Date: 2005-10-07
Site: Byrning Desire
Owner: Katrien
review by: Jos

Interesting, uncluttered splash that takes quite fast to load, which is good. Looks like quite a decent fan site to me. Since the first thing that caught my eye is the navigation bar, I shall talk something about it. Firstly, I think it would be nice if there is consistency of the caps of the words. I understand you probably want to different-shade your site navigation and your network but I think the header is doing its job quite nicely so perhaps you either keep them all in small letters or with the first letter capped. You might also want to add more affiliates button under 'Affiliates' as the only button there looks quite lonely and is not as its plural header had suggested. I think it would also be quite a good idea to add some space below your tag-board as well as it is at the rock bottom and stops there, giving a this-is-the-end uneasy feeling. Another couple of tags below it might just be the thing to give the site a more continuous and flowing feel.

Layout: (11/20)

The colour combination you choose is quite good. I like the blue. However, since it is a nicky site, perhaps there should be more emphasis on him? Makes him stand out from the rest of the lads.. Your top picture looks quite great but you might want to change the font of the 'Copyright by Katrien' sign. Use a pixel font instead so that it looks smaller and it does not stands out too much. You might even just want to remove it as it does make the picture looks less 'professional'.Perhaps include the copyright sign at the footer of the page?

Your site navigation is fine but on your 'about' page, you have the problem of caps again.
E.g.
+ Facts
+ Quotes
+ what does he think of Nicky

It would be a good idea to change the last line to 'What does he thinks of Nicky' so as to fit in with the others.

I see you had put your gallery on MSN, which is not really the best choice in terms of layout as you can't really change much. It would probably allow you to update more easily but you might want to just host them on your site? If not, put in more effort and make the best you can out of MSN Group. For example, on http://groups.msn.com/Westlifenicky/jouwwebpagina6.msnw, the colour of the tables are green and does not fit in with the yellow background of the page at all.

I think you should also add more pictures to liven up the pages as well. I am aware of the pictures you have in your gallery but you might want to include CD sleeves under your discography, and some pictures in the profile.

Your forms fields are also inconsistent. Your text areas and lists (white background) have not been properly CSS coded as your input boxes (grey). I saw you are able to use CSS so I assume you'd know how to fix that?

Content: (9/20)

I must say, I was not really impressed by the content in the 'about' and 'music' section. There are not many special interesting facts about Nicky that I would not have know already. The only section that seems worthy to mention is the graphics section. There are many things for the visitors and it is probably one of your site's saving grace. If the title had not suggested to me otherwise and based on the fact that there are slightly more information on Nicky, I'd have thought it was a graphics site.

Organisation: (7/10)

I'd say it is quite neat. But there are some small little blunders here and there you might want to clean up.

• On the page: What does nicky think of Georgina You might want to put " " on the second paragraph as he talks about her.
• The gallery link in navigation leads to the same MSN Group in network, so it is almost like a double link. You might want to just decide on one.
• I see repeats of avatars both in the MSN Group and site. Nothing serious but it does irk me a little.
• There is a 'Favourite Quotes' interactive section and I suggest you might want to put a link to that page from your Nicky quotes page.
• You might want to explain to the visitor what the PSP tutorial is about. I only realised it is a tutorial for a blend right at the end.

As this is a Nicky site (I assume?), and you do not really have much information on the other lads, I'd suggest you put them all onto one page e.g. all the facts, quotes for all the lads in 1 page, or organise them so that each lads have a page to itself instead of a few links to a few info. That will allow your pages to look more 'beefed-up'.

Errors: (6/10)

• What does nicky think of Georgina: nicky should be *N*icky
• No stools tour : I must say I am not too sure myself but shouldn't it be 'World of Our Own (In The Round)'? No Stools Tour was a nickname for their Coast to Coast album tour if my memory had not failed me.
• Under Nicky Solos, I wanna grow old would be better off as I *W*anna *G*row *O*ld *W*ith *Y*ou
• I do not understand what is 'Quiz' when it seems more like a survey form to me. There is not much explaination either. So I'd consider this a, naming error (unless I am too dense to realise what it is about, if so, I deeply apologize)?
• Pictures in some pages of MSN Group is not working as well.

Coding: (4/5)

Saw the link, though there is no buttons. I must say I am not personally a fan of iframes but I am aware of server limitations etc. but I'd really encourage you to try PHP. Beside that, your HTML are quite OK. You might want to use target="_blank" for some of your links that links to external page though, as they look horrible inside your iframes (e.g. Fans tour pictures that are linked to your MSN Group).

Graphics: (8/10)

Your graphics section does have many things for the users. Though I'd say not to let people review the wallpapers through stripts. It would be a much better idea to see a proper preview (resized thumbnail) of the wallpaper.

Unique: (1/5)

It is a little different from other fansites, though unfortunately, it is because you are lacking what other fansites has. You do have a few subsites that are overall linked to your site. A favourite habit of mine as well, so I shall give you 1 mark for that.

Overall: (4/7)

Well, I can see you did put in some effort but you might want to add in more stuff to keep visitors from returning. I'd give you credit for updating quite often and as a visitor, I do like that.

Bonus: (0/3)

I am sorry, no.

Final Score: (58/100)
Percentage: 58%