Site: Emotional Tears

Owned By:

Reviewed By: Kendra

Review On: January 2, 2009

First Impression: Interesting. I think those colors go together quite well. Overall, it is pleasant for my eyes.

Site Name: I think it’s nice and easy to type. Not too much to say about that.

Organization: You seem to be relatively organized for the most part. As far as I can see you have no button to bring your visitors back to your blog/index page. I’m guessing you just put this layout up and forgot that part. This should be added very soon.

Aside from that, I think you should rearrange your sidebar. I don’t like having the content on the sidebar for some reason. I think it just looks better on an actual page. You can utilize this space for some of the things that are in your footer. You want to put some of those things more visibly in sight so your visitors see it. Things like advertising are often key in a sidebar. People want their site seen when they advertise with you, you know?

It also seems like you need a separate section for an “About” or “Site” link. You do not seem to have a credits section or an about the author. These types of things are important to the site and add a little something extra for your visitors to view while visiting. NEVER MIND. I just realized you do have a section for all of these things. Judging by the fact that it took me so long to get to it while browsing, I think you should make this more visible to your visitors somehow. Perhaps, when you create a navigation bar at the top of the container, you can add a link that says “About” and link it to this page. Maybe?

Layout: I think your layout is nicely done and the colors work well together. You have some minor CSS problems that are making it look a but tacky.

For example, I think the font and size your using is clashing with the idea of the layout. I would change to an Arial 12 px or something along those lines. If you want to use that font color, then the font size really needs to go up. Fonts, in general, should be on the larger side usually because some people have different resolutions.

I also dislike the way your links on your sidebar area look. That black box background throws the layout off a little bit. Some of them are longer in height because of the text within the box area, for example, “Icon Textures”. I would get rid of the whole having a background area/box altogether.

I said this before but you need some sort of “Home” button. I would add an entire navigation bar in that whole blank space at the top of the container. It looks empty up there and definitely requires a space filler.

I love the header image, I think the colors are wonderful.

In your blog you have a calendar for the date and the text inside it is aligned to the right. I think this looks a bit tacky and it could use a little color, some dimension. Gillian has a nice tutorial on this and it may help you to customize it. If anything, you can always get rid of it make the date read normally across.

As I said before, bump up the size of the font as it is a bit difficult to see. Larger font will look awkward at first for you since you’re used to smaller font, but it will grow on you. I did the same thing on my site and now I love having the font a few sizes up. It’s much easier to read!

As far as the links go, I think you should change them to a different color. You want people to know where a link is. If you have the links the same color as the text, people wont know unless they hover over them and that can be irritating. You can probably pull off darkening the links a bit to make them stand out as they should.

Your h2’s are a little too light. They sort of blend in with the yellow-green you chose for the background. Perhaps maybe bring another color in the mix rather than the same green and pink pattern and add a deep purple for some headers. Make the headers, altogether, stand out more. You want people to see those and be like “Oh that’s what I was looking for!”, you know?

I don’t enjoy the color on your block quotes too much. That lime green is a bit eye popping. I would change that color and make the side bars that are currently green a little bit thinner. It looks too thick and tacky.

Coding: Your CSS has 9 errors. It is invalid because of the opacity tag your calling for. Honestly, coding is my least favorite and worst subject so I’m not going to try and break that down for you. I’m not going to lie haha.

Aside from that, your XHTML has 4 Errors. I think I had the same problem that you seem to be having. I found that not everything was closed that needed to be and adding a few more “