Lady Jonas

Site Name: Lady Jonas
Date Ordered: August 6, 2008
Date Completed: August 19, 2008

Screenshots

coming soon

First Impressions/ Layout

Review for previous layout: Well, this isn't exactly a first impression since I've been to your website before, but I'll try my best. To be blunt (but not rude) your layout needs a lot of work. The header is too small for a style website. When making a header use this rule: Your header's width should never be smaller than your guide's width. In your case this doesn't really matter because your guides pop in a new window, but more on that later. Your header itself is very low quality. While the picture of the boys is cut out fairly well, this is the only real positive about the layout. You have an assortment of crappy brushes that have nothing to do with the subject of your site and do nothing for your layout but make it worse. I mean what does a pair of scissors and a dotted line and swirls and leaves have to do with the Jonas Brothers? If the brushes you want to use have nothing to with your subject or enhance the layout then don't add them to your layout. Why is there a star on Joe's cheek? This is something I would expect from someone on Piczo or Myspace not a hosted website. The texture you've used for the background is just bad as well and does nothing but make your site look dirty. On your site title "Jonas Brothers' clothes" should be plural; there are three boys. The way you've spelt it means that there is only one brother, when obviously this is not the case.

The iPod is dreadfully annoying as well. You have disrupted my enjoyment of my favorite movie (A Hard Day's Night featuring the Beatles) so I can hear a song that I've heard a billion times. If a fan wanted to listen to the Jonas Brothers chances are they are already listening to them so your iPod is unneccessay and just a neucentes. Your content area is not aligned with your layout at all on my 1024x768 resolution. I switched to my 1280x800 resolution and the content area was aligned. While it is true that many people are favoring the larger resolutions the majority of people still have the 1024x768 resolution monitors. Also, the following words and phrases are extremely childish and unprofessional:

  • STEALIES
  • NOOO BODAYYY!
  • allllllmost
  • CREDITT

    Your welcome message could be better as well. 'You Number 1 source for Jonas Brothers Style' should be changed to 'Your Number 1 source for the Jonas Brothers' Style'. The wording in the following sentence is awkward as well and could be changed from: 'If you see something that looks more similar than what we have..' to 'If you see something that is a better match than what we have.' Also, who is we? Does someone else run the site with you? Do you have staff? Why use the plural form if it is only you running the site?

    Review for current layout: This layout is ok a bit of an improvement from the last however not much. I would never use a texture over the image of the boys. You are covering up their faces. Also your welcome messege has a slew of errors. Use this instead of what you have now:

    Welcome to Lady Jonas, your number one source for the Jonas Brothers style but for girls! We offer pages for all of the brothers and we try our hardest to match everything up. If you see something that is a better match then what we have, go on and email us! Like the outfit Nick wore yesterday? Find a picture of it and send it to us via the request form!

    Moving back to the layout there is one positive to the layout: The fonts you have used for the navigation titles, but that's about it. Your layout should be centered. The viewers eyes automatically go to the center of the page so your layout should be in the center of the page. The background you've set to repeat down the page is not aligned with the header nor are the lines the same color so even if the background was aligned there still would not have a seamless line anyway.

    11/20

    Content

    Nick's Style

    I don't like the header graphic thing you've used. This looks tacky and could have easily been achieved (and looked better) by using heading tags (i.e: h1, h2, h3, etc.) There is one guide under 'appearances' but I can't tell what outfit this is at all from the thumbnail. I see a plaid shirt and what looks like an arm; how is this supposed to tell me what the outfit looks like? The guides themselves pop up in a new window. This can be a problem for those who have pop up blocker turned on since they would have to turn it off and reload the page. Many visitors would not want to go through the trouble and would just leave your site all together. Your matches are ok however very basic. Anyone can match a tshirt and jacket. I would have liked to see something more complicated, like Nick's Kid's Choice Awards 2008 outfit.

    Joe's Fashion

    Why are these sections labelled differently? Why didn't you just name them 'Nick', 'Joe' and 'Kevin'? It would be a lot more uniform. So I'm seeing another cheesy graphic instead of a heading tag as well as another thumbnail where I can not see the outfit. I'm also seeing more basic outfit matches. I'm curious to why for this guide you didn't include the pants. I know the picture did not include pants however this picture does include Joe's pants. Could you not be bothered to find a pair of pants?

    Dress Like Kevin

    Again another graphic instead of a header. Why do you have a 'Television/Performance' heading and an 'Instruments/Accessories' heading if there are no guides for them? The only guide that is really any good is this one.

    Interact

    Under 'Hot or Not' and 'Put Words in There Mouths' you have used the wrong form of 'there'. It should be 'their' not 'there'. The way you have used it is as if to say 'The dog was sitting over there.' Instead you want the possessive form which would be 'their'. All these pages have different colored backgrounds, none of which match your layout.

    Interact- JBTV

    Someone has been typing too fast because you have spelt 'their' wrong under 'concerts'. The 'I before E' rule does not apply here. There is nothing on the interviews page. Why have it if there is nothing on it. I don't even see a 'coming soon'. Also proper credit should be given to the users who have uploaded these videos, which I see you do not have.

    Site/WWW- Contact Us

    This page only contains an email address. What's the point? You couldn't have put this in your sidebar or something?

    Site/WWW

    'Apply to be Co-Owner' and 'Official JB Links' are under construction. Why even have them up at all, especially linked? 5 seconds of your visitors time has been wasted because they have clicked on a link that takes them no where. If there is no content then take the link off. It is doing you no favors.

    4/7

    Graphics

    Your layout is not very good and your guides are not very good quality either. Your thumbnails are scrunched together and in some I can't even tell what outfit it is.

    3/10

    Organization

    While your site is fairly organized your thumbnails are a problem if visitors are really wanting to see the outfit.

    10/15

    Niceness

    I can't really guage your niceness because you don't have much interaction with your visitors. However I will give you the benefit of the doubt.

    5/10

    Creativeness

    You site isn't that creative. There are so many style sites out there and I can't even give you the benefit of the site idea since it wasn't your idea.

    3/10

    Updates

    You do not update very often. You last update was 4 days ago and it wasn't even that important of an update. You need to learn what news is urgent and what is not. An urgent news item, such as a hiatus or requests closing can have its own news post if you have just posted a formal update. Your last news post is not urgent and could have waited until you had guides to add then you could have mentioned that item with that post.

    3/5

    Colors

    I didn't like the colors you used for your last layout, however your layout is not that layout anymore. Your current colors are better but they could be better. The black font for your main text and headers don't work with the layout. I would have liked to see a burnt orange or dark brown. The green headers for the dates and your sidebar don't match the layout at all and should have been changed when you changed your layout.

    5/10

    Extra

    There's nothing that gives your site that wow factor at present.

    3/10

    Bonus

    No link anywhere on your site. If you had linked the site your score would be better.

    0/5

    Overall/ Final Thoughts

    Change your thumbnails so that we can actually see the outfit. A picture of Joe's eye is not telling me the outfit and does not make me want to click to see the guide. The layout is better but still needs a lot of work. The header and text colors need to be changed to match the layout. Also, why are you hosted with fan-sites.org but most of your pages are still on freewebs? If you aren't even going to use the space that Gertie (your hostess) has given you then why be hosted at all? Your 'Tip of the Week' on the sidebar also hasn't been changed for over a week. Not really a tip of the week is it then? My best advice I can give you is replace the tacky graphics at the top of your pages with a text header and change your thumbnails. Also get a credits page. Even though you made the layout you still need to give credit for the brushes and textures and pictures you've used on the layout and on the guides. Work on your graphic skills and making your site have that 'it' factor that makes the visitor not forget it. Make it so that when they are surfing the web tomorrow they think 'hum, I wonder if Lady Jonas has updated today? I think I'll go check.' That's your goal.

    44/102

    Prizes

    Score did not qualify for any.