SITE REVIEW: TaylorHewitt.com

Hey I got my domain a few months ago and I've paid alot of attention to my site lately. It's a fun site I made just so I can have something to do. I love to make funny things so I might maybe get into flash or something... but there are some audio clips and some funny pictures. There is also an about me page.

Can you guys suggest what to add what would make people like the site more? Please and thanks.

http://taylorhewitt.com

Em, first thing i have to say is sort out the colour scheme. The white on the black background is not comfortable to me, it is quite hard to read because of this.

The quick message thing at the left hand side of the site is actually pointless to have especially if you have a Forum. You should actually do some sort of linking at the site so visitors can Join up, or visit your forum and make a clearer point that there is a forum on the site.

The forum colour scheme is perfect! i like the blue and white as its pretty friendly on the eyes. If you had more visitors and members then i can see that Forum being semi-popular. Why dont you hand out fliers at school letting people know they can get more of you online at night (or something like this). You mention you are quite popular at school, if so then i can see you having quite a successful forum for the realistic size it will probably get.

Em, apart from the that there are other things nothing to do with the layout or overall design i dont particularly like. Nothing worth noting.

I agree with SB about the color scheme, white on black gives your site a 'dark' feel which I dont think really goes with your content. Also, you need to make a logo of some kind, instead of just having 'Taylor' underlined.

Thanks alot for your input guys I really appreciate it. This is the first time I made a forum where nobody joined the first day. I used to get like a dozen members in one day... oh well. I mean when you're remotely hosted with out of date software with the default skin, what can you expect?

For the colour scheme... yeah. I don't know. I like the colour black and this site's layout is perfect. I think it's time to get photoshop out .

Good to see a fellow T-Dot'er doing some web design! I have to say, as did SB, white and black, its a bit hard on the eye sockets. I think its just old school, black/white, white/black, just doesnt have any flavor to it. But hey, it sort of works, so if you want to stick with it, by all means do. The only other thing I'd suggest is defining your work. Everything is just there. Like the little chat thing you have going on the left hand side, give it a title, call it "Shout Outs" or something, just make it more obvious what that is. At first/quick glance I thought it was one of those google ads. Also, your blogs, each comment should have a border, or an outline, so that its easy to look at one comment to the next. It looks like a bunch of paragraphs right now. And keeping with the front page, when you hover over the last option (links) on the ad at the top, the alt tag causes the page to expand, makes it a tad unprofessional. Maybe you could modify that.

As for making the site more welcoming to users, add more teeny bopper stuff! Pics of some hotties for the boys and of course pics of some hotties for the girls. Put some stuff in the forums about teachers you love/hate, gossip, who's got a crush on who, who's trying out for the bball team, whatever! Have a poll of who's gonna win american idol, who sucked the most, just anything that you talk about at school. Make it a site that you would want to bookmark, even if it wasnt your site. You've done pretty good so far, I'd just say, work on the layout a little more and bring in some fun!

Tee dot kicks ass man.
---
My gay host added that banner after I got my domain set up to that thing. Stupid free host... I need a better one lol one that allows more than 200kb downloads. And yeah I knew about that thing. Thanks for the suggestion for the shoutbox and the news stuff. I was looking for a good news script I could use but didn't find any.

I used to have a hot girlz page but I felt perverted having it there. And I don't know any hot guys and I don't feel comfortable deciding who is hot and who isn't (guy wise).

You have a good site that focuses on its content. I would keep the color scheme as-is - though you might want to make the font color a slightly darker shade of white. If it's #FFFFFF right now, try #EEEEEE or #E2E2E2. You can't please everybody. So instead, ignore the others and please me! (sort of kidding)

I would make each "news" posting more separated from its neighboring news postings with some space and if necessary, some kind of horizontal line, be it by HR or an element's border.

I would put that "shoutbox" on the right side -- on the left side, it draws the visitor's attention away from where it should be.

On the "about me" page, I would use a real HR instead of that dinky "---" you have there. I recommend a less-compressed and clearer picture of yourself.

Overall, I'd say the site is pretty good. It doesn't get in the way of the content with some BS gizmatic Web design, and that's a plus.

That shoutbox thing is on the top right portion of the site, making it the first thing that your visitors look at. But, it has nothing special about it, it's just a box with a scrollbar. It just looks out of place. Also, it pushes everything to the right a little bit, making the entire site off center.

I don't understand what the site is about and can't seem to find it anywhere. The only I thing I can depend on is inferencing from various portions of your site.

(I agree with the others) The contrast between the font and background is too great, especially since it's lacking in other color variety.

As for me, there doesn't seem to be much content at all.


The thing I must compliment on is the graphical presence in the site. If only the first page. It tears me apart when the internet, a [big] graphical medium, lacks...graphics.

If you did want a rating, then you'd get a 2/10 from me.

Spintwo.....you have yet to unviel your mastermind designs and you continue to bash people. These people came here for help, not a rating. Quit bashing them and start helping; especially since you haven't shed light on your website. BTW, the internet was not intended to transfer anything like graphics. It was originally intended as a way of communications between scientists--not to transfer graphics.

Now with that out of the way.....

The site needs a layout. There isn't much of a format going on to organize the content. I suggest just looking at a layout you like and tring to mimic it to start learning what ones work better and such. Like you said above, pull out photoshop and get to work making a layout!

It was not intended as a 'bash.' If you want critique, take it. I just shell 'em out.

I'm actually working on a site right now, but working on the back-end, which takes some time.

Wow this site kicks ass. And the people here are sooo nice. Thanks guys for helping me out. I love reading about what I can change. If you have anything else to add please feel free to add it!

You have read this a lot just now... But still, I don't like the colours they really don't go well.

Try to find a web-host that doesn't have any adds cause really... I hate adds.
Maybe you should advance in your imaging, Try new programs like Adobe Photoshop, Bryce 5, Anim8or and others. And yes!!! Get a logo it will do very well.

I'm not trying to be offensive when I say this. But... That’s a waist of a domain name, I'd change host and act while I still have it. Also the images just look like you got a 5 y/o to scribble on a piece of paper and you copied it onto your computer in Mspaint

Try looking for tutorials on how to draw Anime (with your computer) That always gets em. Anime... The way to go.

I'm not interested in making my pictures good. They are supposed to be like that. That's what makes my site funny. I do what I want.

Photoshop is not new to me, I just havent installed it on my new computer yet.

Thanks.

??

What's an add?

LOL!




No one cares about scores out of 10 here, unless its been requested. Instead of shelling out 2/10's, point out the 8/10 things that they were missing and leave it at that. You brought up good points, but just remember its a website review, not a rating.