Name: Jocelyn
Site: XX-Sweetestsin
Review completed on: 18/04/06

SPLASH PAGE

I can tell you already that you won't be getting top marks in this section because your splash page is totally pointless. Yes, the background is nice, but all you have here is a link to enter the site. Do you not have any site requirements, then? So someone on Mozilla Firefox with an 800x600 display is going to find your site completely viewable with no problems incurred whatsoever. What system(s) and displays has this site been optimised for? You need to actually give some purpose to this entrance page. What's with the scrollbar at the bottom? It leads to nowhere...or do you not care? If you cared, maybe the scrollbar would not exist. 4/10

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

There's no obtrusive horizontal scrollbar to be seen on your main page, quite thankfully. Where are your site updates? Your layout is all right, but would look a hundred times better if you hadn't made it in such an obviously crappy graphics programme. Look at it, it's all blurry! 5/10

LAYOUT

In an ideal world, I'd say that you needed to centrally align your layout, and utilise some sort of frame system, since you're clearly a beginner I'd recommend iFrames, before moving onto divs. Unfortunately since you're on a Piczo site I can't see any transitions for you, until you decide to move to a different host. Although I've never been a Piczo user myself, I am aware that its users do have certain restrictions so that explains the whole "no iframes, every page loads in a new window" thing. Now, on to your layout itself. Like I said, the quality of it looks horrifically shite. Why? It's all blurry, for starters. Parts of the record are covered in brown "muck", that looks like my diarrhea if I've drunken too much coffee. It happens. The whole "LP covered in excrement" look doesn't exactly appeal to me, and to be frank I'm feeling slightly queasy. If you got this layout from a free layout site, I suggest you go back and get something that isn't so poorly made. A layout with clarity, at least. One that doesn't look like a five minute MS Paint job that your little sister pooed on. If you made it yourself, you can touch it up in a credible application such as Jascs' Paintshop Pro or Adobe Photoshop. The higher the quality in which you save the image, the less blurry it will be. 5/20

CONTENT

Surprise surprise, a new layout. Pictures of coconuts and frogs, with the term "You put the lime in the coconut". I don't get this. Coconut and lime would be absolutely revolting combined, and if anyone used that phrase towards me they'd get a resounding slap. The "coc" in "coconut" is slightly hidden by the coconut, so it really looks like "You put the lime in the onut". Anyway, with limes and onuts aside, let's check out your actual content. Interestingly, the content in the "Me" section kicks off with a page of pictures, when there's a whole section devoted to this on your navigation. Interesting. Why not include these pictures with your actual "Pics" section? What about having, you know, a section explaining who you are in replacement of this? Your name, age, location, information along those lines. "Obsessions" - a list of guys and tv shows you must be obsessed with. The large, overlapping cyan font looks revolting. You need to quit with the overlapping, for goodness' sake, < BR > or < P >, much?? "Wishlist" - details of things you want for your birthday. It might help to actually state when your birthday is. Who's James Blunt? Ah yes, that whiney singer who sings "yaaww bootifaawwwl" over and over again, and gains chart recognition for doing so. This is probably the messiest page I've ever seen at a website. Dishevelled to the extreme, chaos reigning supreme. Plus the text at the very bottom overlaps something rotten, and I can't even read the text because of it. "Likes & Dislikes" - this looks a bit better. Simply structured, virtually nothing for me to complain about, for once. "My Schtuff" - I take it you mean "stuff". This page consists of slow-loading pictures of some of your possessions. I like the concept - I had a similar page up at my personal site back in 2004. "Confessions" - some interesting statements here, but why on earth does all the text overlap, and why haven't you used your space bar at all? Each word should have a space between it. This is kindergarten stuff! Next section on your navigation - "Pics", even though you have pics elsewhere. Just stick them all in the same location, aight? Organise your site a bit more. "Extras" - I have to admit I like the cassette tape at the top of this page. I've seen it on a few other sites, though."Enter" - eh? This link on your navigation leads to your splash page. Whaaaat? Why do you need a link to your entrance page when one has already entered it? Why the nonsensical step backward? "Ily" - a list of links to your friends' sites. What does "ily" mean? Apart from being a company that makes takeaway coffee cup lids? "Links" serves pretty much the same purpose as "Ily", except that there are more links here, as well as there being a graphic of a dodgy 80's ghettoblaster. This concludes a most confusing and admittedly frustrating parusal of your content. 8/20

SUMMARY

Jocelyn, I feel that you are not at a level of competency to be taken seriously at a review site like mine. You have a lot of improvements to be made and a great deal of progression until you can produce a site that has some credibility. At the moment I'd just work on improving your design skills and having a long hard think about the content in which you display. You have provided some information about some of your favourite things, but no information about who YOU are as a person. Name, age, blah blah blah. You may get rave reviews by Piczo-based rating sites and the like, but I guarantee you, if you take XX-Sweetestsin to another review site you'll either get flat out rejected because you're on Piczo, or you'll be told the exact same thing I've told you, except it'll probably be sugarcoated. I really hope that you'll continue with web design and will improve the state of your site over time. You are so limited on your Piczo host and you can only progress to a certain level. Once you feel confident enough, have a go with a Geocities Advanced HTML Editor, or go on Freewebs. Good luck...

OVERALL SCORE: 22/60