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: Nicole
Site: Kyuushi Designs
Review completed on: 03/05/07
SPLASH PAGE
No splash
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
I'd like to start this review off by giving you an apology. I'm not sure if you realised this, but I had taken your site off the queue. From time to time I do a link check of all the sites in queue, and I noticed that your site didn't appear to exist anymore. I double checked this a few times and still received the same "Cannot be found" message, so I decided to remove your site. From time to time I noticed comments made by you on several blogs I read, and I went to your site and still...."Cannot be found". However, I tried again just before and voila - your site seems to be 'up', so here I am. Seems like you may be having a few server troubles there?
In any case - I apologise for the premature removal of your site.
LAYOUT
The overall style of this layout reminds me of many of the former layouts featured at Swimchick.Net. Whether these similarities are intentional or not, they do exist nonetheless. I'm not accusing you of copying anyone here, I'm merely pointing out the fact that I'm finding the similarities rather uncanny.
You've got a lot of colour going on here, haven't you? The colours used on your sidebar conflict awfully with those used elsewhere - it would have been more logical if you had continued with the same scheme throughout your entire layout. Consistancy can be your best friend, if you want it to be. It doesn't make sense to follow a maroon/purple/orange scheme in one area and then some random brown colours in another. This issue can be easily fixed, if you want it to be of course. See the colours you've used for your main content area? Bring them over to your sidebar. The maroon header on your blogs could also be used as a sidebar header colour, etc etc. I understand how frustrating it may be to try and combine your colours successfully - hell, some people even use a colour scheme generator for their layouts. What I do, personally, is pick three main colours, and work around them. These would be white, magenta, and light pink. I've then used a black colour for my text (which is standard) and a boring grey for my body background. If your colour scheme is vibrant and non dull, it's always recommended that you have a bland body background. I see you've realised this yourself with your grey background, so well done with that. All in all though, you've got too many different colours going on here and in order for this layout to be more successful, I'd recommend the removal of a couple of colours. The random brown sidebar needs alteration for sure, and what about your site title? Where did the blue come from? I see no blue elsewhere, nor any colours that even compliment this shade.
CONTENT
Site
Site? Poos! Where's the Me section? This section should always be first without fail. In fact, I'm not seeing a Me section anywhere on your navigation...how ominous!
About - I enjoy reading web history accounts, therefore I enjoyed reading yours. I'm impressed with the fact that you're only eleven years old! Go you!
Applications -
Affiliates application is currently opened.Links exchanging application is also opened.
Opened = open.
Credits - a straightforward page. How about some list tags to accompany these links? List tag = <li>. Oh, I see that you've given Eean a special mention here - Eean's on the queue here at PSGR and he seems like a very kool kamper indeed. Eean FTW! Maybe you could elaborate on why Eean (and Janet) have earned special mentions - what is it that they have actually done to earn this? It pays to be more specific.
Contact me - form works fine. Moving on...
Contests joined - another straightforward page. I went to vote for you at the site you listed but voting isn't even open yet! No need to ask for people to vote then - yet.
Gifts / awards - you've certainly accumulated a wealth of awards here; congratulations.
Link Me - nice 88 x 31 buttons here. How about adding more of a variety, size wise? 88 x 15 (or 80 x 15 or whatever!) buttons are always sexy - and let's not forget about good old 100 x 35.
Graphics
100 x 100 avatar icons - just before I fell asleep at the very mention of the word "icons", I happened to noticed the following:
If you'd like any content on your main icon page, above the menu, such as usage rules, resource credits, etc., place it here. It will only show up if a category is not selected. If you don't want anything here, delete this paragraph! To add content that will show up at the top or bottom of every page, put it in the header or footer. To wrap the script in a div, place the opening tag in the header and the closing tag in the footer.
What is the above sentence all about, and how is it relevant to an icons page. I get the feeling that this body of text is not meant to be there - if I'm right, then at least you know about it now and can remove it accordingly.
Hate anime and celebrity crap so didn't bother looking at them, but your nature icons were cool.
Blends - just one here, featuring Ashley Tisdale. Certainly not the most attractive girl on the block, but oh well. Anything goes in Hollywood these days, I'm sure. This blend has been well done, apart from something oh-so-obvious. Where's her arm gone, in the first picture? It just...disappears. Oops!
Fake vectors - ha, yes indeed. I did this to one of my photos once, and thought the same thing!
Glitter names - these all feature names of your affiliates. What use is this page then, to the rest of us?
Glitter words - all right, but you need more.
Scribbles - a bit random, but yeah. Decidedly cute however.
Textures - this page is currently unavailable due to technical issues. Good luck in locating these missing textures!
Wallpapers - tip: never kick off a graphics page - or any other page for that matter - by saying that (in your case, the graphics) are crap. Not a good idea. Why put down your own work, and allow others to automatically assume that it's a pile of shit? Stating that your wallpapers are crap gives your visitors full license to assume this.
Downloads
Fonts - meh. Talk about being a sheep flocking to its shepherd.
Programs - surely visitors could just go to the official sites to download these applications?
PSP scripts - so, did you write these scripts or what?
Scripts - links to the Cutenews and Wordpress websites. Um, cool. Not....
Interactive
Oh. My. God. This calls for a classic PSGR No no no no no! moment. This page contains a massive horde of unsightly reads - I can see the bacteria infesting around this generic mass all the way from New Zealand - and naturally New Zealand is hella far away from where you are babe. Please, for the love of God and all things holy, eradicate this generic content now! Genericness to the highest degree...and this is all I see...it's like being stung by the sterotypical bee...woe, woe is meeee. Or: I was ploughing through the mystical land of Kyuushi Designs, when I came before a barren field, surrounded by an army of demonic beasts who called themselves the Knights of Generic Content. I knew I must battle these knights if I was to survive this harsh world. The knights themselves were easily recognisable; as they had appeared before in various other lands, time and time again. The shroud of thick mist evaporated, and I gallantly made my way towards the knights and drew my sword. "Be gone, o knights of cliche!" I cried. With all my might I plunged my sword of originality (which was hot pink and glittery) into the hearts of the soldiers, vanquishing them all one by one. I had won, and the battle had indeed been easy. I made my way out of the barren wastleland, and back into the bright, lush landscape of the Land of Originality.
Tutorials
Oh God...please no...oops, I mean, cool! Can't wait to explore these uber awesome 'tuts'.
Custom / coloured scrollbars - people are still making 'use' of coloured scrollbars? I don't actually know, because I'm using Safari, which is more standards-compliant than IE and therefore does not support coloured scrollbars. I'm not too supportive over the fact that you've provided a code that gives people the ability to make such an addition to their site...but whatever. Your deal, not mine.
Links and their meaning - A:visited means you've already visited the link?! NO WAY! Bodaceous, man! It's like saying that George W Bush is the president of the USA! And of course, he isn't, everyone knows that the president of the USA is Bob Dole. He's so persistant, that man.
I'm not going to go through any more of your tutorials because all they mainly consist of are text boxes filled with deprecated coding and trends that fizzled out in the last ice age. Sorry 'bout that!
Exits
Link me - this page is also featured in your site section...
Links exchanges - change this to Link exchanges.
And that, my friend, is the end of my lil' analysis.
SUMMARY
I realise that you're eleven years old, and that you're eleven years my junior. You should be proud of the fact you even have a site at that age, because I've certainly never come across one made by someone as young as
yourself. (Piczo sites do not count). This fact alone earns you major kudos from me - considering your age, you've made a fantastic effort and your site easily rivals those of some who are considerably older than you. With that said however, I have made a point to not come across as overly soft on you - I feel that I've treated you as I would any other reviewee. Like shit, in other words. (Omg, kidding!)
I really hope that this review will be of some use to you, that you'll be able to take some of my tips and suggestions on board and increase the standard of your site as a result. Apply some consideration to your colour schemes - a menagerie of contrasting colours is not what you're wanting here. More information about yourself is needed, for this is considered essential for any personal site. Avoid generic content at all costs - your entire Interactive page is well....a code red situation, to be honest. It'd be so easy for me to suggest that you just get rid of the entire section altogether, but as an alternative you could always rebuild it, replacing the stale crap with some fresh, original content. Opinions, stories, poems, visitor contests - things like that. I wasn't too keen on your tutorials either - leave this to the likes of Tutorialtastic and Codegrrl, that's what I say.
This is your first site and I acknowledge the fact that you're still learning. You've put in a stellar effort so far, and with a little more content / colour consideration, your site can really turn into something successful, and even more popular than it is already. All the best, and good luck!
