Pre-Launch Review
Site Name: Creaspire
Site Type: Webmaster
Age:14th May – 8 Days Old
Appearance
Haze:
The appearance of the blog itself is pretty darn good, the colours do not contradict with one another but rather compliment each other quite nicely in my view. The layout is easy to read, easy to scan-read and most of all, actually viewable. There are some problems that I have noticed though, most notably around the bottom area of your site.
It took me a little while to actually see the text in that grey footer. The main titles of the ‘sections’ in that footer itself are viewable but the below text is not. Whilst it is a darker grey than the background, I cannot help but feel that the text could be made darker so that it actually stands out a little bit more. Maybe you could make the text a tad darker so that the categories and popular posts stand out that little bit more? They are quite important attributes for your blog in my view so why not make them stand out from the pack? Although, on that point, I do not see the point for having them down there. You already have categories as a sidebar so why have you essentially duplicated it? I just don’t see a need for that. AS for the popular posts, why is that now higher up? Surely you want people to see your most popular posts?
A for other things, I am looking atop your forum and I do not see a logo of sorts, more a bit of text with some effects added upon it. I know your skill set and what you can do, obviously it is your site but I feel that you could put some of that Tindris magic into the logo to make it more eccentric, more stand out. This may just be me being set in what I feel constitutes a good logo but hey, I’m here to give you my opinion!
As for the quote, it is a good idea to have there I believe, nothing like a good quote to cheer you up but maybe you could make your quotes more geared towards being a webmaster, or even have a little roulette where a random one pops up every day or something.
I have noticed other minor things however; again, looking at your footer, more specifically within the ‘Popular Posts’ section, you seem to have two dummy posts still there. Just thought I’d mention that one. I just feel your current quote is more design based than Webmaster based.
Looking at your actual post layouts, straight away I am squinting at your text size on my computer. I have to say that your text looks very small and cramped. You should consider upping the size a few pixels, just to make it look less like a wall of text and appetising to read.
Overall though, I like your layout and it looks very clean, very ‘modern’ and as I said, easy to look at. You should stick with this theme and I’m sure you will, maybe though you should consider changing the footer area’s text colour and such though for whatever you’re putting in there. You could also consider making the current ‘logo’ a hyperlink to the main page. I click stuff like that as a matter of habit but it doesn’t seem to do so.
Layout
Haze:
AS for your layout (Catergories) in your blogs case, I have to say that for your current age you seem to have enough areas to satisfy the needs of your audience so in all honesty, there is not much I can say in this section. You have all the main ones which people will need. My only bug is that you have an area called ‘Current Projects’, that seems like some kind of show-off area for yourself, is that there to showcase your resources to your members? If that is the case, maybe you could rename it ‘Creaspire Resources’ or something similar.
First Impressions and Interest
StevenF50:
When I first visited your blog I thought how simple but amazing the design is. It really feels like the correct place to go for webmaster articles even just after a very quick look. The design is sleak and professional. Once I'm on your blog I want to stay for a look around, it is not a site where you go straight off after a quick look. The design draws you in to see the content inside. It's like looking to buy a book and finding one with a really good cover design, it makes you want to read it. I noticed the quote after a glance and quite liked that, it fills an empty space and makes it feel more professional. However after a glance I didn't see anything different about your blog, it's similar to most webmaster blogs.
Content
Haze:
Looking over your content on the site, I have to say that you have very good content and a lot of it too considering your blogs age. Granted, some areas are not as full as they could be but that is just be being pedantic. Bravo on having so much content within your first full week, I have to applaud you for that one.
As for the content itself, I have been reading a few of your articles and I have come to a few conclusions. On a positive note, I have to say that your content is awesome and the actual information you give your readers is not something th at could be improved upon due to how good it is in my view. Just keep writing them. The negatives though are just little tips I find helpful whilst blogging.
I’ve noticed that in some of your posts, you have an image or two and honestly, I find images amazing during blogging escapades. Looking at some of your posts, you have a lot of information but no break point. No point for the user to see something other than text and to me, being able to break away from the text is quite important. I would say that where possible, insert an image, a graph or whatever. Just to take away from the monotony of reading text, text and more text.
As for a specific article, I noticed something. In this article (
http://creaspire.com/programming/a-quic ... meta-tags/) you use code examples but I had to look quite hard to distinguish them from the main body of text. Why not attempt to make important information like that stand out? The user has come for information but not a lot of people actually read straight away, they go right in looking for their information and if you give it to them (Bolding it, italics, whatever) you are making your life easier as well as theirs. Besides, they may even like the fact that you make your information stand out and come back for more!
Words from the Reviewer
StevenF50:
I enjoyed reviewing your blog because I found it hard to criticize, I like a challenge. The design on your blog is truly brilliant. However I do think you should add more features and maybe make a twitter and facebook page to help get more exposure, social networking is the way forward for promoting. It's ironic that you have an article suggesting that we should all have social accounts for our sites when your site doesn't have one or at least it isn't linked from your blog.
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