Name: Lizzy
Site: Melodic Dreams
Brief Description: Mainly personal, Artsy collective experimental domain.
Date of Review: 08/18/02

Splash: Wow. Stunning, gorgeous, fabulously beautiful splash image! One of the neatest I've seen in a long time. But ... your splash page doesn't actually give any information. The primary purpose of a splash page is to advise your visitors in advance about what they're getting themselves into, so you should warn your visitors about your Java, pop-ups, etc.  4.5

Layout: I like the fact that the size and location of your pop-up window, in which your visitors view all of your smaller content, allows us to continue to see your lovely splash image. It really sets a certain tone, and looks great with the complementing pop-up layout design. By glancing at your html, I see that your source code originated with someone named Paul Miller ... but you don't give this person credit anywhere on your site, that I could find. Perhaps you could add an acknowledgement and link to this person on your "a ceathair" page, as a courtesy. Most of your content is quite surprisingly well-suited to the small size of your pop-up window, and a larger page might make it look sparse. Excellent layout decision! And I really liked that your artwork came up in separate full-sized windows, to show it to advantage. The only real layout problem that I saw was that I found your blog very difficult to read, because the text color is so similar to the background color. I would recommend lightening the text color a few shades, to make it easier on the eyes.  4.0

Originality: I've seen a lot of personal sites, but very few as original as this one. You've got really great, creative, unique, interesting stuff here. Blogs are pretty standard, of course, but yours is quite entertaining, with the random and sometimes quite lovely (sometimes quite humorous) little quotes ("you CAN see the sea - It's over there, between the land and the sky"). Your artwork, of course, is the most original thing about your site, which leads me to move on to "Content."  5.0

Content: Your content impressed me so much that I bookmarked your site. Honestly. Your artwork, in particular, is truly beautiful, and you have enough of it that I didn't feel disappointed (though of course more would be even better). Much of your other content is surprisingly entertaining for a personal site (Your name really means that you're prone to bladder weaknesses? I'm soooo sorry!), but I'm not sure why your "weatherpixie" is repeated at the bottom of your "about" page, when it has its own page as well. One thing I really missed in your content was information about where you're from. You talk so much about Ireland, and yet it's clear you don't live there. That left me wishing you had a section about that. And maybe something about how/why you became so interested in Ireland. What is it you like so much? How did it all start? Inquiring minds want to know. :-)  4.5

Navigation: I know some people might not like the Irish number navigation system, but I personally found it original and attractive. Navigation in general was quite smooth, but some of your pages have a "Back" link, and others (for example, the "Weather" page) do not. This sometimes made navigation frustrating, since I would have to try to find my way back again through the site architecture. I would recommend checking all your pages and making sure that they *all* have a "Back" link, because that's well-suited to the organization of your site and navigation.  3.5

Various Comments: Your site seems to have a very artsy, moody, Celtic feel to it, which made some of the content (like "cute things") seem a bit out-of-place. But, hey, this is a personal site, so whatever interests you is fair game, right? If you want to make the site a bit more focused, you might want to pay attention to a consistent mood, but that's really a personal artistic choice. Overall, I think your site is lovely, creative, and extremely interesting.

Total Score: 4.5/5