S.O. Review by Crystal Clear Reviews

Reviewer: Strawberries

Splash Page

There isn't one. Let's see. The layout is basic tables which wouldn't require a splash page. Checking it in a smaller resolution, I see it is viewable in 800x600 and anything higher than that. This is a very user-friendly layout that still manages to look nice and artistic. Also, I must say the loading time is very good on slow connections such as mine. Let's move into the actual layout now.

Layout and Main Page

I like the colors used; black and blue are my two favorite colors, and I've always thought they went well together. I like the actual design with the splotches, patches, etc. The two butterflies (or moths? can't tell) are also a nice, artistic touch. This is a 'small' layout, so to speak, so I think the content column could have been made a little wider which would give more text room and make the layout take up more space on the screen for larger resolutions (and still fit 800x600). Another thing which I think looks off with the rest of the layout is the font types for 'Summer Oracle' and the navigation. The two butterflies give this layout a 'oo, pretty' look, and those fonts aren't a 'pretty' type. Just a few minor details to keep in mind for future layouts.

I think you have a good amount of blog entries on this page. You never want too many on the main page -- no more than five -- because it makes things cluttered. It looks good the way it is now. I see you have a quote in each entry, but they're to discern from the actual blog entry. I'd italicize them or something. Also, on your blog archives, you need some back links. One other thing I would mention for the main page would be an introduction. Instead of just delving right into your blog entries, add a brief explanation of the site, explaining what type it is. (It's kind of hard to tell since it seems you have a lot of stuff.) A good thing to mention in the introduction would be that you have to click Summer Oracle to get back to the main page; a lot of sites have a 'main,' 'clear,' 'home,' etc. button in the navigation, so I had to look around for a few moments before I hovered over the site title and realized.

Site

I'd probably have those few paragraphs of info about your site above the three links under the Site header. It seems more logical that someone would read the text already on this page before clicking any links (that's what I did anyway). Also, 800x600 may be small, but it along with 1024x768 are much more popular than 1280x1024, so keep that in mind. It's always best to make sure everything looks good in the two most-used resolutions (though I've already said that your site looks fine in 800x600 or anything higher). As stated under the main page area of this review, back links on your pages are quite helpful because it just makes a site seem cleaner and more prepared.

Tutorials

In the Glitter Text tutorial, the outside credit link needs to open into a new window. These are all quite helpful and detailed, especially the Building a Website one. The font installation tutorial is everywhere, however. The glitter text was neat, and I've never seen a tutorial for that before. I'd just suggest to keep adding more of these. ^^;

Quizzes

Well, there's only one up, so let's see. It looks fun from the title of it, and not one that I've seen before. Another good point is that it's not completely obvious. I'm the red M&M; don't know if that's good or bad. XD I'm not the favorite, boo hoo. :P Anyway, this was a fun quiz. Obviously, my suggestion for this area would be to add more quizzes. One isn't enough! ^^;

Walkthroughs

Another area with only one page. This is very detailed though. I could never take the time needed to make a walkthrough. I'd definitely recommend more of these because everyone loves them (we're lazy cheaters XD), but I can imagine how time consuming it is to make one.

Reviews

I think this page should have two headers: one for reviews received from WPRs, the other for reviews you've written for various things. I like how you have the jumpto links for each reviews. A few of these reviews are short and only a summary of the game, not an actual review or your opinion on them. Most of them, however, are quite opinionated. A little more length would also be good. It's good that you give number ratings. The outside links for the WPRs finally open into new windows which I'm thrilled about. XD

Me

This page would make more sense before the Links page since that is where the visitor leaves the site. The Huh? was rather odd and didn't give me any insight about you at all. The Most Describing Moment gave a lot of insight, and that was a very interesting way of going about it (something I hadn't ever seen nor thought about before). We have a lot of the same taste in movies and music. Anyway, this is a fairly decent page to let us know a small bit about you.

Final Words

The other small add-ons to the site like the tutorials, quiz, walkthrough, etc. made the site interesting. Keep adding more. :)

All ramblings of Erica Feggestad 2000-2008