Oh Panic

Oh Panic
http://ohpanic.co.uk
Reviewed on 17 November 2008

First Impressions & Layout

The first word that pops into my head when I get to your website? Professional. The way your site is layed out looks so simple and clean, so professional. The layout is centered, which is great. You can never go wrong with a centered layout. According to browsershots.org, your site looks the same in most browsers, which is great. Shows that you think about your visitors when coding your layouts. I like the textured background, I think without it the layout would be a bit bland. The gradient background of your image is nice, I like the color. The image itself is very simple and actually very plain, but the green rounded rectangle behind OH livens things up a bit. Your navigation is very easy to find under the header image, but I think it'd look much better if it were centered since everything else is. Your sidebar is well organized and free of clutter, which is so refreshing. You have your site stats at the top, which is unique because most people have that secton at the bottom. You've got your affiliates listed in two columns, which is nice because it keeps your sidebar from getting super long. Same with your hostees. You've got a calendar at the bottom. I've never really understood the point of the calendars, I doubt anyone uses it. Your CSS is nice, I like the browns and greens. Your headers look good, too. All in all, your layout is very clean and neat. Things on your website are extremely easy to locate.

Content

Owner: You don't have a link to this section in your navigation. The links are under site stats in your sidebar and in the welcome message on the header image. There is room where the navigation section, why not add a link to this? Anyway, you've got two links here: Autobiography and Football Videos. Your autobiography is pretty long, but you've broken it into paragraphs so that it's not one continuous section. You also have a picture here, you're so cute! Victoria Ann. That's a cute name. My middle name is Anne. I'm the same way you are about people finding out about your site. I don't want any of my offline friends or family to know about mine. It's my "escape", I guess. Anyway, you have a lot of information here that will help your visitor get to know you better. The random facts are interesting. The next page is videos of you playing soccer. Those are nice to have, but I'm not going to review them.
About: This is the section for your domain's information. You've got your basic facts and links at the top of the page, followed by history of the site and meaning of it's name. Everything is layed out very nicely. The history is interesting, it's always fun to find out how people's websites come about. Oh, well I now see that there is an About Vicky link here, so scratch what I said before. Your affiliates page is neat, I didn't know your sidebar affies were your top 12 referrers. That's a cool idea and a good way to stay organized. You have a contact form, which is great to have but nothing really to review there. Your credits page is nice and long, which means you've probably credited everyone you need to credit. I always find it odd when I see websites that have like two links on their credits page. C'mon now, everyone uses other people's resources. The site stats are pretty standard, but I'm interested to see what your previous layouts looked like. Wow, most of them look really good, even the earliest ones. I do see some improvement, though.
Learn: This section houses your tutorials, obviously. You have quite a bit of tutorials here, I may actually learn a few things while reviewing your site! First on the list: 6 Animation Shop tutorials. Not many websites have tutorials for Animation Shop, so kudos to you for that. These tutorials are very well-written and easy to understand, especially for beginners. I've never really played around with Animation Shop and I didn't know about some of these effects. See? I did learn something new, haha. Next, you have 5 Cpanel tutorials. These are well-written as well, but I suggest moving the What Is Cpanel tutorial to the top of the list, instead of the bottom. You have 9 tutorials on CSS. You should move the Basic CSS tutorial to the top of the list. Again, well-written and understandable. In fact, all of your tutorials are perfect. No grammar or spelling errors, and each is useful. I'll probably come back for your Photoshop tutorials because I just recently got it and I pretty much know nothing about it. Wordpress, too. All together, you offer over 100 tutorials - that's amazing.
Visitor: You have a set of rules at the top of the page, which is good. First on the list are blog smilies. These are all very cute, but there is nothing very special or unique about them. They are all the same old colored circles that everyone makes these days. Try something new, like hearts or flowers; anything that will stand out among all the other websites. At least you pixelled them well. Next you offer coded layouts. The first one, I absolutely love. The CSS Is gorgeous and the image is well-made. The second and third ones are nice, but not as outstanding as the first. I don't know how the grey background really goes with the third layout, it seems out of place. One good thing is that you've tested these layouts in FF and IE, so no surprises. Your color schemes are pretty good, I'd definitely use some of them - and you offer quite a few of these! The fonts, well... you didn't make them. So I guess there isn't much to review here except the previews which are kind of cute. YOu should definitely add a line between each one because right now they are smushed together. Your photoshop actions are hot. You are good at retouching/coloring. I'd love to see you add more of these. Well, I got my wish - sort of. You offer so many PSP scritps! And they all look very nice. You offer only three textures and to be honest, there's nothing special about them. They are pretty boring in comparison to the other things I've seen on your site. The website templates are a refreshing, original idea. You don't see this very often. I see these being used probably pretty often. Affiliate images = blah. Again, nothing special here. These pixels could probably be made by anyone with a graphics program. I'm not too impressed here. Same with the backgrounds - I don't think anyone would use them. They are so bright and would probably hurt peoples' eyes. Your button bases are nice, though. I'm back to loving your content. Your bullets are nice as well.
Reviews: This section is set up very nicely. You seem to have everything in it's own place and your reviews are fair.

Overall

Overall, I'm very impressed with your website, Vicky. I can see that you've come a long way. Your layout is very impressive for anyone who likes the sophisticated, professional look. I didn't find any grammar or spelling errors, which is a major plus. Your content is unbelievable - you offer so many things. I am so impressed with your list of tutorials. All of them are wonderfully written and to-the-point. They are also very easy for beginners. Most of your graphics and resources were equally amazing, although a few things could use some work. Keep up the awesome work and good luck in the future!