Catherine-Haines.com

Catherine-Haines.com

****- (Rated by 2 people, viewed by 103 people)

This is my new(ish) personal-slash-writing website, and I am looking for ways to make it better - especially when it comes to content.

However, since I am requesting comments pertaining to the website, there is no need to review the extracts from my WIPs that are posted. Feel free to read them if you wish, but I am looking for ways to improve the site that contains them. (Hopefully that makes sense).

Added by Catherine in Personal

Catherine-Haines.com has 2 Reviews

Below are the reviews left by other members on Catherine-Haines.com. Jump to review form?

  1. memorylast gave it ****- on 20th Jul 2009 and said:

    /*-------------------------------------------------*/
    Reviewed Using : Mozilla Firefox 3
    Screen Resolution : 1680x1050
    Platform : Mac, Leopard
    /*-------------------------------------------------*/

    FIRST IMPRESSION:
    It's a very organized looking site. Everything appears to be easily accessible. Love the progress bar. I've never really seen one of those before to be quite honest.

    LAYOUT & DESIGN:
    I like this layout's simplicity. The design is simple yet not too plain. You did a good job in complementing the layout's colours with your CSS. The only thing that bugs me is that the layout lacks a certain flair. This is to do with the design itself. Everything looks a bit bland from my end. Maybe the addition of details to your typography instead of making it a single colour - adding textures or anything to it in general would be an improvement. Some of the gradients applied to your headers and footers aren't as subtle as they seem. Adding a border to the sides help in making the border less blended with the background and define the edges a little bit. The headers for your sidebar are an interesting concept and adds dimension to the layout. I do, however, suggest making it more three dimensional. It looks very flat right now. It looks like a label that's out of place. If you add a curve to the sides to make it seem like the header is rounded backwards, it would spice things up.

    ABOUT:
    This section provides information about yourself and your site. It's short, but straight to the point. I guess the only suggestion here is to cover more about your life, express yourself instead of solely giving information about where you live, where you go to school and what you aspire to be. I liked that you gave some remarks on New Zealand and the way the media portrays it. So, give some insight on you yourself, your personality, your hobbies, likes and dislikes.

    WRITING:
    Your writings are very well organized, you give the visitor a synopsis on each story. You do write very well, and I give you props for that even though that's not what I'm supposed to be reviewing. Your headers for your main titles ('Primary Projects' and 'Secondary Projects') aren't easily distinguished from the smaller titles. It's hard to tell which is which from first glance because the font and colours are the same. There is a difference in size, but only a bit. I suggest maybe doing something with the CSS.

    GOODIES:
    I didn't actually notice the Tutorials section at first because I thought that this was just for Website Templates. I don't know whether you should be displaying all your content on the same page. Separating your content onto different pages would make this section a lot more organized. Right now you've just got everything scattered on one page. Your 'Goodies' page could have 2 links that direct to your tutorials and templates (both of which should be on a separate page). This is just a suggestion. The fact that your downloads section lead to another website is annoying as well. I prefer staying on the same site, I don't want to have to click 'Download' twice in order to get what I want. Another thing is - I don't know if this is a problem with the link or if it's my browser, but after being led to Disdainful-soul.net, I clicked Download again under one of the CSS templates, and it just led me back to the same page. Meaning I can't 'download' at all.

    LINKS:
    All the links are displayed alongside each other which is great. This is way better than long lists of links that you have to scroll through. It takes up both time and space. I don't have many suggestions for you here apart from increasing the space between each header. Right now the line spacing seems very crowded together. There's barely enough space between the links for 'Me Elsewhere' and 'Shopping Stuff'. It's not visually pleasing for the eyes.

    ARCHIVES:
    Very nicely organized with the bullets and all that jazz. Great archive.

    CONTACT:
    A contact form. Maybe add something here like telling people to contact you regarding questions/comments or just to reach you in general through e-mail. As right now this page is looking questionable - should I write something or should I not? Awkwaard.

    OVERALL:
    There are a few things you could improve on. But it's a well managed site and in general quite well organized. It's easily accessible. Visitors who wish to find out more about you simply clicks on 'About'. Those who wish to read some of your latest writings go to the 'Writings' page. There's not more to it.

    Using Firefox on Mac | Report This?

  2. [img: avatar]
    Erin gave it ***** on 18th Jul 2009 and said:

    Hi there, Catherine, my name is Erin, and I will be reviewing your site!

    FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
    I think this color scheme is beautiful, and everything looks neat and organized. Whether I knew this site housed your original writings or not, I'd want to browse!

    LAYOUT & OVERALL DESIGN:
    As I already stated, the colors are lovely. The setup is simple, but it is pulled off effectively through the details. I like how you've created the illusion of 3-dimensionality throughout with the subtle bevels and shadows. I especially love the sidebar: the heading banners extending outside the area of the sidebar's content does a lot to create depth and interest. The text of your site name overlapping the navigation is another nice touch. It's also a pretty, decorative font, and it works because everything else is so simple. Every element seems to work together for an overall effective composition. I am struggling to find something to suggest to you. Despite how beautiful the layout is, the focus is still on the real meat of your site. This is excellent!

    Now onto the actual content...

    The Project Progress bars in the sidebar are a great idea. (I like alliteration, too.)

    I read your latest blog entry, "I Must Be Crazy," and I found it to be quite enjoyable. I liked the personal and conversational style of it, and well, there's nothing really to be improved here either. I just want to say that I kind of hung on every word, probably because I have recently resolved to start penning my novel idea.

    ABOUT:
    The information here is concise and... informative (wow, talk about redundant), which is good. I personally am wondering more about you as a writer, so perhaps adding a bit about your literary inspirations or the genres you like would be nice, seeing as this is your writing site after all. There was one part of a sentence I found awkward to read; perhaps you meant "and my dream is to be able to make a living as a full-time writer"?

    WRITING:
    You have added an extra S to "focusing" when you described your primary projects in the second paragraph. I also think you have a typo in the description of your secondary projects: "do with to complete" should be... "do wish to complete," perhaps?

    Your project summaries sound like they could actually be on the back of a book. They're a great introduction to the snippets you provide. While I don't expect you to have TOO many more works-in-progress to share in the near future (four novels already sounds like quite a mindful), if or when this page expands, having page anchors to easily browse to a specific project might make for easier navigation within the page. Right now, it's not too much scrolling to get down to The Superhero Diaries, if that's what I'm interested in, for instance, but perhaps in the future, it might be easier if visitors could jump through the page.

    GOODIES:
    Oh my, I can display my project progress in bar form, too? Oh yay! This excites me, no lie.

    Perhaps you should add a heading above the premade themes, since they are not code snippets or script tutorials, which is the nearest heading. Speaking of the themes, they're both very nice. I think Zero Two might be improved if the top navigation were centered to mirror the footer; I feel like it is off balance when right-aligned.

    LINKS:
    Nothing to say here, it's a well-organized page of links.

    ARCHIVES:
    Entry archives, as expected.

    CONTACT:
    A simple contact form. I feel like the page looks unfinished without any text, though. Maybe even a simple line like "Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments!" (as obvious as the purpose of the form is) would pull it together. Or you could write down your email address in case for some reason the form explodes or someone would prefer writing an email in their own mail program.

    OVERALL:
    Your site is lovely and well-organized, Catherine. Its purpose is clear, and even the goodies that aren't your writing seem to be high in quality. Wonderful job... I think I have to follow you and your writing progress now, hehe!

    Using Firefox on Mac | Report This?

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