layouts in retrospect layout review

(No longer around)
Site Name: Ricepaper
Site Owner: Lili/chiiyo
Reviewed by: Serene
Stars?: */5
Finished on: 06:06:03

[ The Drawing Board ] - My first impression of this site was... bland. The layout you're using, while functional, is very dull. Just white with a little bit of pink and orange for the links. To me it looked like a layout that had been thrown together in a matter of seconds without much effort put into it. This gave me the impression that you didn't care too much about the site, but from all the content, I can't believe that's true. The colors that you did use, contrasted well and I liked the shades you used. But from my first impression, I would say I probably wouldn't come back to this site again. Just based from my initial glance.

[ Creativity ] - Creativity of any kind is severely lacking in this layout. It's just dull and bland. Using pictures of some kind would help a lot to make your layout more eye catching. Or if you don't want to use pictures, then maybe try different colors. Anything to brighten up the layout. Even a banner with the site's name on it would make this layout a little bit better.

[ Uniqueness ] - Well... I can say that I haven't seen many layouts like this on the web before. But that is probably due more to the fact that most site owners use a lot of colors and pictures than anything else. Refer to the above and try some color or pictures. That would really help. There are several ways you can make your site unique. Use a picture not many people have used before or mess around with it in a paint program and turn it into something new. It doesn't have to be complicated. Almost anything will do.

[ Coding/HTML ] - Wow... you're HTML is really squeezed together. That made it kind of hard to view it. I can't believe you update it when you have to scroll all the way across the bottom of your HTML page. It made my head hurt just thinking about it. Hmm... I'd suggest expanding the HTML instead of having it all squeezed on one line. That should make it easier for you to view it and figure out where the updates you make should go. I see you are using Greymatter, but you can still go in and hit the "Enter" key a few times to make things easier to read. I think it would look better if you used < p > instead of two < br >s. I say this because the bar you have dividing the areas looks a little close to the text. At any rate, this is a Tables layout and it looks fine. I didn't find any errors in the coding. One thing I did notice was that when I clicked on one of your other pages, say "poems" for example, and then I hit the back button on my browser, the second table where your main text is had jumped over and cut off some of the text. This may have been just my computer, but you may want to check that out. Ask someone to try it and see what happens.

[ Organization ] - Your site is very easy to navigate through. All the links were lined up on the left of the screen and they didn't draw attention away from the main text, but you knew they were there. The whole navigation is easy to see and makes it very easy to get around the site.

[ Aesthetics ] - As I have mentioned, I do like the colors you chose for the links and the visited links. They match each other nicely and don't clash at all. They also don't immediately draw attention away from the rest of the text. Again, more color would be a nice thing. I think you used too much white. Everything just looks kind of plain. With the black text on top of that, it gives off a very "newspaper" look.

[ Finishing Touches ] - So basically I think you could use a new layout. Layouts like these are nice once in awhile, but usually when accompanied by a picture in black & white. I think you could take more time than the 2 minutes it looks like it took you to make this layout and come up with something very beautiful. If you don't have a paint program, I'd recommend Paint Shop Pro 7.0 or something along those lines. You can get free trial downloads of a lot of programs to see what you like best. Just give it a shot of color or a picture and you'll have a great layout. I'm sure you're capable of it.

chiiyo's comments :
My goodness, my first layout review. I have no idea why I went and got it in the first place, maybe I hoped that people would like my layout? >_< Apparently not. But I did learn some things from this review, and the most important thing is that my layout must give a good first impression! I'm always relying on my content to get my audience to like Ricepaper, and maybe I was being too lax. It's not like I really was lazy or anything, I was just too stubborn in my desire for a "white" layout and perhaps I had this unintentional thought that people would not care that much about design. I had an argument with a friend once, this whole design vs content argument. Although it is true that content is king, I seemed to have overlooked the fact that design counts as a first impression too. And that I should not belittle the first impression. Hopefully I have rectified that in this design. I might be making a big mistake again but I feel confident enough to submit the site to a layout critique again... *dots and sweats*



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