Name: Malin
Site: P!nk Diva
Brief Description: personal site with lots of wacky things ;)
Date of Review: 08/24/02

Splash: Your splash page is very plain, but I like the title logo ... very cute. You don't list all of your site requirements, since you don't mention pop-ups, without which visitors can't view your content at all. perhaps you could add an image of Gwen Stefani to the splash, to liven it up a bit. Alternatively, you could at least lower the title image some, to give it a bit more impact. Right now the splash isn't very exciting and isn't likely to especially attract visitors.  2.0

Layout: I looked at your site on a Macintosh, in both IE5 and Mozilla 1.0 (basically the same as Netscape). The site didn't work in IE, because the Gwen Stefani image and the navigation bar never loaded, and so I was not able to access your content at all. Unfortunately, the large majority of web-surfers (about 75%) use IE, and about 10% of web-surfers use IE on Macintosh. None of those people will be able to view your site, so this is a pretty big problem. In Mozilla, the layout looks quite pretty ... I love how the color and movement of Gwen Stefani's hair in her photo is complemented by the swirly design on the far right-hand part of the window. Very nicely done. The image of Gwen is a bit pixelated, and so doesn't look as nice as it could. Perhaps you could get a better-quality scan? If not, you might be able to manipulate the photo in PhotoShop to make it look better. Lastly, your "Test Results" page contains images that are too wide for your frame. You should reduce them in size so that they fit more attractively.  2.0

Originality: You seem to have basically the same stuff that every personal site has. The most unique sections are the "movies & tv-shows" and ""guess the song" pages, which were a lot of fun. Perhaps you could expand those sections, because they're really original! Music seems to be a big interest of yours ... perhaps you could also have more content about music? I'll include some ideas for you in my "Content" section of this review.  0.5

Content: Well, you don't really have very much content, and -- as I mentioned above -- most of what you do have is pretty familiar. My favorite sections were "movies & tv-shows" and "guess the song," both of which are really neat and unique. I really liked your mini-reviews and quotes on the "movies & tv-shows" page. Maybe you could make "movies & tv-shows" and "music" into their own sections, and include a wider variety of types of content about them. Maybe add some discussion/mini-reviews of music artists, songs, albums, videos, etc. You could give your own opinions and analyses, which would give your site something unique and interesting. Those are just some thoughts about what you might be able to add ... I'm sure you can come up with more.  1.5

Navigation: I found your site very difficult to navigate. First, the stars in your navigation bar give no indication of *what* they link to, which makes them not very useful. Perhaps you could put small pink words over them: "me," "you," "reject reality," "extra," "webbish," and "main" ... or something like that. Then your visitors would know which star to click on to go where they want. The second big problem with navigation on your site is that none of your pages have "Back" buttons, and so once a visitor is on your "meaningful quotes" page (for example), it is impossible to go directly back to the "me" page. Instead, your visitor must once again click on the star for "me". And so if your visitor doesn't remember the name of the section they're in (or, rather, which unlabeled star they last clicked on), they're stuck with trial and error to get back to where they want to be. I would recommend putting a "Back" button on each of your sub-pages, for your visitors' convenience in getting around the site.  1.0

Various Comments: Well, I went to high school with Gwen Stefani, so I enjoyed that aspect of your site. :-) The pink color theme works nicely, too. My main advice to you is to add more original content ... inject more of your own personality into all sections of the site. Tell us what *you* think about things, instead of just listing songs and artists. This is your personal site, so make it *personal*! You are a unique individual, so your site should reflect that uniqueness. Good luck!

Total Score: 1/5