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Piano Panda has 5 Reviews

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

1. 

   trisarahtops gave it on 2nd Dec 2010 and said:

   Hello, my name is Sarah and I will be reviewing your website today. :)

   Screen Resolution: 1280 x 800
   Browser: Safari version 5.0.2
   System: Mac OS X version 10.5.8

   First Impression:
   Your layout is very simple and pleasing to the eye. Many bloggers wish to see more "flashy" colors and whatnot, but this is perfect for those who do not.

   Layout:
   One thing that I am not too happy seeing is the length of your layouts image. I believe that navigational links should be displayed automatically without the need to scroll down to view.
   There is a space (about 100 pixels) from the top of the image to the top of the page. I would move the layout up at least -50 pixels so less of that white space is visible.

   CSS:
   For the most part, your CSS does look as if it works together. I would, however, change font-size: 11px; to font-size: 12px;
   Not only in the #navi, but in the #content-right as well.

   I would highly recommend changing the hex code: #80a500 to something that matches with the rest of the layout. When in doubt, go with black #000000.

   Blog:
   I've noticed that you have one entry a page. Try making at least three entries a page. This makes less archiving and more room.

   Center the FanUpdate as well as the previous/next scripts so it will be aligned and not off center.

   You! Link:
   I would recommend leaving the previous/next scripts below every page so the viewer can navigate back easier. It's just more convenient.

   Me! Link:
   Fine.

   Site! Link:
   I don't quite understand the need for the pixel image and banner underneath the "Link Me" header. I would suggest if you want people to link you, make it easier for them and create a for them to copy/paste your image and link so they can just put it on their website. Have this below your navigation sidebar. It's much more noticeable.

   Your affies link needs to be more noticeable as well. You want to make sure you let your affiliates know you appreciate them more by advertising their website more clearly.

   Also, for those who do not have a banner, organize their links. It does not make their website look unique if you have them altogether.

   Tagboard! Link:
   I would say it's fine, but again, if you want more traffic/messages leave it in the sidebar. It's convenient and more people will be more willing to say hi.

   Very few and very little changes would need to be made to your website. I do like simplicity, but if you want your website to last. you need to add more and update more.

   <3 Sarah

   Using Safari on Mac | Report This?

2. 

   moxiegirl gave it on 29th Jul 2010 and said:

   Hello there. My name's Allison of Moxiegirl.net and I'll be reviewing your site today. (:

   First Impression: I adore your name. It's clever and soooo adorable. I actually giggled - and I never giggle - when I read your site name. So major kudos to you for getting a girlish giggle out of me. ;)

   I like the initial image of the cherry blossom tree, it's very beautiful, however, it's off center in a non-attractive way and I feel more could have been done to achieve a wow-factor. The color scheme of the layout is nice, yet I don't like the random green text because it clashes with the pinkness of the layout. Also, the blog - at least on my browser- doesn't seem to be strategically located. With this layout, I would prefer it in the center. If I had been the one designing the site, I would've put a tool bar on either the right or left side of the blog, and had the blog on the other side. I also would have made the cherry blossom tree larger and more of a statement, mostly because I do not like that random white block of nothing alongside the site title and tree in the header. I would also remove the explaination marks in the links. I realize this is just a personal blog and it's not as if you're trying to sell a product or something, but I would still try to retain a somewhat professional look.

   About Me: I like your page, your picture, the text wrapping, and how you manage to write an interesting biography without it being too dry, short, or novel-length. However, I would refrain but the random bold/italic/underlined text. It's good sometimes - I do it too - but I would do it in a more spacious manner. Yours is on overload. I love your music taste too. I don't know anyone else who likes Matt & Kim and Hot Hot Heat. I'm an obsessive Harry Potter fan too. In fact, along with my other Harry Potter obsessed friend, we're throwing a Harry Potter/swimming party this Saturday. XD

   Icons: Your icons are good, and considering this is a new site, I won't berate you for only having six. However, how about adding some brushes, or text to the icons? Adjust the lighting, etc. I don't know what kind of graphics program you use but if you can't afford Photoshop, I highly recommend Gimp which you can download for free. I used it forever until I saved to buy Photoshop.

   Scribbles: Your scribbles - or rather scribble - is downright adorable and I'm looking forward to more. (:

   Site: This section is basically empty except for the two buttons so I'd recomment adding them to a sidebar or something until you add more. An entire page isn't exactly necessary for two little buttons.

   Overall your site is decent, it's cute which I'm assuming is the angle you were going for, however, it definitely has a long way ahead of it. But good luck. I'm sure with practice, patience, etc. your site will drastically improve, because it definitely has potential. (:

   Using MSIE on Windows | Report This?

3. 

   wiwaneko gave it on 13th Jul 2010 and said:

   Hey, I'm Trish and I'll be reviewing you today.

   First Impression/Layout
   I love this name! It's really cute, haha. Anyway, the layout set-up is very simply and cute. The header image is kind of plain, but I think it works. The colors are cute, but the hues of the pinks don't match. The background and header backgrounds don't match with the navigation or header image. And I don't really know where you the got the blue and green from. I think if you chose the lighter pink from the image (#F2B3CB) and used that as the background color, used the darker pink (#DE608B) for the header and navigation backgrounds, used an even darker pink (#5F122E) for the text color, and then used this green (#898F62) from the leaves would make your colors blend together much better. Holy crap that was a lot.
   I think putting two posts per page will look nicer since some of your blogs seem short. Everything else is pretty neat except for the Google ads, which are off too far (maybe put them in the footer).
   3/5

   Site Section
   This is a bit messy. Instead of having your affiliates on a separate page, you should put them under "link me". You should also add some information about the site and some credits, otherwise it's a pointless page as you can stick all those links in your sidebar.
   2/5

   About Me Section
   Pretty normal looking. Very colorful. You should probably double space after colons; it makes things look neater. I definitely got a feeling of who you are, so good job on that and good job on keeping things organized.
   4.5/5

   You Section
   Icons - Hm, they are decent, but I think you need to work on improving the quality. They just seem very amateur-ish. I know Swimchick has some decent tutorials on making icons, so check 'em out. Overall, your icons are decent, but they need work (just like mine do).
   Scribbles - It is cute, but it doesn't seem very scribble-ish. It actually looks like a bad cut-out. Try using a darker shade and going around an area with a 1px pencil, making sure that it's scribbled. Do that and you'll be making great scribbles - you are definitely pretty good at them.
   3/5

   Conclusion
   You have a cute site and great potential. Just work on color scheming and improving your skills and you'll have a great site!
   Score: 3/5

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4. 

   LoveTyranny gave it on 30th Jun 2010 and said:

   Hey Miranda! My name is Chelsey and I will be reviewing your blog as of today. (:
   I use Mozilla Firefox, so your web site may look different on my browser if Firefox isn't your default browser.

   Site Name
   Your site name is very cutesy and clever. I wonder if there's a history to it? Anyways, nice unique name--your visitors will definitely remember your site. (:

   First Impression
   First of all, I would like to say, Congratulations on coding your own web site! I notice how your web site is new, so you're starting off quite smoothly.
   However, I do have some notions to recommend about your layout. It's really not bad for a first layout, however, I suggest that you change the formatting slightly. First of all, I would like to say that I like the cherry blossom tree a lot. I think that's good. However, the text above it, I think, would have looked better in a different font. I'm suggesting maybe a more settle, calm or calligraphic font. When you put the bubbly font next to the tree, it seems to conflict-- because the tree seems really calm while the font seems really ... uh, not calm. Meanwhile, the cherry blossom tree is already pink, so I think that there is no need to make the background the same color as well. When you make the background and your navigation all pink, it seems to be over-doing it a bit. I think a settle, light grey would suit perfectly for your background. Also, instead of having a vertical layout, I recommend a horizontal header. It will seem a lot neater and less clustered that way.
   I don't like the dark navy blue you used for one of your headers. When everything is pink and suddenly you have an opposite color, it seems a bit ... off. If you really want to use blue, use a lighter shade of it. It will slightly compliment the pink more than the dark blue will.
   Another thing is the font you picked for the body. I don't think that this font suits your layout. If you were to pick a font, I recommend Times New Roman, Arial, Century Gothic, or Verdana. When your website is pink and bubbly, it doesn't seem right to have that kind of font.
   Also, in the navigation bar, is it really that necessary to have an exclamation mark after each category? (Example: "You! Me! Site!, etc)
   Your overall layout could use quite a bit of an improvement, however, it is really not bad for a first. (:

   You!
   Icons: Your icons aren't bad for a start, but I'd like to see more variety. In all your icons, it just looks as if you found a random icon base and threw a texture onto it. Make it look more sophisticated and pleasing to the eye by adding brushes, effects, gradients, etc. Also, I suggest spacing out your icons a little more. They all look like they're squished into one part and it looks really crowded. Use some more padding to separate them a bit so they don't look like one collage.
   Scribbles: You currently only have one scribble, but that's probably because your web site is new. I don't think it's a bad scribble-- it's very cute. You should try and add more-- they seem to be one of your highlights. (:
   Crazy Skateboard: Why would you have a game embedded onto your site? You shouldn't have other web site's games embedded onto your site unless you made it yourself. The point of your web site is to let your visitors know that it's your creation-- not some other website. I don't recommend leaving that game there; I would remove it immediately.
   Noodleshop: Same thing with Crazy Skateboard-- I suggest taking this off. If you want to have an Entertainment category, create a quiz or a scavenger hunt around your site or whatever. Don't embed others' games onto your website. That just shows a lack in creativity.

   Me!
   You've included some nice details about yourself on this page-- good job. I suggest that you add some padding to your picture because right now, it looks dangerously close to your text. Also, why is the "Contact Me" so far apart? Maybe it's just my browser, but you should fix that.

   Site
   You've added your affies-- that's good. You also added link-back buttons. But ... where is your disclaimer? You have to have a disclaimer if you're going to put other site's games embedded onto your own. In your disclaimer, you should mention that the games don't belong to you because you didn't create them, however, you were able to put them onto your site courtesy of ________. (Where you found the games at) If you don't want to include a disclaimer, then don't put the games up. You are also missing a "Credits" page. Did you make everything on your site by yourself? The cherry blossom tree? The header font? The tagboard? The hit counter? Fanupdate? No, you didn't. Therefore, you need to credit these sites. How would you like it if somebody took your graphics and didn't credit you? Which brings me to another problem-- you don't have a terms of use either. You need to create a policy for your website stating that visitors must credit you when they use your content. Or, if you don't want the visitors to credit you, state that they don't need to credit you as long as they don't claim it's theirs. Your are missing these three crucial pages-- add them.

   Tagboard
   Is it really necessary to have a whole separate page just for a huge tagboard? Why don't you just shrink the size and include it onto your sidebar-- that will be a lot more convenient for both you and your visitors.

   Final Thoughts, Suggestions and Overview
   In your navigation bar, you are missing a "Home" button. What if somebody was on the "You" page and wanted to visit their blog? The only way would be to erase part of the URL and that is very tedious. You should definitely add a "Home" or "Blog" button on your navigation bar. As for the "Hosted by Georgina", it seems a bit ... I can't describe in words. However, why do you have "Hosted By Georgina" on a whole button? Why don't you just have somewhere in text, "Hosted by Georgina" and then link Georgina's website to her name? Or, you could have a button for it, but just say "My Host" on it. When you have a button saying, "Hosted by Georgina", that seems a bit ... off.
   Anyway, Miranda, I have rated your web site three stars out of five. Your web site could use plenty of improvement, but you have lots of time. You are still new to web designing, and you are off to a terrific start. Keep improving and designing and I'm sure that your progress will skyrocket. Anyway, I hope you found this review somewhat helpful and please-- only rely on your opinion. Yours is the only one that truly matters on your site. If your opinion conflicts with one above in my review, then you do not have to change anything.
   I enjoyed reviewing your website and I look forward to revisiting it in the future to see what improvement has been made! (:

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

5. 

   Whisperes gave it on 3rd Jun 2010 and said:

   How you doing Miranda? You will be my lab-animal number two, as you are the second person I am reviewing here! I shall baptise you lab-panda, as that goes well with your website name! ;)
   Let’s get started!

   Aesthetics:
   Gee, I really feel like an arse because I am kicking off this review with something negative. You see, although I like the concept of your theme, I am not so fond of the way it worked out… I think the blossom tree is beautiful, it’s a nice image to build a theme around, definitely! I am, however, not keen on the way your site title looks. I think it would have looked much better 1. without the black border around the text; 2. smoother, it probably is anti-aliased, but because of the border the title looks wobbly any way, you know?; 3. if you had used a contrasting colour rather than another shade of pink than the tree (black would have been a safe choice); and 4. if you had used another font, this one looks really messy. Perhaps a calligraphic kind of thing would have been better? I think Champagne (found at dafont.com) would have looked lovely!
   For the rest.. I have tried to lay down in words what I think would improve your layout, but I could not get the words out properly – I hope you will take offense at me for having taken the liberty of raping.. err, turning your work into something a little different; it’s not something I would call perfect, I do however think it looks much more clean & sophisticated now, please just consider it an advise for a next theme. Look: http://i46.tinypic.com/10pr4b8.png
   Basically what I did was: make the tree stand out more, remove all the other shades of pink that do not work nicely with it (as it is the main element of your theme); I moved the site links to the top (and added a “home” link – as you did not have one); I removed the green altogether.. I have no idea where you got it from, but as far as I am concerned: it did not look right. I also made your text headers stand out more and altered your sidebar. The introduction you placed above your blog is better off there, as far as I am concerned. :) And, if you insist on having a tagboard, I think it would look nicer in a sidebar (although html-expert would probably argue that because it is an iframe it should be removed altogether), furthermore: I would suggest that you changed the colours of the tagboard to match your theme.

   I’m not going to complain about your coding, as my own skills need work as well, but I would like to advise you to learn to work with PHP includes (Click here for a more than decent tutorial on includes) or perhaps move from Fanupdate to Wordpress or a similar CMS, that way you can more easily change your theme and add/remove pages.

   One thing I am wondering about, “© by ZeBiiiDesigner” what does this stand for? Did Zebiii create you your layout, or what? Can I find information about this under the site section? I hope so, because this is confusing me.

   Blog:
   Moving on from the looks, on to the blog we go! Your entries seem to be a bit random.. You jump from the sims (which is one of my favourite games the way.. are you talking about The Sims 3 here? I have that one too.. just not with an extension which allows them to get tattoos.. it sounds awesome though) to site updates, to your pool.
   Although your writing style is entertaining enough, it sounds more as if you are chatting with a friend, rather than writing a blog entry. I think it stepping away from excessive smiley usage, more lengthy entries and using “so anyways” and caps less often will make your entries sound a little less chatty. There’s nothing wrong with informal writing, as long as it is not overdone.

   Content – You:
   Again, I’m not trying to be an arse here: but I would advise you to either drop this section altogether, or drastically improve it with non-generic and original content, because what you offer here right now is both generic and unoriginal. I find it hard to come up with suggestions here.. perhaps you could give icons tutorials a look in order to create better looking ones, or perhaps you could write articles about funny things in the sims? Or enlighten your visitors with some words of wisdom on school/politics/music/religion/anything!
   Or like I said: you could drop this section altogether, and focus on the personal aspect of your website.

   Content – Me:
   So.. your boyfriend is two years old? That’s a bit disgusting, little panda! ;) Perhaps you could alter the way you phrased that sentence to something like this: “I have an amazing boyfriend whose name is Eric, we have been together for two years now” so that you do not come across as a paedophilic panda.
   Also, Although you have provided me with a lot of information about yourself, I think you could/should be more lengthy about it. Explain why Keane your favourite band is, and why you’re such a big fan of Harry Potter. Write a little something about yoru education; do you like your school, or not – and why? What draws you to photography? Etcetera!
   Moreover, I would like to advise you to place your toybox & fanlisting in separate pages.

   Content – Site:
   Why is there nothing here? Well, apart from two link me buttons and an affiliates section. Where is your credits section? Where can I find information about your website’s name and purpose ? This section desperately needs a lot of work. Rather than focusing on visitors content, like you said you have been doing in your blog, you should fix this section ASAP! One thing a website always needs to do is give credit where credit is due: I assume you did not create that tree yourself, so you need to show your appreciation to the person who did create it.
   Do you remember my remark about Zebiii? I still have not figured out why you have that in your footer. ;)

   Conclusion
   Altogether I have to conclude that your website needs a lot of work. You need to work on your theme skills (especially when it comes to the colours you choose), your visitors section needs to be either removed altogether or upgraded drastically, your about me page could cope with some more detail, and your site section does not meet the standards.
   I do think, however, that the things I have mentioned can be corrected quite easily. Especially when it comes to the website & personal section.

   I hope this review will have provided you with some ideas to improve your website, so now all I can say is: Best of luck Miranda! :)

   Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?

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