Name: Laila
Site: Grafikando
Review completed on: 8/12/06

SPLASH PAGE

No splash


FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Hmmm...a graphics site with a smutty celebrity layout. What a surprise! If you're going to have a celebrity layout you might as well feature someone who is famous for good reason, instead of someone who is famous for being famous.

LAYOUT

Mehhhh...do I have to? For starters, your layout has been placed in an odd location. It's neither to the left, the centre, or the right. Either have it to the extreme left, or the centre - no in between! Now, I'm no longer one to talk about centrally aligned layouts, unfortunately, as I myself cannot centrally align mine. In case anyone was wondering, it's because if I do, horizontal scrollbars are created. Dandy. I'm also not too keen on those silly paperclips you have dangling from either sidebar, they look a bit queer. Trust me, it's best to stay away from decorative sidebar headers, as I myself had bloody unicorns on mine a few months ago. Not cool. Your colours are fine, but all in all this layout is so confusing on my eyes - where to look? What to focus on? It's so busy it's mind boggling. Information and links have been crammed into left and right sidebars, your blog contains a flurry of distracting animated emoticons, the text is too small, there's no clear navigation...oh dear! Whatever next? Minimising the amount of information available on your main page is essential here, hell, you could even get rid of the secondary sidebar and have just the one, like everyone else does. Things you could do away with include:

  • "Works Counter" - we don't care about the number of things you have to offer, and you certainly don't need to fling numbers around on your main page. It is the quality of your graphics that matter, not the quantity.

  • "Monthy Progect" - it's actually "project", but since your site is primarily in Italian and I think you're quite young, I'll be waiving any grammatical errors in this review. If you like, you could take the Monthly Progect bit out of your sidebar, and put it in the main part, under your welcome message.

  • Tagboard - this could be located under your blog entries, or via a link that when clicked, pops up into the tagboard.

    If you remove all these things, you're left with what really counts - all your navigation links. If you put them all together on the one sidebar instead of strewn every which way on multiple sidebars, your site would appear much more organised and navigation would be a hell of a lot easier.

    CONTENT

    I'm unsure of where I should start, as on one sidebar you've got the word "Navigation" with about four site related links underneath it, and on the other sidebar you have "General", which from the looks of it, contains most of the pages your site offers. "General" it is, then...

    General

    My Portfolio - this takes me to the top of your layout, in the same way as a page anchor would. Huh?

    Awards - sorry I won't be looking at these, but well done, smashing effort etc etc et-bloody-cetera.

    Permissions - this was pretty nifty, and a good idea for other owners of graphic sites. This is a page in which you've displayed emails / messages from other artists, who have given their permission for you to use some of their work. Good idea!

    Links out / link me - it's good to see you've provided an assortment of sizes for your link back buttons. But what are "Scambio" links? Under this particular header you've got some marquee banners displaying various other graphics sites. Marquee banners aren't a very good idea in this instance because you have to stare at it for ages just to see all the links. How about displaying them statically, by way of a button wall or something?

    Graphic

    I know I'm not supposed to be bleating about grammar but since this is a header you might as well add the S on the end. Mantengali sciocchi inglesi felici, yes? Lol.

    Avatar 100*100 - hey, nice! You've got a good range to choose from too, from Harry Potter to Charmed, Final Fantasy to Lord of the Rings. I like the way you've displayed the avatars, so that people can see how many times they were downloaded and whatnot. I also like how you've got a tick box next to each, so that you can go through and tick the avatars you want and then press "download", so you can get everything you want in the one go. Awesome work.

    Bases for you - what's a base when it's at home, pet? Oh, Icons? Oh, ok...

    Template - very exquisite. You should put the download meters up on this page, too. You might want to add the S on the end of "template", as there is more than one template here.

    Tubes - Are you there, God? It's me, Rhiannon, and I was just wondering what a tube was! (Bada-boom) These look like brushes to me mate, but then again I know jack shit about graphics, seeing as I'm only interested in myself other areas of web design. I particularly liked your Makeup tubes, very nice. Keep thinking of them as brushes though...

    Layout - more than one, add the S. Well, lookie here at "Spring". Can I say wow!!! It's no wonder it has been downloaded the most out of the other layouts you've got up here. Just wondering why you've got a search bar up here though, when you've only got four layouts up and there are no other pages?

    Basi banner - ah, button templates. Nice and detailed, and a good selection.

    Signs - these were all right, but they're all cleavage clad anime / manga / whatever signs. Typical of this genre, I'm sure...it's good to provide a variety, so consider adding some non animated signs. Harry Potter, LOTR, whatever. Variety is good, my friend.

    Download

    What is the difference between what's listed here and what's listed under "Graphic"? Everything is up for download.

    Brush - (es). Nice! Especially the strawberries and the scribbles. Grunge brushes are pretty generic though. You see these everywhere, very 2004.

    Pattern - (s). Some of these were very simple, although I'm sure that there's someone lazy enough to download these basic patterns instead of making their own. After all, it would take at least a minute or under to do themselves :P

    Texture - (s). Sometimes I wish I knew more about graphics. I've no idea what textures are, but they look nice?!

    Wallpaper - (s). Hmmm about your frog wallpaper, I've seen that frog on stationary before. Keropi or something, something beginning with K. Kero? God knows, but I've seen this character before, meaning that it's copyrighted material. Not a good idea to have this up, is it?

    SUMMARY

    I always find reviewing graphics sites a little harder than normal sites, because I'm simply not up with the play in terms of what textures are, tubes, bases, and what not. To tell you the truth I'm not very interested at all, but that doesn't mean that I didn't appreciate your work. For the most part I did, I thought your graphics were mostly very well done. Try and steer clear from celebrity layouts though - to be honest I was wondering why you had one up, it's a bit of a cop out isn't it? On the whole, your graphics were fine, but what of the organisation of your site? A different matter entirely...if you follow the tips I gave you, your site will definitely appear more professional and organised. Remember, it's not just about what your site contains, it's about how you present it!

    PSGR QIS: Quality Indication System