Name: Spinney
Site: Elysian-Spider
Brief Description: It is a personal site with a lot of stuff for the visitor(probably more than the personal section, so I shouldn't call it that.), like reviews, contests, reads, and more.
Date Reviewed: 09/18/02

Splash: This is quite an interesting splash page, because the image is quite three-dimensional, and sits off-center and low on the page. I like it a lot! I found the titles difficult to read, but the colors look gorgeous, complementing the shades of plumage on the bird. I'm not sure what to recommend to make the titles a bit more visible. Perhaps less overlapping? Maybe make the drop shadow less wide, and not so far from the text? Play with it, and see what you come up with. But don't make us squint quite so much in order to read your titles ... you'll give us wrinkles before our time. The color of your text and links also matches the bird image beautifully. If I hadn't given myself a headache squinting at the titles, I would have given you full marks for the splash. It's really quite lovely.  4/5

Layout: Uh oh. Immediate problem. Your colors here, as on the splash, look gorgeous with the bird image. Unfortunately, the pale blue is *very* difficult to read against the pale brown background. As with the splash, you seem to have chosen beauty over utility ... but you need to pay attention to both when designing a site. The bird has several shades of plumage ... perhaps you could use the darker gray or black for the text color, and the pale blue for your link color? Some of your content (for example, the banners) doesn't fit well in the size of your text frame. I would recommend having those open in a new window or something, so that folks don't have to scroll so much. My rating for this category is sort of mixed, because I'd give your layout a 5/5 for its appearance, but a 1/5 for usability. So I guess I'll take an average (with a bit more weight toward usability, since I think it's more important).  2.5/5

Originality: Your splash and layout are very graphically interesting and unique. I like them *very* much. Your content isn't especially original, since you don't have very much yet. Good luck with getting the site up and going! Again, my rating is mixed, because I'd give your layout 5/5 for originality, but your content would get a 1/5. Again, I'll take an average, but give the content more weight, because it's (in my opinion) more important.  2/5

Content: Wow, this is a really new site ... only created less than a week ago! I think you might be jumping the gun a little bit in requesting a review so early in your site's infancy. Give yourself a little time to accumulate some content, sweetheart! Once you've written some reviews, had a chance to write more of your blog, accumulate some contest winners, and add some other original, interesting content, I hope you'll apply for another review, so that we can re-evaluate the site once it's more fully developed.  1/5

Navigation: Your navigation is clear, simple, and easy as pie. I really like your separate little window that shows the primary navigation links. You've also got those handy "Rewind" links, in case folks want to get around that way. Full marks!  5/5

Various Comments: Good luck getting this baby off the ground. I look forward to seeing more of your writing, including some website reviews! Maybe I'll even submit my site, so you can return the favor. :-)

Total Score: 2.5/5