Name: Anna
Site: Princess Fashions
Brief Description: half personal site, half beauty site
Date of Review: 08/19/02

Splash: Your splash image is very cute ... very simple, but very appropriate for the content of your site. The image is rather overpowered, however, by the ads above and the text below. The page has no obvious focus upon first viewing. I would recommend making the image a bit larger and lowering it a bit, so that it is not so near to the advertisements. I would also recommend setting the text below the image in a smaller font, perhaps also in a lighter color so that the image becomes the primary focus of the page. The "requirements" listed on your splash are amusing, but not very useful, I'm afraid. Does the crossed out "Netscape" indicate that your site ostensibly does not work in Netscape? I've checked it in both Netscape (well, Mozilla 1.0 ... the most recent offshoot of Netscape) and IE5, and it looked about the same in both. However, as far as I can tell, your layout really is set up to work well only in 1024x768 (more about this in the "Layout" section, below). This *definitely* needs to be indicated on your splash page, since about 50% of people use screen resolutions smaller than that. You might also want to mention the iframes on the splash, just to alert your visitors in advance. 1.5

Layout: I see this is the first layout you created on your own, and it's an ambitious effort! My first thought when I saw your main page was "This looks kind of neat!" I hadn't really seen this sort of layout before. Unfortunately, my second thought was "Where am I supposed to look?" There's just too much information presented all at once in the three separate columns of different stuff. As I mentioned above, your layout seems designed with exclusively 1024x768 screen resolution in mind, and -- even in 1024x768 -- I had to expand the width of my usual window to see your entire layout. The three columns also make the page look very cluttered. Since your visitors are only going to read one thing at a time, there's really no reason to have all sections visible at once. I would recommend simplifying the layout on the main page, so that it just has links to the separate primary sections of your site, which appear to be something like "Site," "Fashion," "Creator," "Interact," and "I Laughed Out Loud" (your blog). You want to direct your visitor's eye, make it as easy as possible for them to figure out where they want to go, while still keeping the page pretty. 1.5

Originality: Blogs, of course, are pretty standard these days. Most of the rest of your content seemed to be taken from magazine articles, because it looked quite familiar to me. You don't list any credits regarding where you've gotten any of the information, which doesn't seem completely ethical. I would recommend putting a brief credit at the bottom of as many pages as possible, indicating where you got the various information, even if it's been compiled from a number of different sources. In a few places, you gave your own personal comments (on hair-care products, for example). I would recommend trying to do more of this, trying to put more of *you* and your own opinions and experiences into all parts of the "Fashion" section of the site, instead of just typing up material you've found elsewhere. My favorite parts were the bits where your own sparkly personality shone through. Do more of that!  1.5

Content: Well, I have to thank you. I now know definitively that I am hopelessly out of fashion with the teenage crowd. But I'm more than twice your age, so that's okay. I think I'd look pretty silly in low-riding, hip-hugging flares with a double-grommet belt. ;-) In general, I found your "Fashion" content quite interesting and entertaining (though "Fashion" didn't seem quite the right name for the section ... perhaps something like "Beauty" would be more appropriate, given the amount of personal care content?). I found your blog more difficult to read than most, because of the amount of creative spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc. If your blog is aimed primarily at your friends from school, then it doesn't really matter if other visitors are discouraged from reading it, but it's something you should be aware of. You have quite a few sections that say only "Coming Soon!" I would recommend taking these links down, and instead having a page called "Coming Soon," where you list the pages you're planning to create. That way, your visitors won't keep clicking on links, only to see yet another frustrating "Coming Soon!" message.  3.0

Navigation: In general, your very simple navigation is clear and smooth, if not terribly exciting. The "Back" buttons at the bottom of each page were very useful for going back to sub-sections like "Clothes." Some of the "Back" buttons are messed up, though (for example, the "Back" button from the incomplete "Skincare" page took me to "Hair," which was confusing). I'd recommend checking them all and making sure they lead where they should.  3.0

Various Comments: My primary advice to you to improve this website is to infuse the "Fashion" section with the same bubbly personality that infuses your blog. Right now, the "Fashion" section is rather dry and needs more of a sense of being *yours*. So take all this great material you've collected, give credit where credit is due, and then put your own personal spin on it all. What is *your* personal opinion of the "10 ways to flatter your figure"? Have you tried any of them? Do you think they actually work? Tell us what *you* think, and you'll have your readers hooked. You obviously have a great personality ... don't confine it to your blog! :-)

Total Score: 2/5