Review of jen.eloquensa.net

Reviewed: Jen
Site URL: jen.eloquensa.net

Initial thoughts: wow. Immediately my eyes are brought to the gorgeous rose faded down the second column, following down I see the introduction. I’m not sure if this is intentional, but it’s a great design practise. I personally would have not thought of it, and would have probably stuck the introduction above the blog. Bravo for thinking ahead.

The overall layout is pretty, but the general presentation is quite overpowering. I never usually criticise large amounts of text as it shows that the site is thought about and effort has been put into it, however this site has three columns jam-packed full of text. The reader is likely to see that and think “I’ve not got time to read this!“. I would suggest removing the third column and placing the information on your other sites/projects on a page elsewhere. This would also improve the compatibility between resolutions.

In terms of navigation, your menu is initially troublesome to find. Had I not visited your website before, I may have missed it altogether. It has improved since my last stroll around your pages, but not by much. You may want to leave a note under “Prologue” as to where your navigation is on the page, how to use it, etc.

Your links are visible as links, distinguishable from the text. I think on a flat panel (I’m currently using a CRT) they might be less identifiable though, so consider adding some sort of decoration or underlining to make them stand out. I favour bold links, but this is just personal preference. I also think you should add some sort of change to the hover decoration too; a darker colour perhaps, or an underline. These kind of changes assist those who are visually impaired.

In terms of written content, you have a whole LOAD of written content which would take me an absolute age to get through thoroughly, so I’m going to skim a bit, and just look out for obvious mistakes/etc. Here are a few typing errors I spotted:

I didn’t go through all the pages, but most of the typos I’ve picked out are just me nitpicking unnecessarily, but may be repeated on other pages. You can do this check yourself with spell-checking software.

I love the fact that you’ve got guest content. This is certainly not a requirement for personal pages, but you’ve put so much effort into your site, I’d have assumed you would be bored by now. This is obviously not the case, even with your piles upon piles of pages, you’ve still got graphics, tutorials, layouts, etc. This is excellent. If I were grading you, I’d give you an A+ for this extra effort alone.

Ahhh, valid XHTML and CSS! My browser loves you. What else can I say? Your coding is neat and you’re already using divs, IDs and classes. Excellent. Your next task is to inspire others to validate their pages. (Joke.)

Your site is lovely. It is well presented, if a little large in terms of layout (people do still use 800×600). Your text is clear, you links are useable, you have more written content than I could even imagine, and things for the guest to use. You obviously have spent a lot of time perfecting parts of your website, and it is reflected in everything you do. Keep up the awesome work!