Name: Liza
Site: In My Eyes
Brief Description: Primarily a fan fiction site housing all the stories (of three fandoms- Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC & Gilmore Girls) I've written over the years. Some babbling, some fanart but mostly fic.
Date Reviewed: 09/18/02

Splash: Your splash image isn't especially exciting, since the combined photos don't really seem to work very well together. But maybe that's just me. I like your glowy embossed script title font ... it looks pretty. And I also like the subtle little "Fan Fiction" in the upper right. A few suggestions for you to help make this splash better:  (1) Create a splash image that really ties together with a particular theme, color scheme, or something. These two photos just don't seem at all related.  (2) Change the recommended resolution to 1024x768, since you yourself stated that it looks better than 800x600.  (3) Your blinking copyright thingie is mostly invisible against your background, which is annoying. Get one that's a different color or something.  (4) Make the entire splash image a link to get into your site, instead of making your visitors click only on the words below it. Your splash right now is perfectly serviceable, but it could be much better.  3/5

Layout: I like the overall look of your layout, especially the lovely glow-shadowed script of your primary navigation. Unfortunately, the colors used on your site just don't seem to complement each other very well. The header image uses shades of maroon, brown, greenish-gray, peach, and the glowy yellow background of the title script. Then your background is black, your main text is white, your links are bright yellow, and your primary navigation is pale-glowy yellow. The site just doesn't have a consistent color scheme to give it a sense of continuity. I would recommend choosing just two or three hues (for example, maroon and peach), and then combining them with black and white *throughout* (including your link colors, your navigation colors, etc.) for a nicely color-coordinated site. Also, your fics come up in a separate window -- which is fine -- but they don't really have any graphical elements that tie them to the rest of the layout, so they look rather plain. Perhaps you could have some sort of banner that matches your main layout header, that could run across the top of each of the fanfic pages, or something like that. (Working on your color scheme might help with this, too.) The photos used in your header image also appear to be rather pixelated (Chad Michael Murray's shirt looks especially bad), which is unfortunate. I would recommend looking for some higher quality scans for use in such prominent graphics on your site. Otherwise, your layout works fine (I'll compliment your navigation in the appropriate section.), but the problems I mentioned really detracted from my own experience of the site.  2/5

Originality: Your navigation system is rather original (more about this under "Navigation"), and of course you actually wrote all of the text on the site, which all appears to be high quality. As far as fan fiction sites go, this isn't all that original, though I like your mini-discussions of each of your site "Picks" ... I don't see that very often, and it's neat. If you want to amp up the originality of your site, you might want to add some additional material peripheral to your fanfics (I don't know ... descriptions of the characters ... some essays on your opinions about plot possibilities ... stuff like that). Just think about what interests *you* (don't worry about what will interest other people ... if you do what you're really passionate about, it will draw visitors).  3.5/5

Content: You have quite a lot of content, including not only your own fictions and artwork but also your fairly extensive, descriptive "Picks" pages. I really like the fact that you give your own thoughts and opinions about each of the links, instead of just listing them ... makes it much more personal and interesting. Your site is remarkably short on spelling errors, typos, etc. (one of my pet peeves), so you earn extra brownie points from me, there. You have quite a few fanfics archived here, but I have to admit that I didn't read them, because I know nothing about the fandoms to which they pertain. I had a glance through a few of them, and they appear to be well-written. As I mentioned under "Originality," you could possibly add some additional material peripheral to your fanfic, but that's really your choice.  4/5

Navigation: Overall, I *love* your navigation system. The primary links remain beneath the header image throughout, which is great, but I love how you also have the links for each section run along the left-hand side on each page. This combination makes navigation through your site an absolute snap. I only have a couple of minor quibbles. You should link your blog from the "Extras" section, as well as at the bottom of the main page. (All of your site's pages should be linked from the primary navigation somehow.) And your "Disclaimer" link from the "Fiction" section leads to an error message.  4.5/5

Various Comments: I enjoyed looking through your site, though I know nothing about the relevant fandoms. You seem quite a prolific writer, so keep up the good work!

Total Score: 3.5/5