Honest Truth Review

By: Honest Truth Reviews

First Impression
You have a splash page for a Westlife fansite that as far as I can tell has no explict content, large image files, or any need for warning. Why? A splash page is just a hinderance because the visitor has to click more buttons or get mixed up where they need to find a link. Just put the information on the splash page in a Link page. The splash page is the page visitors ignore so why put anything on it? Following that logic, why have one at all? Your splash page looks lovely but useless.

Presentation
The background is too pink for the layout picture. The whole layout besides the picture is too pink and bright. Your layout picture is very muted. It's calming to the eye, but your background is not, and it creates visual clashing. That goes for your link color as well. All your font colors are bad. I can hardly read the content! How does that even match your layout? It's a horrible default blue. I'm reviewing your site using a Mac and AOL, which are both common among computer users. Is the blue unintentional? Because I hope it's just a coding error. Try to fix that because right off the bat you are going to lose visitors. The links and writing on your layout picture are too harsh as well. Black and white font on a beige and baby pink layout? It and the background disrupts the harmony of the color scheme.

The design is simple, which is usually fine, but yours doesn't look good. The box design isn't pulled off. The content frame is overlapping the picture. It all looks rather half-assed. This sort of layout only looks good when it's small or when the picture box and the content box are separated more. Work on making your design more professional.

The graphic is low quality to my mind both artistically and in the uploaded sense. Everything is blurred into each other and nothing is in focus except for the ugly font. I don't believe that having a obvious focus is important, but having something or somethings stand out would be nice. What is there to lay the eye on? It's a boring picture. It's not very pretty either. Blur effects can't make a picture look better. Try to make something simple with a beautiful picture if you lack graphic-making skills. As I said with your design, try to make the graphic more professional.

Organization looks sloppy but is passable.

The presentation is not impressive. All in all, it is as bland as toast.

Content
Who are the Filans? Yeah, someone in the family is in Westlife, but I don't really know what Westlife is. Fansites are to educate newbies and entertain old fans. You've failed on the first account. Your light color font is making it very hard to read. From what I can tell from squinting, your bio sections are rather well done. It gives information nicely but still, newbies would have just click out once they realized that there was no easy way to figure out who the Filans are.

Your content wasn't that interesting. It was all rather so-so. The things to ask yourself when you make a fansite are: How easy can you find certain sections, and how much do visitors want them? Take a good look at your content. Can you find it at other fansites? Do visitors really want to see it if your graphic, writing, or coding skills are subpar? Try to play to your experience. What are you always trying to find on the Filans? What you have now is boring and typical. Be creative and think of something outside the box. Fansites are by fans for fans, and fans love community. Add a message board or plugboard or ways to submit things. If you feel tapped for creativity then re-create the wheel your own way. Write album reviews where you try to figure out if Shane is singing about Gillian or what stage their relationship was in during the production of it. Write up on there activities like how Gillian's dress looks at that gala or how Shane sang at that. Try to make the couple seem more interesting.

There isn't much appeal to your content as it's boring. It doesn't do anything to get you interested in the Filans or interested in your content. Try to make things more interesting. Think of what interests you when you are thinking up content. If you are bored by it then your visitors will be too.

Do you really need the blends, avatars, and wallpapers? They are low quality and you can get them anywhere. Think of how to make your content pack a punch not just try to pack your content. Do you need to have that Baby Special info? Why not put them in the sections they belong to? Your navigation is simple so it's not like people won't be able to find it. It just looks bad now. You have to toss the junk.

Errors
The wallpaper section has a PHP error. There are spelling mistakes littering your website. I suggest going through everything with spellcheck. It's not difficult. There are broken images in the blends section. And your coding, without even looking at it, I can tell is going to be screwed up.

Coding
Your content frame is overlapping and your links are default blue. I can tell right there that your code is wonky. Going to the CSS Validator I see that your .css file isn't clicking right with your HTML and that you don't have a generic font picked out. Just have Tahoma as a back up. Your HTML sucks. Check the HTML validator if you don't believe me. You don't have a Doctype. That is what tells the computer how to read your website. Just go visit w3 to learn how to whip your HTML/CSS into shape.

Conclusion
The presentation was weak, content was typical, and there were errors in abundance. The Filans needs a lot of work. Remember to look at your site like you are a visitor. Is it pretty and interesting to you. If not then go back to work and see what you can improve. I gave your site a two because it didn't fulfil the basic requirements of a fansite. A good fansite caters to the newbies and the lifers. There is nothing new under the sun but you can still find something interesting if you try.

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