I can’t say I am fond of the layout. I would suspect that it is a result of the position of the layout image. For whatever reasons, the 90 degree rotation just doesn’t look right. The image is lacking a border, and it doesn’t bother with feathering into the content background. I like the background pattern, and the color scheme, but the overall layout gives me a feeling of being “dislocated”. It doesn’t look like much effort was put into the making process.

Information

Site: Ritzy
Type: Graphics/Resource
Owner: JennI
Reviewed By: Misao
Date Received: 03/02/08
Date Completed: 11/15/08
Preview

Presentation

The menu column seems uncoordinated. The menu headings and the links should share the same alignment style instead of having one centered and the other right aligned. The text size of the links are a size bigger than the regular text, which may also give visitors a sense of dis-coordination. The introduction is really lengthy and much of it isn’t required. Information such as when the site was created, previous versions, and current theme is extra. These information should be more appropriately placed in a ‘Site’ or ‘History’ page, or similar. All those contest buttons at the bottom of the page makes the layout and homepage look crowded. I would move these links to their own ‘Contest’ page/section.

The HTML is very disorganized and looks to be written by a newbie. The HTML is a mess. Sometimes there are quotations surrounding specifications, sometimes there aren’t. Some specifications are missing the equal sign. Extra table rows are used to display the empty space in-between rows, when it is much simpler to state margin widths. Layout images are retrieved from a series of accounts such as a subdomain account, PhotoBucket, etc. Useless comments. Lastly, Ritzy failed the HTML 4.0 transitional validation test.

The style sheet is just as disorganized and inconsistent.

• table {background-repeat: repeat; - There is no background specified. What are you repeating?
• color: #303030; - Double spacing following the colon.
• cursor: default; - The cursor is always set at default unless a cursor was specified prior to this specification.
• BORDER-left: #5ba596 6px solid; - Is there a reason why ‘border’ is in cap locks?
• font-weight: bolder; - This specification will make the text as bold as the normal bold weight, which in Ritzy’s case, is the same. So there is no need for this.

There are ways to simplify your coding to make it easier for you to monitor and edit. Here is one example for reference:

table {
font: 12px Arial;
color: #303030;
text-align: left;
}
.header {
font: 18px Times New Roman;
color: #0248a8;
text-align: left;
padding: 0 5px 0 0;
border-bottom: #5ab0c7 1px dotted;
}
.subnav {
font: 12px Verdana;
text-align: right;
width: 120px;
height: 16px;
margin: 1px;
padding: 2px 0 0 2px;
}

Content

Again, the introduction is too lengthy. Try rephrasing it along the lines of:

Welcome to Ritzy, a graphic website for icons. Ritzy officially opened its door on February 14, 2008, and is owned by Jenni. Feel free to browse around. You may leave comments, suggestions and even criticism using the comment function to each update entry. I hope you enjoy your stay and please visit my amazing affiliates on your way out.

You may want to redirect the contest links to a new window browser like you did for the host and sponsor links.

Site

Credits - Is this website owned by one individual or two? Because it appears that you cannot make up your mind about using singular or plural pronouns. “If I used something from your site, and didn’t link you on this page, please email us and we’ll put your link up ASAP!”

PhotoBucket does not fit under the Images/Pngs/Icon Bases category. You’re taking images or icon bases from PhotoBucket; you’re using the server for file hosting. Therefore, the link should be placed under a ‘Hosting’ category.

The links to Homicide, Delicate, FEEL, Fioley’s Resources, Fragile Decay, Kyuusho, Starwind Cafe Network, and Bliss are broken.

About - The About paragraph really irks me. Not only is it poorly written, it does nothing to tell visitors about the site. Try this:

Ritzy was officially opened on February 14, 2008. Ritzy is actually the re-make of Aurora Designs and Forbidden Wishes, both of which were graphic sites. I have kept the same focus with Ritzy with some minor changes; Ritzy is currently centered around icon and icon bases.

At the time I created Ritzy, my vocabulary wasn’t all that great, so I went through many pages of a dictionary for a meaningful word, good enough for a site title. Of course, I eventually came across Ritzy, which is a slang for luxurious or elegant. And, that is what I hope Ritzy will become, luxurious and elegant.

All the graphics at Ritzy are made by me, Jenni with the assistance of Ash in coding and miscellaneous duties. You may stumble on a few graphics that were retained from Aurora Designs.

Unless you’re going to write out your full email address as is, I suggest not displaying your email address at all. By submitting the @ symbol with [AT] is not going to prevent spam. As a matter of fact, spammers go for those who try so hard to hide their email address. I believe you meant to write ‘dessert’ instead of ‘desert’ of which the latter means a wide geographical area of only sand. The icon for Ash is broken, the link to Silver Bells is also broken, and other basic information is missing.

Affiliation - “Please read ALL the rules under the section you’re applying for. If you don’t read the rules, your application may be rejected. If you don’t receive a reply within two weeks, then most likely you were not accepted. If you were not accepted and want to receive a response saying so, please say so in the comments box. Good luck!”

The italics are corrections. I don’t understand why affiliation sites must have nice 100×100 icons, but then again, that’s completely personal preferences. Consider posting an online form on this page for a easier application process.

Awards/Gifts - I really dislike the setup for this page. The last you could do (in lieu of an image thumbnail) is provide the name of the gift, who you received it from, when it was received, and to whom/what it was sent to (i.e., Forbidden Wishes or Ritzy).

Linkage - I like your buttons although the text is hard to make out on some of them. There really is no need for a separate ‘The Buttons’ heading. It would look more organized and coherent if the buttons were displayed immediately following the linking blurb.

Reviews - Links to each previous review are working though you may want to consider copying the review to Ritzy if you have any response to make comments in each review.

TOU - Although it is common among the web graphic community what TOU stands for you, you may still want to spell it out in the navigation menu since the phrase isn’t all that long. Rule 5 is not a term of usage. It is more of a courtesy that visitors should respect when they visit the site in general. Rule 6 is a disclaimer and should be located elsewhere, perferably at the bottom of the website’s layout next to a copyright or on a separate disclaimer page. Rule 7 is gramatically incorrect.

Resources

Icons - I really like the icons. They are done beautifully although some of the icon bases look like they were skewered then cropped.

You want to consider including the page links at the top of the each above the icons in addition to the links at the bottom. Reverse the suggestion for icon bases, which apparently uses a different script so the links appear different.

A link back to the Terms will prompt visitors to read it if they haven’t already. You may also want to consider displaying icons in multiples of thre per page since each line can fit up to three icons, and 15 or 18 icons per page to prevent too much scrolling. Instead of reversing the page orders (starting at page 8 and previous), try starting at the top down (page 1 and next). It is a more logical order and creates less confusion.

A drop-down menu is much more efficient and easier to navigate for icon bases section. Remove She’s the Man as there are no icons in this category.

Artwork - This page needs to be named to Wallpaper. I was under the impression that it contact original fanarts or art drawings. You may also want to include information about the wallpaper size and offer more than one.

Request - This paragraph is all over the place and has no fluidity. Try the following:

Please read the Terms of Usage before making a request. I take requests for custom icons and anime/movie screenshots. Please refer to the lists below to see which titles are available for request. I will not take requests for any other titles. To make a request, please use the contact form below or leave a comment on my most recent update.

Note: Some of the titles may say ‘most of the series’. This is because I do not have the complete set but I will do the best I can.

Instead of listing each anime series twice, try shortening the list to:

Air - complete series, movie
Cardcaptor Sakura - both movies
Inuyasha - series (up to 75 and some others), Swords of an Honorable Ruler

Heart of Gree (Chinese) - complete series
Heavenly In-laws (Chinese) - complete series
New York Minute
She’s the Man

You may also want to edit the coding of the contact form table so that the background is transparent and so that the font colour and size is the same as the rest of the page.

Affiliates

The links to Kakumei Designs, A-Squared and Pizzazz are broken. The In-Depth doesn’t do a whole lot since the descriptions are more about the owner and your relationship with them. Whatever information you have on the site and the owner’s designing skills are too ambiguous. Many of the descriptions have grammar mistakes.

Final Statement

All in all, a very cute site. Ritzy offers quite a selection of nicely designed icons although the site lacks a bit in grammar and organizing. You may want to consider having a third party read over your content for errors and copy it into Microsoft Word for a quick spin through spell check.