Review by Jorja at Fluoresce

Site Name & First Impression

Aww, Woolisauce is a really cute name! I remember visiting your site in the past, you had a lot of pixel layouts then. And I like the simplicity and the fact it’s original; though it’s a bit tricky to spell. At least you have a simple URL though.

My first impression is how subtle the layout is. Purple has never been a favourite of mine, but you’ve pulled it off very well. The shades work well together, and the curves above the navigation and to the right of the content are a good touch.

The header is lovely, too. The heart’s outline is a bit hard to see though but the shadow effect is good, and the curve and flower add a really elegant touch.

Good first impression.

Text & Navigation

The text is a good size, and it’s clever how you’ve used so many shades of purple. It adds a lot of interest.

However, for the normal links maybe a hover would be good – the colour of the navigation, the dark purple, would be a good one. Otherwise, other then the cursor change, it’s hard to see.

Navigation is perfect; big, large, stands out, good hover.

Layout

Like I said, very purple. It’s clever how you used so many shades, but if I sit here for a bit, it’s kind of ‘purple overload’ and it gets a bit dull after a while. Just purple. Purple. More purple.

The header, like I said, very elegant. I like the two purple lines; that adds just that little bit of interest, and your site name/ title has been added well.

The effect on the footer, like lace, is nice. The bullets match well – the little purple hearts.

Your coding is Valid XHTML, and seeing as you have a vlog from Youtube, I’m guessing you might have read Georgina’s valid video tutorial?

Your CSS is valid. I thought it would be, because you care very much about your site foundations.

Content

Your sidebar is very neat; you obviously respect your affiliates as they’re the first thing in the sidebar. However I would suggest putting them in alphabetical order – it looks neater and then there’s no ‘favouritism’ thing.

Hmm, I think if people want to vote for you, the button shouldn’t be so low down! Maybe move it up a bit, above your Twitter, which is quite long. Maybe only three or so updates, to save room?

A lot of you sidebar is links or lists. Maybe a little introduction to Woolisauce, or you could cut down on the lists.

Nice clean footer.

Visitor

Materials should be Material.

The Avatars/ Icons are really well done; it’s a shame you only have three at the moment. More would be great. They’re of really good quality, and it’s not often I come across pixelled ones. Most people just crop an image.

Articles… I love articles. The tutorial one is very good and well written, with good points; and so is ‘Gaining Hits’. Good points. I do that sometimes. ;o)

The emoticons are very well done, too. You’re good at pixelling and stuff like that. I’m awful in Paint (never saw anything in the program anyway). Maybe try some circles or cubes? Or just more of them would be great.

The pixel bars are good, but I can’t imagine anyone using them.

The pixels are all of very good quality; I think these should be your main focus because you’re very talented at it. I love the snowmen. I was going to add I’m jealous of a skill as good as yours but… I wasn’t made to pixel. XD

The stocks are good! I like the flowers and candles the most. More of these would be great, although I can’t imagine anyone using the oranges.

Website material. The backgrounds are of good quality and are cute. ^-^

Nice bullets! They’re well done. Maybe some yellow ones, because some people will use them! Or even black ones, or white ones.

Buttons are sweet; the crayons are the best ones. Well maybe that’s because they’re my favourite.

Well done dividers, as well.

Owner

There’s a lot of sublinks. Maybe have the main ‘About Me’ page with little sub-links at the top? It saves space.

About Me is good but for some absurd reason unknown to man this bugs me:

Let’s see… music!! Gotta love it, I do I love [almost] all kinds: alternative, some country (aka Taylor Swift), rock, techno, Japanese/anime music, and probably something else that I’m forgetting. Also limited R&B and/or rap is okay sometimes. But VERY limited

It’s quite hard to read, with the amount of brackets, smilies, etc. Maybe try this, and have a break after it – because we go on to style afterwards:

Try to use italics for emphasis and not CAPS, it looks intimidating at times.

Sorry, I’ll stop nitpicking. ‘Affie Gifts’ could maybe slide under ‘Domain’. Maybe if you didn’t post the images on the page, because someday you’ll have a very long list of random images. Try something like this:
Merry Christmas from Deborah. [Site] [Gift].

That way, you’ll have a neat list.

Contact Me is fine. Same goes for ‘The Face’ and ‘My Toybox’.

I think Prizes could go under ‘Gifts from Affies’, then rename the page ‘Awards/ Gifts’, something like that.

I find it hilarious that you only have one favourite band, that made me laugh. Although I guess that yeah, My Chemical Romance, if listened to too much, can make you feel depressed. >.< and Helena is the best ever song.

Hosting

Ah, another genrous person who gives up some space for hostees. Well the rules are fair and like many other hosting rules; and what you get is fair. Though I think mySQL should be MySQL.

Domain

Buttons is self-explanatory (same goes for ‘Link Exchanges’ and ‘Recieved Reviews’), and you also offer the code! I’m glad you do. I have too much stuff on my computer.

Ah, Credits confirms my suspicion on the tutorial. Don’t forget to credit FanUpdate though!

Joined is just a list. Maybe that could go under ‘Contact Me’ or ‘About Me’?

Personally I think the archive is pointless, no one really wants to read old updates but new ones. It’s just a waste of space.

‘Past Layouts’ is perfect! And there’s the little pixel gingerbread house I mentioned. ^-^ I think the punctuation one looks awesome though.

Organisation

The organisation was pretty good, but you have a lot of subpages which would be adapted to make less pages. Good spelling/ grammar though!

Originality

Original. I especially love the name; it would be nice to know the origin, though. Maybe a site history would be in order.

Overall

Rachel, Woolisauce has come a long way. Your pixels are amazing, so focus on that, and more articles, stocks, etc. would be a great addition.

At the beginning of the review the layout came across as pretty and elegant, but after going through every page on your site I’m afraid to say I’ve become bored of seeing purple. Just purple. Maybe try some variation next time?

Try and cut down on the subpages – they’re annoying. Try links along the top of each section and a little description underneath, say.

Other then that I don’t really have any other suggestions – apart from maybe looking at your list-y/ link-y sidebar.

Good luck with Woolisauce!