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September 23 2007: Review: HushDiamonds

Filed under Reviews

Please note that I am writing this as a guest reviewer for Rhiannon as she has an insane number of people waiting for a review. Help a girl out!

Reviewing: Sandra of HushDiamonds

First Impressions

Hey there. You’re getting me instead of Rhiannon because a) I’m cooler, and b) I’m more Asian, c) I’m harsher, d) she’s swamped with requests. Choose the option you like most. What you’ll need to know: As a reviewer, I’m different to Rhiannon in that I will focus on your coding (semantics more than validity), site structure, and content more than I will focus on layout and aesthetics. I also don’t mince words, so where Rhiannon will make a joke about something, I’ll just say that you suck donkey’s balls. Yep. That’s right. Donkey’s balls. Nice and tasty.

With that said, I do like your layout. The font isn’t too small, the sidebar isn’t too wide/narrow, you’ve (generally, with a few notable exceptions) done really well with your colour scheme, and you’re not hurting my eyes. I would have liked to see you centre your layout, as well as add a few more details here and there that could have given that extra ‘oomph’ to your layout…but on the whole, not bad. Not bad at all.

Coding wise…well the general coding isn’t bad (thank god for Wordpress huh?), but there’s these small niggly details that really piss me off. Woman…inline styling? So turn of the millenium. Content looks alright - though a bit standard. You are now officially the hundred thousandth site I’ve seen that offers adoptables, pixels and emoticons. Congratulations, it’s a great achievement.

Layout

Aesthetically (yeah, I know I said I wouldn’t look into it much, but these are very basic, and I’m a liar anyway) there are a few things you need to address:

  1. Centering your layout
  2. Realising that 800×600 users are people too
  3. Getting rid of the pink elements in your sidebar
  4. More spacing between blog entries
  5. Cutting down the things you have in your sidebar
  6. Doing something about that font you use for your site title

Looking at these in order - firstly, you need to center your layout. This is an issue mainly of balance on the screen - by forcing your visitors to look to the extreme left of the screen (this is especially true for those with larger resolutions/monitors), you’re essentially taking them out of their comfort zone. You want to make things easier/more comfortable for your visitors, not to force them into looking at something that’s not intuitive to the human psyche. Check out this centering cheat from Tutorialtastic if you like, or check out the small piece I wrote on it when I was at Umb-Rella Reviews.

Secondly, you need to make sure your layout fits into all resolutions - including, I’m afraid to say, 800×600. Yes the market for high-quality monitors is expanding, yes more and more people are upgrading, yes it’s almost obsolete. Almost. Not yet. Cater for them, mmmkay? Just check out the link above (at Umb-Rella Reviews) - it goes through the ideal widths of layouts (fluid/non-fluid) in order for it to fit into all resolutions.

On a bonus, as far as I can tell, you’re compatible across all browsers. Huzzah!

Thirdly, after having a colour scheme consisting primarily of white, black, and a type of burnt ochre, it’s certainly jarring to scroll down the page and see the random colours (yellow? green?) of the smilies, and the pink touches in your sidebar (tagboard, search title). Try to stick to the same colour scheme for consistency across your site. I’d remove the search title (it’s pretty, but it doesn’t serve any purpose - it’s just cluttering up the sidebar), change your tagboard coding (I think you have to do it from actual tagboard site though it’s been years since I’ve used one so I can’t really remember…), and swap your current WP smilies for something like the WP eyes that Jem offers here. They’re transparent, so you don’t have to worry about changing them everytime you change your layout - they’ll match whatever layout you have. Isn’t that excellent?

Fourthly, (and this is only a minor detail) you need more spacing between the title of each blog entry, and the “plugs to commenters” links that are before it, so that there’s more distinction between individual entries. Add a special paragraph class to the Commenters links (e.g. <p class="plugcomments">BLAH BLAH</p>), and then add 20px bottom margin to that particular class like so:

.plugcomments {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}

Easy!

Fifthly, cutting down the number of things you have on your sidebar. There’s been some “ZOMG Sidebar Dramaz” recently (it’s really all quite entertaining), but luckily the length of your sidebar doesn’t quite fall under the same category. It is however, a tad long with some “NQN” aspects that can be weeded out and/or combined into the one section. First, why not combine the “Welcome” and the “Webmistress” into the one, shorter and more concise, section? That way, the navigation is moved up the sidebar, and actually appears on the screen when someone on a smaller resolution clicks onto your site. Try something like:

This is the online journal of Sandra, a 15-year-old Filipina of mixed heritage and multiple hobbies and interests (more? contact?) - a place where she speaks of everything and anything. I hope you enjoy your stay!

Short and concise. You’ll notice that I took out a lot of what you originally had in your welcome message. First of all, respect is earnt, not freely given. You can’t ask people to respect what you’ve written, you can however, moderate your own behaviour so that they can respect you on their own terms. Secondly, it’s obvious that you’re expressing your own thoughts - otherwise, whose thoughts would you be talking about? I’ve also taken out all extraneous parts under “Webmistress”, leaving only the bare details. Don’t give your visitors too much to begin with - give them just enough to interest them, then hook them into your content by leaving a “read more” link. Mystery is intriguing!

As for the other items on your sidebar, a calendar is…well, I’ve never seen the point of one myself, but others may not agree. To each their own. I do advise that you remove “My HushDiamonds” however, as that’s something that’s already on your hostees page and needn’t be repeated on your sidebar. Tagboards are…so 2000. You do have a comment system on your blog, and a contact page, so I’m not quite seeing the reason behind having a tagboard.

“Daily Reads” are on “Exits” so that can be removed, as can “Private” (bookmark it on your computer, or simply add them to an account at del.icio.us, we don’t need to see your login links). “Search” needs to be moved further up the sidebar (put it under “Navigation”) - it’s currently hiding underneath all the other things so a person who really needs to search your site won’t be able to see it! The “P.S” under “Disclaimer” can be on the actual credits page, rather than the sidebar.

With all that in mind, you would have reduced the length of your sidebar by at least half. Congratulations, your sidebar is no longer longer than your content. Don’t you feel a sense of achievement?

Lastly when it comes to the aesthetics of the layout, you need to do something about the font you’re currently using for your site title. It’s nice and swirly - just right to match that flower that features on the design. However. The jagged edges of the font is unappealing - it looks uncomplete and amateur as the edges aren’t smooth. Why Sandra, why? It’s so very simple to fiddle with the anti-aliasing options in Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, or I believe, even in GIMP. Keep that in mind for your next layout.

When it comes to coding and semantics, I’ve already mentioned your problem with inline styling (or, the problem I have with your inline styling). You obviously know how to use an external style sheet (though tsk tsk, it’s not condensed - please look into it!), yet you’ve notably missed out elements like:

…just so you know, div layers can be assigned a class/id. You’ve done it for other elements, so why not these three? Check it out, fix it up.

There’s also quite a few extraneous tags that are slowing up the loading time of your website. Various javascript spam stoppers, as well as javascript for a Live Comment Preview plugin which doesn’t seem to show up. I suggest you stay clear of unnecessary plugins that require javascript as it can bog down the loading time of a site. If you’re looking for a spam catcher, I can suggest Akismet - I personally haven’t had any problems with spam since I installed it.

Additionally, rather than using div classes to style meta information, I’d use the paragraph tag. Semantically speaking, it makes more sense as you are styling a block of writing, not a block in general. Along the same lines, rather than using div classes to style your headers, you need to start using proper header tags <h1><h2> etc. - that way they will be displayed properly for those who are mo-browsing and using screen reader software.

Try to refrain from using the target="_blank" attribute for tags, as you shouldn’t dictate visitors browsing habits. Use <strong> in place of <b> as that’s stylistic coding, not semantic coding. The same goes for <i> and <em>.

Lastly for coding (well, not really, but it’ll do for now), I’d also look into improving your WordPress permalinks in order to create better search rankings. If you go into “Options” in your WordPress control panel, then click on “Permalinks” and choose the “date and name based” option, that’s much more search engine friendly.

Content

You need to change the order of your navigation links for a more logical progression through the site. Try: Home, Webmistress, Visitor, Archives and Categories, Domain, Exits. That way, visitors go from the index page, to information about the blogger, to things you offer for them, to more things you’ve written, to some information about your domain, then finally leaving to see a site you recommend. Makes more sense that way. :)

Clicking through to your first content page “Webmistress” and seeing the links there, I’m anticipating…genericness. Sure, it’s great that you have a few fast facts (how exactly can you calculate 1% of your nationality? - oh, and float your photo right rather than left so that the facts line up evenly), but why do you have links for further information entitled: “Name Analysis” and “My Zodiac Sign”. Without even clicking on them, I can tell you that they’re generic generic generic boring boring boring, and you need to get rid of them now (now now). I mean, how do they distinguish you from the million other people named Sandra (I know five!), or other Taurus (I know about five hundred!)? They don’t. Get rid of them and strive for individuality.

The other pages look more promising. The “Basic Ten” is a great page - allowing visitors to see more of you as a person. I do suggest that you bold the facts, leaving the explanation in normal case, just so visitors can better pick out the individual facts. There are quite a few spelling/grammatical mistakes on this page - understandable for someone whose first language isn’t English, but which should be fairly easy to pick up nonetheless. Things like “now wonder” (no wonder), “loosing a family member” (losing a family member), “he can’t glance” (he couldn’t glance), can be easily picked up with a re-read or two.

I do suggest that you merge “For Real?!” and “Basic Ten” together - they’re essentially the same concept, in the same format. Rename it “Basic Sixteen” or just “In More Detail”. Something descriptive!

Under “Hear Her Voice” - what’s a baloney recording? I always thought baloney was some sort of American food…or at least, that’s what Sweet Valley High books taught me. I do suggest that you simply upload the files to somewhere like Odeo though - it makes it easier for visitors (the formatting you use to embed it in your page is blocked by my Firefox - and others too I’m sure - whereas I have no problem with Odeo) as it’s simply more browser/platform friendly.

There’s really not much to say about your gifts page, other than that you should be using proper ordered list tags <ol> and <li> to list them all. It’s the semantic way, as well…look, they are a list right? Regarding your contact page, I do suggest that you look into providing various other ways of contacting you as well, e.g. “If this form doesn’t work, please email me at xyz@email.com”. Technology isn’t foolproof, so if a form doesn’t work, at least visitors can always try another method of contacting you.

Moving onto the Domain section of your site…well I always see it as a problem of a personal site/journal when there’s more information offered about the site itself than there is about the blogger/owner themselves. After all, what’s more important - the message, or the medium (I’m going to ignore Marshall McLuhan here - I don’t believe the medium IS the message…yeah, I spouting Communications theory. Can you tell I’ve just written an essay on it?)?

Anyway, I suggest you look into cutting down the number of pages you have in this section. You could for instance, merge “”Hosting” and “Hostees” onto the one page as neither have much content on them. Some of the link buttons you have are actually fairly bad quality (e.g. the grey one, and the orange flower one), so you could narrow it down to your best buttons, then put them on the main domain page, rather than a subpage. “Previous themes” is a little unnecessary - you don’t need to show ten screenshots of layouts that share the same characteristics. What you can do instead is choose two or three that show how you have developed as a webdesigner, then link them within your domain history page to illustrate important times in your domain history.

Those are obviously just a few of the things you can do to cut down the number of pages in this section. Essentially, there’s one thing to keep in mind when it comes to Domain information (and indeed, to any information) - to tell the most with the fewest words. Having two pages on your blogging history isn’t any use when it can basically be summed up as “I’ve been blogging for a long time, first at Blogspot, then at another domain, and now HushDiamonds. I have a lot more visitors now than I ever have in the past”. I hate to say it, but the majority of web people don’t have the patience to read through more than the basics…so make it basic!

And in this section, like the “Webmistress” section, you need to re-read the majority of your pages again, to catch out numerous grammatical errors.

Regarding your “Visitors” page, I hate, hate, hate it when someone says “If you have any problems with this - just leave”. If you’re offering things for your visitors, you obviously want them to like your site, so why do you tell them to leave? If you put a blog/site on the Internet, you’re obviously looking for visitors, so why do you tell them to leave? It doesn’t make sense!

Anyway…you know what I said earlier about adoptables, pixels and emoticons?

You are now officially the hundred thousandth site I’ve seen that offers adoptables, pixels and emoticons. Congratulations, it’s a great achievement.

I’m not really congratulating you for having content identical to everyone else’s…there’s that sarcasm thing there. Yep. In any case, if you insist on keeping them, use <code> to show coding, not textboxes. It’s all about semantics!

By “Free WordPress Themes”, don’t you mean “free wordpress theme”? There’s only one right now. I do suggest that instead of directly offering the download link, you offer a preview of the theme first. One little screenshot doesn’t let the visitor know much about the theme and how it works. And well…far be it from me to suggest inferiority, but when a design site such as Skyefairy can offer over thirty beautiful themes for free download, I can’t see anyone going to a personal blog to pay for a design. No offence intended, but that’s just the way things are. What I do suggest though, is that you work towards a new theme that you could offer to Skyefairy who can then upload it for their wider audience. It’s always an option!

“Interaction” seems like a rather desperate grab for visitor favour…it’s not really interaction is it, when all they’re doing is filling in a form? Interaction is receiving comments on your blog, replying to those comments, and stimulating conversation in your comments. I’d remove the “Win an award” and the “Birthday Page” - concentrate on interaction in your blog instead.

“Exits” is fairly standard (though, you need to use proper lists!), so that’s it for your content I guess.

Summary

Your site’s actually not all that bad. A bit stock-standard, like most other teenager’s sites out there, but far from being labelled “bad”. What I would suggest you look into is individualising yourself. Make yourself stand out from that group of sullen teenagers. Get rid of anything that smacks of being typical, and draw on things that differentiate you.

A truthful blog is I think, key to this (though I’m biased because I only have a blog). Let’s face it - no one’s life, thoughts, actions are the same. If you talk more about the little things that make you interesting (the things that make you you - talking about school is generally boring for most visitors!), it’ll make you as a person stand out more. It’s all about appealing to a larger audience - not all your potential visitors are going to be fellow high school students. A large number of them would have left already, so how would you make things relevant to them?

And on an endnote…I’m happy to say that you did not suck sweaty donkey’s balls.

11 Responses to “Review: HushDiamonds”

  1. Amanda, I miss your reviews!! This was like old times. After I fix up my site the way I want it, I might ask/force you into reviewing my site just for the hell of it.

    And I think I had a layout that looked a lot like hers once. But my sidebar was worse!

    Meli on September 23 2007 #

  2. I love reading reviews. It’s kind of an obsession I have.

    Mari on September 23 2007 #

  3. Hey
    I read this review on PSGR. Your quite good at doing reviews and you make them enjoyable to read.
    Cya

    Shelley on September 23 2007 #

  4. Definitely like old times. I used to read your reviews for fun lol. Do more!

    Corinne on September 23 2007 #

  5. I read this on PSGR and thought it was very well written. I love the way you write reviews I’d love you to review my site haha but then you would find all the bad coding :p

    Bobbi-lee on September 23 2007 #

  6. That was a great review! You should do it more often.

    Kaylee on September 23 2007 #

  7. This reminds me of ages ago when I reviewed OR. Good times, right? Truly this review can be compared to a nice ‘massage’ ;) Think what you will of me, I will continue to make horrible puns.

    I think I’ve learnt some things from this review too. Code tags? Sounds good to me. 800 x 600 resolutions? Dread the thought (I still grudgingly cater to it though).

    By the way I’d be interested in reading your essay. I wouldn’t call myself a McLuhan know-it-all, but I’m definitely curious about his work. It’d be awesome to see what you’ve figured of him.

    Lil on September 24 2007 #

  8. I’m sorry, but I must disagree with the 800×600 resolution statement. Fluid layouts are the bomb (everybody thought I was crazy for using them back in the day), but the number of folks with that low of a resolution is about as minimal as people with 640×480 these days. Case in point, here are some resolution stats from my own site, which will give us a pretty motley mix since I’ve been experiencing the inflationary StumbleUpon effect (these aren’t going to be pretty, I don’t want to reconstruct the table):

    1. 1024×768 234 28.54%
    2. 1280×1024 181 22.07%
    3. 1280×800 172 20.98%
    4. 1440×900 88 10.73%
    5. 1680×1050 49 5.98%
    6. 1152×864 17 2.07%
    7. 1600×1200 17 2.07%
    8. 1920×1200 12 1.46%
    9. 1280×960 11 1.34%
    10. 1400×1050 11 1.34%
    11. 800×600 9 1.10%

    This isn’t to say that 800×600 users should be ignored (once again, fluid layouts are the bomb), but if only 9 out of every ~800 people uses it, I don’t think it’s exactly a huge priority. Think of them, but if you’re going to cater to anybody, it looks like you’ll have a lot more appreciative widescreen viewers than 800×600-ers.

    Leila on September 24 2007 #

  9. Ouch, and I can’t comment on the Umb-Rella article?! I guess I’ll have to do so here. Boooo. I guess I’ll have to do my nitpicking here :p

    Your first sentence is “Internet users use a range of browser resolutions, ranging from 800×600 to 1280×1024.” Maybe this is out of date (there’s sadly no published date on the article), but oh my goodness..! I don’t know what your stats look like, but a lot more people are using screens WIDER than 1280px than those that have a measly 800px! So that article is much in need of an update.

    Okay, I’m done now. :p

    Reply: You’ll have to speak to Tracey about that as she runs Umb-Rella now. :) It was written back in 2005.

    Leila on September 24 2007 #

  10. Amanda, you’re reviews are really interesting =D Do more for us, pretty please? =D

    Chien Yee on September 24 2007 #

  11. Wow. I really love this review. Thanks so much! Hopefully I can make great changes in my site as soon as my schedule gets a little bit better. I’m really grateful for this Review.

    ^^ Good day!

    Sandra on October 11 2007 #

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