Mallory Maloney.com
STATS
Website Name: Mallory Maloney.com
Website URL: http://www.mallorymaloney.com/
Type: Personal Domain
Skill Level: Intermediate
Owner: Mallory
Reviewer: Melanie
Reviewed On: 7/31/07
FIRST IMPRESSION (7/10 pts)
Splash page =/ I don't really see a point to splash pages...they seem to be going out of "website style" =P And your's doesn't really list anything particulary important. Do love the background though!
LAYOUT AND DESIGN (50/55 pts)
Really love the gothic style of your site! But just a few suggestions...try and make the text a bit larger. I can read it, but find myself straining a little. I'm sure other people would appreciate a larger font size as well =P Also, I think it would be a great idea to start learning about using div layers to hold your content instead of Iframes. Iframes seem to make everything look much more condensed and harder to scroll through. Your sidebar is far too long, but I'll get to that in the next section. Other than those things, I really like how your site looks (which is surprising since I'm more a fan of color that greyscale), but with the gothic theme it fits perfectly!
CONTENT AND ORGANIZATION (20/30 pts)
Okie doke. Well in general, your sidebar is way too much information to process =P It would be better if you just had the main links "Mallory, Artwork Writings, etc" listed in the sidebar frame, and then eliminate the scrollbar in the frame alltogether. It would make everything look much more easier to filter through. That being said, a "Mallory" page (along with the other categories) would be needed which would then list the various subpages.
Lets start with the "Mallory" section. Your profile is informative, but you really need to differentiate the headers ("first name" etc...) by making them bold or something so they stand out from the rest of the text! The same goes for all the rest of your pages...make sure the topics are bolded. Happy Be-lated Birthday by the way! =) Contact and Name pages look nicely done, and I love the idea of the "Dictionary" page! Very unique. haha. I also like the "Typing Rules" page! I love Japanese emoticons but unfortunately only know a few...I'm glad I have a reference now! lol. Try putting bullets next to each line of text though (this can go for other pages as well such as profile) In your "voice" page, try making the link to the mp3 a little more noticable. It took a while for me to find. haha. Love your first outfit in the pictures section! Very cute ^^ Most of the other pages are the same format. You have quite a lot of content...maybe try combining some sections to make things easier?
On to "Artwork and Writings"! Again, most of the same stuff from the previous pages apply (bolding and bulleting). I'm really impressed with your drawings! You're very talented =) Your "Scenic Photographs" are very beautiful! Although it may be the style you wish to have, it might be a better idea to have the thumbnails in a horizontal format rather than vertical down the page. It would make them a lot easier to click on a view.
I would suggest combining your Dolls and Glitters etc into a page called "Visitor content", or "Goodies" etc to keep all the content for visitors more organized into one area. "Reads" may also go in here, though they don't have to. Regardless, the "Linkage" section should definiately be the last one on your sidebar, since thats what visitors will visit last to go to other websites.
CODING, BROKEN LINKS, ETC (2/5 pts)
I think the "plugboard" page is a broken link. It doesn't seem like you've made the effort yet to validate the coding on your page.
Click here to see the results of the validation check. Fortunately, it seems there are only 8 errors (as opposed to the 200+ errors I had on my page before I thought about validating! lol). If you have time, it would be a good idea to add a doctype and correct the minor errors you have so that your page can be correctly validated =) The website should give you instructions on ways in which you can go about fixing the problems =)
TOTAL (79/100)
Overall, I felt your site gave off a very "old school website" vibe. haha. Which is not nessesarily a bad thing...it makes your site stand out from the rest. Though it would really be helpful to your visitors if you organized your content a bit better. Too much going on in the sidebar! lol. Also, as I said before, try using more headers, boldness, and bullets to make certain information stand apart from the rest! And finally, attempt to validate your coding so your site will be compatible in all browsers.
