The site has moved between the time Elusive was submitted for a review and the beginning of the review but yet no email was received to notify us of such. The courtesy would have been nice along with a link back as you did for the other WPR sites. (An email was received later on and a link was provided.) The site itself is very nice. Bright and colourful, and definitely gives visitors the impression that the graphics offered on this page must be similar quality as the site’s layout.

Information

Site: Elusive
Type: Resource
Owner: Chiyuki
Reviewed By: Misao
Date Received: 01/10/08
Date Completed: 04/11/08
Preview

Presentation

The site is very well organized and attractive though there are a few concerns. Why are there two exclamation marks before the site intro? There are no margin difference between a line and a paragraph so it is rather hard to distinguish one paragraph from another. However, the margin spacing of a header or section separator is really large. Links to other sites that are not a part of Elusive should open in a new window. It’ll help keep your visitors at your site while visiting another.

Although you specified and provided a link with the disclaimer to HTML validation, Elusive failed the test with one error. The error is rather small so it is understandable that it was missed. The HTML looks very organized as well. Again there is one error. Line 104 contains both a style and class specifications. The style specifications are not required as that is included in the style sheet.

The style sheet itself is not as organized. There is a way to shorten this file considerably to 1) keep it simple, and 2) make it easier to edit. Here is an example of the first half of the file:

body {
margin: 0px;
padding: 0px;
background: url(http://el.colorpop.org/premades/el/images/bg.jpg) repeat;
font: 10px Tahoma;
color: #000000;
line-height: 1.7;
}
#top { background: url(http://el.colorpop.org/premades/el/images/repeat.jpg) top repeat-x;
}
#main {
position: absolute;
top: 300px;
left: 20px;
width: 400px;
z-index: 102;
}
h1 {
font: 28px Century Gothic;
color: #00DAE4;
text-align: center;
line-height: 17px;
}

A few problems: there is no measurement specifications for the line-height for body. Would it be pt, px or em? Z-index are primarily used for divider layouts where a section of an image is transparent and requires to be transparent so that the text can be visible in a layer underneath the image. Since this is not your case, there is no need for a z-index. Not to mention, z-indexes begin at 1 and increment by 1 but yours start at 102. Font weight are defaulted at normal so there is no need to specify normal for #navi links. Link specifications can be combined if they share the exact specifications. For example:

#navi A:link, #navi A:visited, #navi A:active {
font: 11px Arial;
color: #D46B7C;
letter-spacing: 2px;
text-align: center;
text-transform: lowercase;
text-decoration: none;
border-bottom: 1px solid #02EAEA;
display: block;
margin-bottom: 0px;
padding: 0px;
line-height:13px;
}
A img, A:visited img { border:7px solid #c4e8fd;
}

There are no line breaks between color and font-weight for regular link specifications. Other than these formatting issues, there are no other errors.

Content

I understand Elusive is first and foremost an icon website and then other graphics. However, I don’t believe it is fair to the other graphics and to your visitors that only the direct icon link is provided in the navigation column of each page while links to brushes, designs, and pngs are squished together with everything else on a ‘Resource’ page. I would suggest listing site-related links under the ‘Elusive!’ heading such as about, contact, credits, network, TOS, linkage and home; and icons, brushes, designs, pngs, textures and tutorials under a ‘Graphics’ heading. Icon bases, icon textures, and general icons will fall under the ‘icons’ page. Though this is entirely a personal preference, it is more logical and helps visitor navigate the site much more easily and freely from one point for access.

Elusive > Icons

You design some very nice icons. I really like them though they use awfully bright colours. All the icons show quality, effort and skill. Two problems with linkage. The page links are only provided at the top but doesn’t it make more sense that these links are also provided at the bottom of the page so it is easier for visitors after they have scrolled down to view the rest of the icons on that page? The back link is not a back link but more of a ‘back to icon/section index’ link. Be specific about this. Third problem is with wording. I expected anime/manga icons when I clicked on the HanaKimi link but I got icons made from the live action. This will be a common misleading expectation. Add in ‘Live Action’ at the end of the phrase.

As for Japanese Graphics, are you referring to Japanese graphics such as bamboo and cherry blossom brushes, etc., icons displaying Japanese scenery/culture/items, Sanrio characters or anime/manga? Again this is very misleading. Rephrase it to Anime/Manga. There are no alt or title tags provide so when I try to view all the icons, I cannot distinguish one from another. It will help to know the name of the good-looking man in the icon we wish to use. And how are the icons being displayed? Newest first or oldest first? Maybe write an indicator on the main icon page so repeat visitors will know which page to look for new additions.

Elusive > Resources

The brushes are also wonderfully made though the border around each preview is extremely bright to the point that it hurts my eyes and I already have my brightness level set quite low. Each layout is also designed wonderfully. I exceptionally like Strawberry Jammers. It is very original and creative. I am not a big fan of the background to each layout preview textarea. The colours do not match the site and least of all, the design. There is a large difference between the soft and elegant to the kiddy graffiti. Creation dates for these layouts will also help visitors to decide which are new additions. Your CSS and DIV layouts are essentially the same in the coding except for the context otherwise so really they should all be classified as DIV layouts.

Also make a note on the preview page about which layouts uses Javascript like the ones that does image changes on hover. Though Javascript is for the most part turned on in most Internet browsers, there are people who prefer to have Javascript turned off or they are using really old browsers. Oh which image changes on hover can be coded entirely in HTML to save time. See Web Shoppe for an online code generator.

The icon bases must be popular among icon fanatics who dislike hunting for images or go icon crazy on their blog/journal. Although I prefer to have previews of exactly what I am downloading, the idea of zipping large numbers of bases as opposed to zipping individually is an excellent idea. A small error in the page description though: “However, please do credit Elusive for them because I also have taken the time to enhance the images for quality bases.” The link to Terms of Usage from the Icon Textures page is misleading as ‘Mommy’. Although I understand each page is suppose to display an unique way of speech, the other section thus far have been consistent in using ‘Terms of Usage’. This page is also different from the other because rather than a text link, the preview images are the links. I suggest reverting to the text link to make the site consistent.

There is a MySQL connection error so the pages to Icon Tutorials and Patterns could not load.

Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock’ (2) in /home/colorpop/public_html/el/tutorials.php on line 14
Can’t connect to MySQL

Again, the PNGs page deters away from consistency by referring to the Terms of Usage as the ‘Law’. I don’t want to repeat myself so the reasons are listed above. This page is toss-up between extremely well done and extremely poor. Some images are extracted really well and are of high quality while others are extracted poorly. Elusive Sugo on page 1 is sporting an infectious finger. The edges around the arms of Elusive Sisters on page 1 is uneven. The Elusive maid image on page 4 has some pink spots near her foot. The edges are uneven and spotting some blue on the Elusive cat image also on page 4. Lovecom1 on page 5 will load completely. Png7 also on page 5 is done poorly. It may appear that only the Nana extractions are done well. Most probably because the edges in these images are in black and thicker, and the images are larger in size and quality.

The display style of Textures differ from the other pages. Though it is formatted nicely in a reverse pyramid, it doesn’t match the rest of the site. Maybe you should stick with 3 previews on each line or one large preview per line. A specification of image size will be helpful.

Elusive > Sitely

For the About page, consider removing everything displayed in strike tags. Since they are crossed out, it means the information is not required and not necessary. There is an error in the second last paragraph before Enough: “It was very bad, actually, Elusive when it was born.” is grammatically wrong and sounds awkward. Rephrase the sentence. I take it ‘Loved Oneshots’ are referring to manga. It is best of specify so.

The contact form is easy enough to follow. I like how your email address is also provided in case the form doesn’t work (though that is not your reason for providing the address). The colon following Name and Email are highlighted in blue (or bright cyan, whatever you call it) while the others are black. You should consider specifying a couple of attributes to input and textarea in the style sheet so that the input boxes can match with the layout.

Credit links to Icon Textures, Dusty Memories, Papercuts, Reminiscent Tutorials, and InObscuro are broken. Spiky Pink has moved. The tricky thing with credit and link pages are that you must routinely check the links to make sure each site is still active. You’ll need to take out fanlisting from the site type category of Minori in Network since the site is not a fanlisting.

I would have preferred to see a visual preview of each Past Layouts like you have done for all other sections of the site. The thumbnails will allow visitors a peek preview into the layout before clicking on the link to enlarge it and will make the page look less boring. Consider if Elusive went through 20 layouts, are you seriously going to link all 20 layouts by text? There is also inconsistent line breaks in the description of version two.

Version 2
View. THIS LAYOUT was one I loved. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as cool as I thought it was. I love the rectangle script! It was my utter fave. This layout
was
too pink for my own liking, though.

The Terms of Usage should have had its own link in the navigation column. This document is most important and should be read before proceeding to the graphics section. I don’t understand why it is hiding. Since the rule “Do not claim, redistribute, violate or remake these icons as stated above” is listed under General, there is no need to replicate this rule under each individual heading. The Disclaimer is most appropriate in this section so the duplicate copy on the About page should be removed. Again, there is uneven line break under Tutorials and/or Articles.

This is
very
important. If you don’t credit back to Elusive, your head is going to be chopped off.

The reason for the uneven line breaks? <div class="u"> is not specified in the style sheet. Perhaps you mean <u>? None of these pages have a back link.

Elusive > Linkage

The rules for link exchange should be moved so that it appears before the list of link exchange. The buttons to link back should be the first thing of the page. After all, the page is all how and what to use to link back to Elusive. Off Beat has moved and Inelegant Designs will not load. Xylitol has closed but a new site was made to replace it.

Affiliates

All links are working properly. The link to ‘Information’ should precede ‘Application’. Again, unintended line break in the description of Morning Destroyer and Spectral Creations. The button image to Rhodesia cannot be found. Rule #2 to applications, “Your site has to be some sort of a graphic site. It doesn’t matter (what? how much? what type? size? this sentence is incomplete.), as long as it has graphics as a main part of the site.” Must graphics be a main part or the main part of the site? Just like the contact form, some colour and styling to the input and textarea will enhance the appearance of this page.

Network

Links are in working order.

Contest Winners

It is nice of you to announce the winners in your navigation column on every page of the site, but what contest was it? It’ll be nice if a link was provided with information about the contest and the winners’ entries (if the contest required entries to win).

Final Statement

Elusive is a small and cozy graphic site. I really like it. You’ve certainly have the time, effort and care enough about quality and skills in designing your graphics. This is evident in the icons and layouts. However, the site needs a little bit of work in organizing coding, other graphic areas such as PNGs, and consistency. I can see great potential in Elusive.