Name: Xera
Site: Paint With...
Brief Description: This is my Photoshop brush archive. There's nothing special about it, and I don't think there's something bad with it too ^^;;
Date of Review: 08/20/02

Splash: I love your splash image. Whereas many black-and-white splash pages look boring or plain, this one looks classy, intriguing, and very appropriate for your content. You need to keep in mind, though, that with a splash page this simple, the text can easily overwhelm the image. Right now, the text and buttons take up about the same amount of space as the image, and I think the ratio should be a bit more in the image's favor, so that your visitor's eye finds an immediate focal point upon first viewing. If I were you, I'd keep the site requirements and the image, but move everything else (the review buttons, rings, cliques, lists, etc.) to the "misc." page inside your site, so that this page is sleeker and less cluttered. Also, on your splash page it says "no Netscape," but I looked at your page in Netscape (well, Mozilla, actually, but they're basically the same thing) and it worked fine. So I'd recommend removing that line from the splash. I'd also remove the separate link to the "pop-up version," since that's what comes up when you click on the image, anyway.   3

Layout: I looked at your site in both Mozilla 1.0 and IE5, and I actually found that the layout looked much better in Mozilla, oddly enough. In IE, the dark text and light text didn't line up quite right, and often overlapped, which made the pages difficult to read. (It's possible this is a Macintosh issue, but it's still something to look at.) In general, your content is well-suited to the width of this small pop-up window. However, if your visitor decides to widen the window from its original size, the layout looks very strange, because the title image doesn't line up correctly anymore. You may want to explore ways of allowing for that possibility. I was glad to see that I could make the window as tall as I wanted, though, because that made it much easier to view the brushes. You may consider changing the default height of the pop-up window, to make it taller ... but that's really your choice. (I did find, though, that a taller window showed your content to better advantage.) I didn't think you needed so much text on your "misc." page. Your visitors know what credits are, they know what a log is, and with such a small window, you want to conserve space. I'd recommend just listing the categories without further explanation.  3

Originality: Clearly (based on your webrings, cliques, and the messages in your guestbook) there are other brush sites, but I haven't seen them. I found your layout original and interesting, your content original and interesting ... and I will definitely be returning to your site. Your personality, individuality, and creativity really shine through. If I were to make any suggestions for improvement, I'd have to think pretty darn hard. I'm sure you will continue to add new brushes, and that's about all one could ask for!  5

Content: Your brushes are truly lovely. You've inspired me to get a version of PhotoShop 7 so that I can use some of them! I also really enjoyed your discussions of the brushes, though I noticed that the text above the image was sometimes not right. For example, the text for the "Dissolve" brush seems to be identical to the text for the "Frame" brush, and doesn't seem to fit the image. I'd recommend taking a careful look through all the pages and making sure you have the right text with the right image. I really appreciated that you acknowledged the sources you've used in making this site, and I even enjoyed reading your FAQ!  4.5

Navigation: I had one major problem with the navigation on your site, but it will be very easy to fix. On your brush pages, you don't list the name of the brush! So I'd get all interested in the current brush, then want to move to the next one ... and not be able to remember which ones I'd already seen. I have two suggestions for you that would help with this. First, I'd recommend putting the name of the brush immediately below the image, just above the size. That should be *very* easy to do, and very useful to your visitors. The second thing I'd suggest is some sort of "Next" button at the bottom of each brush page, to allow your visitors to simply move on to the next brush with one easy click. You might also want to add a "Previous" button, because the combination of these two with your pull-down menu would make navigation very easy and convenient. One other suggestion ... I found the navigation from the main page rather difficult to find. The links blend in too well with the title image at the top of the window. I would recommend doing something to make these stand out more ... perhaps make them images instead of simple text links, and stack them along the left side of the title image. Just make sure that they're easy to find, because it's impossible to get past your opening page without them! (PS - You've got at least 3 links to your guestbook. It's a main category all by itself, and it's also listed twice on the "misc." page. This seems like overkill. I'd list it just once.)  1.5

Various Comments: I really enjoyed looking at your site, and have already downloaded a few of your brushes, in hopes that I will be able to use them. You do really beautiful work!

Total Score: 3.5/5