Reviewee: Junk&Trash
Site: Junk&TrashOwner: Erica
Start review date: Oct 14, 2007
End review date: November 24, 2007
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First impression
This hasn't been the first time for me to visit your site, but I've never seen this layout before. I have to say, I love the texture/abstract look and the green that was used is really fresh and fab. But I was astounded to see how boring you made green look, when green is usually one of the brightest colours out there. I think you could have put more contrast into the CSS to make the headers, text, and links pop out more since it is a little depressing on the eyes. You did make this layout look somewhat professional, but artistic at the same time, so props for that. But otherwise, there isn't anything wrong with the content look, which is good.I think I will be somewhat enjoying this review--but not excited--because of the atmosphere of the overall setup of your design.
Design
Your banner displays a light, abstract, and carefree sensation that calms the users. I think this layout is very well designed if this is the atmosphere you wish for the visitors to have. The banner is showing movement, but the content area totally clashes the atmosphere when it comes to vibrancy; it dulls down the motion of the art, and thus, a little depressing. But overall, the design look is amazing for its peacefulness.The background pattern you've use in the back of your layout is very effective; the grunge completes the design nicely. However, if you have a larger resolution (maybe 1024x768 and up), you will see that the grey line pattern has been repeated too many times. I'd prefer if you didn't have any line patterns except the line border that's surrounding your layout. (You can see this in the preview.) It doesn't balance the design well, so you should take that off, but make the border on the left and right exact. (On your left, you can see a gradient shaded on the very border; and the right doesn't.)
I've noticed that the headers are a dull colour, and I expected some more colour within the CSS, but you haven't done that. You should include more of the green and turquoise colours that have been used in the banner to the content. The navigation, however, has more vibrancy. You could also make the font a dark green/turquoise colour to brighten up the feeling of the site. Mainly, you just need to add more colouring.
You haven't used that many dark colours in the banner, which totally tilts the way the content is. The bold is a dark grey, which isn't much different from the normal text; you need to add more colour to your bolds, italics, underlines.
You also have a footer on your layout. This is very good since I hardly see sights with footers these days. But since you do have a footer, there are usually small links on the bottom, like FAQ, Terms of Use, Contact Us, Top, etc. This makes things even easier for the visitors when they wnat to go to the important site information when they've already scrolled to the bottom and don't feel like scrolling up again.
However, if you look to your left, there is a drastic change on your banner which seems like a mistake. Also, if you notice, it is also almost on the same seperation line of the content and navigation, which makes it seem disturbing since the banner should be fully coloured, and not seemingly seperated, even if it is a faded white line. This also shows on the little preview that is shown on this page, which is bad. Generally, after noticing this issue, your site's design looks a bit awkward, so I suggest you fill that white space in.
The fonts you've used display a very classic look. This can seem professional, yet a little dull [to differnet people]. Of course, you don't want more people to think the font makes your layout look dull, since the colours already are a little incorrectly used. The text in the content section has been used nicely, but the line under the headers could be removed [at least for the subheader]. However, you've used this underline many times, which actually makes the layout look more collaborated than it really is, because in your banner, you haven't used any underlines, though I could see a few line textures being used. But on a general note, this usage of lines is actually very effective used, but yet a little subtle. Keep this up!
Overall Remarks - This layout has been done nicely with some textures. It looks somewhat plain, since there isn't anything much to look at other than the abstract--not many people appreciate it, and don't know how to look at it. You could add more resonance in the overall layout; it will bring more attracted users and more feeling and passion.
No matter, your site exudes a gentle and somewhat professionally calm flavour.
Now we'll be taking a look at your design.
I see you've written,
<li><a href="http://in-genesis.com/" title="index">Main Page</a>
<li><a href="http://in-genesis.com/site/domain/" title="domain">The Domain</a>
<li><a href="http://in-genesis.com/site/credits/" title="credits and resources">Credits & Resources</a>
<li><a href="http://in-genesis.com/site/links/" title="links out">Hyperlinks Out</a>
<li><a href="http://in-genesis.com/site/for/" title="awards and reviews recieved">Awards/Reviews</a>
when you only need
<base href="http://in-genesis.com/"> between you <HEAD> tags, therefore, relieving the time and effort to type in "http://in-genesis.com/" for many of the things on your site.I also notice that you've indented
<h1>Welcome to Junk&Trash</h1> and <h2>Introduction</h2> underneath <div id="content">, while the rest of your coding has not been indented. You should rather indent all of your coding--which makes things a lot easier when trying to find something and when you're trying to fix mistakes--or don't intent at all.You've also written
<div><!-- no full story-->If you keep scrolling down, you'll see this:
<img src="http://www.pinkgarden.co.uk/ts/papercent.gif" alt="Pink Garden Topsites" border="0" width="88" height="31" class="button"Overall Remarks - Your coding for both CSS and HTML are valid, but I find you could use a few shortcuts to make things a little easier and are not actual errors. I think the way you code is very clear, organized, and thought out very nicely. Good work; I don't have much else to say about it.
