Name: Secret Designs
Site: -secretdesigns
Review completed on: 11/09/07
SPLASH PAGE
No splash, no worries.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Well first of all it would have been good if you had given me your name. I guess you shall therefore be known as Secret Designs for the purposes of this review, or Secret for short, depending on my mood. Mmm, appropriate. Not. Anyway, I've got 70 odd people in the queue so there's no time to harp on about such a trivial matter. Achtung! 5, 4, 3, 2...Wavoo!
LAYOUT
Before I start to discuss your layout, I think I ought to touch on some comments left on your tagboard as well as your reaction to them, as displayed in one of your latest updates.
There is this person or people complaining about the homepage. the guestbook comment wasn't as bad as the shoutbox commet. the hour(maybe) after i made this layout, the first comment i got was your site is very unorganized! That was veryrude! I couldn't beleive they said that, I was so angry i deleted it. then i am getting this guestbook comment saying "the layouts kinda ugly cuz the pics not good and its not like a .com one, sorry but its true" I didn't mind that one because they said sorry, but for some to say the pics are ugly. I know I sounding selfish, but it made me so mad. think how you would feel if someone said "your site is very unorganized" and "then have someone say your pics are ugly right after that." Sorry I'm taking it out on you. I am just so mad!.
I understand where you're coming from, but at the same time you've got to bear in mind that every webmaster/webmistress receives criticism regarding their website - be it positive, negative, requested or unrequested. It's part and parcel of running a website. People aren't always going to agree with you about how your site looks, and sometimes (and only sometimes) these people may be telling you the truth, and sometimes it's a good idea to take these criticisms on board. Saying that your site looks disorganised is hardly something to get mad about, nor is someone saying your layout is ugly. Trust me, you'll get a lot worse than that in the future if you decide to stick around the web, because that's what happens! You should have read some of the things people have said about some of my previous layouts, and my site in general. By deleting the comments you don't agree with, it shows the person who made them that you're seemingly immature and that they've 'got to you', which is what they may have wanted. Don't give them the satisfaction! Especially when the comments in question were quite trivial. There's a fine line between criticism and bashing - criticism would be saying your layout is disorganised for example, and bashing would be something like..."OMG I HATE YOUR SITE, YOU'RE SO UGLY WHY DONT YOU DIE YOU FUCKING BITCH!!". Comments like that definitely warrant deletion, because it's a personal attack and it's got nothing to do with your site and everything to do with you as a person. Comments like that are unacceptable.
This was just a bit of friendly advice to you - since you're on Piczo I suppose you're quite young and you haven't had much experience on the web. The internet is no place for sensitive souls and if you can't take criticism then unfortunately you have no place on the net! If I was the least bit sensitive there'd be no way I'd even dare to run a site like PSGR!
With all that said - and I almost hate to say it - but I agree with the comment about the fact that your layout is unorganised. The colours clash, you've got marquee buttons flying from side to side, iframes galore, and even a horizontal scrollbar to boot.
I understand that Piczo is some kind of drag and drop site builder but all the same, there are still several changes you can make - changes for the better. Bring your sidebar up so that it is at the same level as your updates area, and assign it a background colour - preferably to match that of the updates background. Make your navigation links a different colour so that they stand out more. Get rid of the annoying flying buttons and ditch the marquee script - static is better.
As you can see from my screenshot above, your Miley Cyrus graphic failed to load on my computer, despite numerous attempts to get it to do so. Going by the small amount I can see though, it looks a little blurry anyway...
Oh, and finally, above your links, Navgate is Navigate.
CONTENT
Visitor Content
Forgive my candor, but I initially thought the layout on this page featured a girl with Downs Syndrome, but it was just Miley Cyrus. Megawhoops!
HTML Codes - many of the codes you've got here would be considered annoying for those who are not on Piczo - namely the image effect, marquee, scrollbars, cursors, and image filters. I realise that the rules are a little 'different' on Piczo and I'm not expecting much. These annoying facets are trendy on Piczo, but are frowned upon and considered inappropriate on hosted sites or domains. Whenever you feel like getting off Piczo, be sure to come back to PSGR and I'll help you set up a new website and teach you a few things.
Tips not tricks - wow, very good! You're on the ball here. This was very well written and I agree with every single point you've made. I haven't seen a page like this on a Piczo site before - you've impressed me.
Blends - no offense, but I have no interest in these whatsoever. You have blends of movie stars and the like...these are celebrity images therefore they are a copyright violation. How about some original blends instead? Photos you've taken yourself would be ideal!
Brushes - "I didn't make any of these make any of these brushes so don't credit me."...well who did then??? These aren't even proper brushes anyway, this page merely houses a collection of images. What am I supposed to do with these? Take them off your site and create them into brushes myself? Not exactly convenient.
Order
Whoa, are you sure that the layout featuring 'Hilalry' Duff on this page is big enough? I'm expecting my browser to crash any second now.
This section was pretty straightforward. I'm glad that you're not charging money for your services, that's something I guess! On the Order A Graphic page, change ULR to URL.
The Site
This may be down to Piczo's incompatibility with Safari, but it doesn't matter - I can't read this.
toatla = total.
Extras
Rate my site, get rated, site namer, blah blah blah. I liked the Adopt A Pet page, actually no, I'm just shitting you - these adoptable animals have been nicked from other sites. One of them even has the name Michelle underneath it, which you've attempted to cover up. If these adoptables had been made by you, they would have a transparent background, not a white square surrounding them as if you've just pressed Print Screen, opened up the screenshot in your graphics programme and cut around the images. Plus they wouldn't be lossy as fuck, which they are.
What the...a popup just..popped up...in a very small window. The Myspace profile of a "Josh Bell"...eh? Your site is the only site I've got up at the moment so it would've been from you. Damn Piczo and its popups.
Competitions
Guess the password - what? This should be Guess the lyrics. Was there something on your mind when you wrote up the page title?
So they went down
and sat on the pier,
he said i bet cha got a boyfriend but i don't care
i got no one
to send a letter to
There's no doubt about it, these are the worst lyrics I've ever seen. It's not a matter of guessing these lyrics anyway, it's a matter of googling them!
So your site has just crashed my browser. Just saying is all. Your site crashed my browser. Your site crashed my browser. Talk about a causa mortis for my beloved Safari.
Guestbook
You've got white text against a baby blue background. How can anyone be expected to read this? Be sensible and ditch the white font, replacing it with a readable colour. A dark blue would look nice.
SUMMARY
Piczo sites are generally the same...stolen content, ridden with celebrity images, and an overall state of disorganised chaos. Your site was no different, and failed to impress me on any level apart from the Tips not tricks page, where you showed potential and a decent knowledge of the do's and don'ts of the online world. You cannot expect a brilliant site when you're restricted by the boundaries of Piczo - the best thing for you to do here would be to find a host and take it from there. All the best.
