, but when I read lyrics, I thought it was going to be lyrics from popular songs.

   “I have collected some articles I have written for you to read,” you can remove “for you to read”, since that is a bit obvious. How about rewording it to “Here are some articles that I have written.” or something. You can actually remove it for now, since there is only one and it is a blog post.

   Your songs make me cry. :P Your poems are also very good. I can't really say much about either though, since I don't know much about song writing or poetry, but they seem really good and well written to me. I did notice you used “cuz” a lot in your songs, so you should change that to “'cause”.

   Domain:

   “... of this domain and also in-a-dream.net” to me, that is redundant. “This domain” IS in-a-dream.net, isn't it?

   You should get rid of the “Archives” section until you have something to put under it. The same thing goes for the “Past Layouts” section.

   “Sites Worth Mentioning” shouldn't really be under domain. Since you have so many I would suggest adding a page just for them.

   Conclusion:

   Your site design looks good. With a few tweaks you could make it look a lot better! Your content is original and well written. Good job! :)

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2. 

   stepherz gave it on 21st Jan 2009 and said:

   Hi Sarah! I'm stepherz and will be reviewing your website today! :)

   Layout
   So, I'm torn between absolutely loving your layout, and thinking something's... odd about it. I think it's the shade of green you've chosen. I think a darker shade of green might look better, but that's really my only qualm with the layout. Otherwise, I think I'm quite fond of it. The right sidebar looks kind of odd just... stopping there like that. I don't know if that was done intentionally or not, but if not A list Apart has a great tutorial on Faux Columns. (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/fauxcolumns/) Love the shade of red of the flowers and background you've chosen. I think the background might look better attached instead of scrolling, but that's probably just me. The footer mimics the header with that lovely shade of red. It's big though, and there's hardly anything in here. Maybe make the footer smaller or put more stuff in there. Maybe an RSS feed?

   Content

   Dreamer - My boyfriend's majoring in English too. He wants to be an English teacher. For college though. Is it a challenging major? Anyways... this page is nicely set up. Organized well. :) I like how you have basics on top, and than more of an in depth thing. I enjoyed reading about your dreams. They're so similar to mine! :) I think this is a neat thing to write about; I haven't seen this on many other people's pages. Overall, very nice page!

   Writing - This page looks weird with a white background, like I said earlier with the navigation. I think it could benefit from faux columns...
   Lyrics - Wow. I don't feel I can really review these since I'm not a writer. Wow though. Alcoholics Anonymous was moving and sad. I enjoyed reading these though. Do you like country music? For some reason that's kind of the tune i was imagining. :)
   Poetry - I like how you do a description of the poem (on this and the lyrics too!) I enjoyed a lot of your poems as well. :) I think I enjoyed The Box the most.

   Domain - Once again very organized! :) Site history was interesting and well written. Credits done well, hovering lets one know what you got from that website.

   Overall
   I enjoyed your site a lot. The layout grew on me despite my initial hesitation. I loved your writings and your site is organized very well. :)

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3. 

   Aisling gave it on 20th Jan 2009 and said:

   Hi there. I'm Aisling and I will be looking over your site today. I will review your design first, top to bottom, and then your content.. top to bottom. And maybe I'll throw in a bit about coding. :)

   Firstly, you need a title for your page. http://www.in-a-dream.org doesn't look very nice. Your site seems to have quite a bit of attention-to-detail, and then it is just randomly without a title!

   I am torn on my opinion of your design. On one hand, I love the textiles, and how tactile it looks. On the other, I think it's a BIT too busy.

   Personally, I would have left off the big flowers in the header. The subtle ones in the background are good enough to pull together the design, and the font is definitely decorative enough to be the focal point. At most I would keep ONE flower. The one coming off the A is my personal favourite, and I think keeping it, and getting rid of the other two would help maintain the feel of the design without overpowering it.

   I like the pattern on the lower bit of the background, but I would prefer to see it fixed, personally. Right now, when I scroll, it seems jerky and awkward. If it was fixed, everything would scroll smoothly.

   Everything in your content area seems nicely spaced, and the colour scheme you established in your header is continued nicely throughout.

   I like your navigation, but I think it would look super if the images changed on hover. Doesn't have to be an extreme change, maybe just have the background a lighter colour. It's always nice to identify links by making them change when they're hovered on, because you want the link to say "click me!" On the other hand, I'm not fond of how the links in your entries go white on hover. It's a bit TOO jarring and difficult to read on the light background. Something a little more subtle would be nice.

   Your footer is big, and... empty. Fill this up! Footers are often sluffed aside, and don't get the attention they deserve. There are so many things you can do with a footer.

   Finally, you have a large, gap at the bottom of your design which looks horribly out of place. You should be trying to balance the bottom with the top. :)

   So, I've pretty much decided that I *do* enjoy your design. I think with a few tweaks, like I mentioned above, it could be really great.

   On to content...

   The Dreamer page is VERY interesting. I loved reading through all the little sections-- they were fantastic. However, they were quite long. I would suggest creating a small menu at the top of this page, with links to anchors for each of the sections. Then, at the bottom of each section, a "return to top" link. That way, people can jump to the information they want, and not have to scroll through everything.

   Your Writing section is also very nicely done. I loved reading through it. You're an excellent writer, and you have plenty of work up, which is lovely. I would like to see some more stuff as well. You've pretty much stuck with a poetic genre, it would be nice to see some essays and articles and such as well. Short stories, maybe? Your writing is the main focus of this website, between your blog and this section, so it would be great to see a whole lot of variety!

   Your Domain section follows the trend you have set. It is nicely written and interesting. Personally, I would split your links list into two categories: sites you admire and credits. Also, as with the Dreamer page, this section could also benefit from the use of anchors. Just to make it easier for your viewers to find everything. ;)

   You have 10 errors in your HTML, all that seem quite easy to fix. I would suggest doing so. :P

   Overall, a VERY nice site. Definitely one that I will be adding to my blogroll. Keep up the good work! :D

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   inadream's Response:

   Thank you so much! I have to admit that every single thing you mentioned is something I have either tried to fix or thought of fixing. Yesterday I spent a couple hours trying to add three div's to my footer, but when I finally got them to work in Firefox, they looked completely wrong in IE and Safari. I'm going to try again when I get the chance now that you have realized how bare it is!

   I never even noticed how bad the background looks when I scroll, so thanks for pointing that out! I thought for sure I had saved my header with all the layers, but I didn't, which is very discouraging. I like your idea of getting rid of the first two flowers. I knew something was wrong, and that seems like a perfect solution, but I would have to start from scratch and I don't remember all the colors I used. I may try it though, but I may just make a new layout soon.

   Thank you for all your suggestions, they are definitely constructive and beneficial to me to make my website better. Thank you for taking time to review In A Dream!

4. daNNiiil0vee gave it on 17th Jan 2009 and said:

   First Impression
   I absolutely love the color scheme of your layout! Red, green, and gray go amazing together. The header is not at all overdone, but not just skin and bones.

   Layout
   As I have already stated, I simply adore your layout. I never thought that it was possible to have one pattern background at the top and a different pattern for the rest of the page, but you made it work. The font used for your site's name is very unique, I have never seen anything like it before. The size of your text is perfect! It is not extremely small and not huge either. Most people just love to have tiny text. the floral background of the header is beautiful. It looks hand drawn, which just makes it that much better.

   Organization
   Your site is very organized. The navigation is easily seen. Organizing your poems and lyrics in alphabetical order was definately a good idea. Personally, I would have been to lazy to do that, and I'm sure most other people too.

   Content
   Dreamer
   The first thing I notice is a list of classes your taking. Instead of writing "Here are the classes I'm currently taking:
   Public Speaking
   English: The Modern Tradition
   Writing Poetry and Fiction
   Statistics I
   Psychology: Infancy & Childhood", you should say "I am currently taking public speaking, english: the modern tradition, writing poetry and fiction, statistics I, and psychology: infancy & childhood". I like how you list your nationality, only according to my social studies teacher, it is "ethnicity" not "nationality". I'm also German and Irish, but if I were to list all of my nationalities, it would be a really long list, haha. Ok, back to your site, you're very descriptive of all your favorite hobbies. When you said how you and your boyfriend enjoy cooking and trying out new recipes, it reminded me of when my mom and I tried out a new garlic bread recipe. If you ever want a good recipe for garlic bread, this is a good one. Alright, I'm getting off topic again. Your view of writing and your passion for it has really changed my view. I don't like writing because I can never think of ideas, but your true passion makes me wish that I did like writing. I also love to think about things, it's what I do when I'm bored. I love how you use the word "hence" where you say "hence the name of my site". It's just an awesome word to use! I think that it was very brave of you to tell your visitors your dreams. I can openly say that I would never in a million years have the courage to do that. As I read this page, I keep finding more things we have in common! I am an animal lover, I've never broken a bone, and I'm a cluts, so it's very surprising that I haven't broken a bone. The recipe you made in the sixth grade sounds interesting. Maybe I'll try it sometime. I, too, am a perfectionist. I always have to have everyting perfect.

   Writing
   I love your poetry. Your choice of words is perfect. I wish I could pick words like that to use in my school writing. My favorite poems of yours would have to be "The Box", "Time of Day", and "Writer's Block", but they are truly all spectacular.
   Your lyrics are so emotional. I really believe that you could make it as a poet, or song-writer, or any kind of writer. I really liked "Alcoholics Anonymous".

   Domain
   Nothing really to review here.

   Overall
   I really love your site. Your an amazing writer, and your graphics are great too. The two qualities combined make you a fabulous webmiss!

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   inadream's Response:

   Thank you for the amazing review! About the different backgrounds - I put the top background in a div and added the white border to the bottom. Then I just had everything else overlap it. The gray background is the standard background for the site.

   Thanks for all the suggestions; I will definitely consider all of them. I really like that you can relate to a lot of the stuff I said in my dreamer section - I guess I'm not too abnormal! An also, thank you so much for all the compliments about my writing. It's really hard for me to judge my own work. I just put it up there so maybe someone can understand and relate to what I wrote and maybe find comfort from that. I appreciate your kindness. Thanks for taking the time to review In A Dream!

5. Olivia gave it on 15th Jan 2009 and said:

   Hello :) I'll take a stab in writing your first review!

   First Impressions
   I actually really like this look. I know alot of people perhaps would find it not to their liking, but I think it looks smashing, especially the style of the header. I can see the site is fairly new so I won't go in to detail about your blog, but I'll look forward to more posts!

   Dreamer
   I think the amount of detail you've put here is fantastic! The opening paragraph is the perfect way to introducing yourself. Since this is your first blast to the reader about who you are, it might be worth adding some basics such as age, location and nationality. I know this is obvious from the easy *click* from the link to your university website, but alot of people skim these type pages and one sometimes must make these things obvious. *Rolls eyes* Lazy people! :P

   I admire your 'Me, Myself and I' paragraph for its frank honesty. It's always a pleasant read when someone knows themselves exactly to the core and can drescribe themselves so fluidly. This is a very in depth and critical analysis of yourself that maybe would be better placed lower down on the page, after less detailed information.

   How you structure your 'Favourite Things' is wonderful - you describe each passion in such detail which really makes a nice change to those boring lists. I read each and everyone with enthausiasm. 'Dancing' made me laugh and smile and I know exactly what you mean about wanting to buy a house and do it up in 'Decorating'. Really great section.

   Reading your dreams is fascinating, I love reading other people's aims in life, sometimes to purely compare them to my own! I must say I also love going on estate agents websites and designing my own home (if I owned a £million!). Your random facts are perfect in the sense that they are closer to home and not so 'random' but personal.

   I love this page, and I think it's pretty much perfect as you've laid it out all in one page rather than seperating the information into sections. However, I would re-organise the paragraphs as such;

   1. Opening Paragraph
   2. These are a few of my favourite things
   3. In my dreams
   4. Let the randomness begin
   5. Me, myself and I

   This is just a suggestion, but I think this structure would work better for you. The deeper you describe yourself, the further down the page you go, slowly revealing your personality. I know few people might skip paragraphs like 'Me, Myself and I' due to how in depth you go, so placing this at the bottom would help visitors out.

   Writing
   I do enjoy how organised this section is. I'm not a great fan of Writing sections as I'm not a great writer of poetry and can't associate the skills with the owner. Apologies for no detailed review of your poems, but I simply feel I would not be able to review them with justice. You introduce each page and piece of writing nicely, though. I love your Lyrics! You mention you've had one of them recorded - any chance of uploading or linking the recording in anyway? That would be a fantastic and original addition to this page. The lyrics say alot about you, and what you believe in (i.e Love!).

   Domain
   A well written site history. I do indeed agree with your site name - it's fantastic to me that you know yourself well enough to name your website so precisely! I wouldn't change anything about this page.

   Final Comments:
   A lovely personal site to come across, I would happily visit again! You strength lies in your writing, not just in your 'Writing' section but all over. You use exactly the right words to get what you need to say across and talk about yourself and your dreams so fluently. I look forward to your blogs, to see how they turn out :)

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   inadream's Response:

   Wow!!!! Thank you so much for all the compliments and suggestions! I never even thought about the order of my Dreamer section, but your suggestions make complete sense and will definitely be changes I will make! Thank you for taking the time to review my website, I abosolutely LOVE constructive criticism!

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