PSGR is a solo effort by me, Rhiannon, a 23 year old from New Zealand. There's a lot to explore here, so take a look around and have fun!
Name: Alyssa
Site: Zombot.org
Review completed on: 13/09/07
Guest Reviewer: Nellie
SPLASH PAGE
No splash
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Despite the fact that I'm greeted with one of my least favourite colours (forest green) when I first open your page, I'm still enjoying what I'm seeing. Especially the readable text and the possibility of your layout being a fluidity freak's (such as myself) wet dream. You also haven't updated since July, so I hope you're still with us in the land of living.
LAYOUT
And I was right! Your layout is fluid and resizes wonderfully. As I mentioned before, I'm not a fan of forest green, but somehow, it seems to work in this case. The self-portrait(?) is a fantastic idea, especially seeing as Zombot is a personal site. Your layout gives insight to your personality before I've even read a word of your content (well, besides Zombot.org). Everything is placed nicely, although the navigation could be a tad bigger to make it stand out a little more. Your sidebar is clutter free which makes things a lot easier to find. Everything is well coded as well, but if you're into accessibility at all, may I suggest adding a hidden <h1> tag with your site title in it so when non-CSS browsers are doing their thing, your visitors will know where they are. If you're unsure how to do this, simply add the following to your CSS. .hidden { display: none;} Then add <h1 class="hidden">Zombot.org</h1> in your header div.
CONTENT
Alyssa
This is where things start getting interesting. I'm a big fan of paragraphs as opposed to quick facts, so this page appeals to me immensly. You're quite the writer, aren't you? I'm happy to see that you don't follow the American rule of punctuation inside quotation marks. This annoys me to the verge of insanity... and my sanity levels are low enough as it is.
It took me a wee while to find the sub-pages in this section. I'd suggest making these links more noticeable somehow. Bolding them would probably be sufficient, but get creative and see what you come up with.
My Religious Beliefs - As someone who has looked into Satanism herself, I got a little excited reading this page. It's nice to know that there are some Satanists doing their part to stop the general public from thinking those ridiculous thoughts about Satanism. Believing in oneself is definitely the best religious choice anyone can make, so a massive thumbs up to you.
My Crew - I find these pages somewhat redundant, but I guess they come in handy when you talk about any of the people featured in your blog. There's nothing worse than reading a weblog with a list of names that mean absolutely nothing to me.
Miscellany - You lie! No one's mum is better than mine! Mine taught me how to drink gin without making funny faces and wanting to throw it all back up. Just a note regarding one of the facts on this page, while I know that 4.0 is your GPA, other foreigners may not. Explaining this a little further would do the trick.
Website
I can't find anything wrong with this page, except maybe an overuse of commas. Don't worry about it though. I'm a comma whore too.
Articles
To save time and energy, going through each article repeating myself will not be seen here. All of your articles are well written, informative and hilarious. I especially enjoyed the article on layouts. I'm not sure why you submitted your website for review. You already know what you're doing!
Writing
I'm one of those terrible people who have very little appreciation for poetry and creative writing, but I can say with confidence that you're a very talented writer and you have a way with words. In fact, I'm jealous. Every story I've ever written killed off at least a thousand brain cells of anyone who has the misfortune of reading them. I'm a much better non-fiction writer... and even then I fail miserably. Your opinion pieces are definitely more my speed. Your argument against left-wing politics is one of the better ones I've read. I know far too many conservatives who can't form an opinion that doesn't end in a personal attack on those who aren't, so your opinions were really refreshing.
SUMMARY
Well, it seems I have come to the end. No big issues for you to deal to, but taking my suggestions into consideration (enlarging the navigation menu, making the sub navigation links stand out more and adding a hidden header for non-CSS browsers) would improve your site a little. A little less of the forest green in your next layout wouldn't go astray either. It's been a pleasure reviewing your site and I hope you don't mind that I did this review rather than Rhiannon. Sometimes a girl just needs some help!
