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behindherheart.com has 16 Reviews

Below are the reviews left by other members on behindherheart.com. Jump to review form?

OMGalarm gave it on 5th Jan 2009 and said:
First impression
I love pink, so I am completely sold here. Before I go deeper than the absolute first impression, I am captivated.

Layout
When I start looking more deeply into it, though, I am not so pleased. There's a lot of small errors here. The header image is very pretty, though it don't think the purple text looks well on the side there. At first, I didn't think that the background fit very well, but now that I've looked at it for a while, I think it's good. It's the CSS and the coding that displease me. It doesn't compliment the header. I think it all would fit together SO much better if you used the beige color on the snow as background of the content. Now, both main and sidebar columns are in a green color that looks off. Also, it's wider that the header image. Fix these two, and it will raise a star immediately! The fonts you've chosen are really good, but you should basically rethink your whole color scheme. Make the background of the columns lighter, darken the text color, and then see if you can change the color of the sidebar headers and the links to something that fits more. The header image and everything disappears when I click the comment link, which really doesn't look good! I like the colors of the navigation bar! Now that i surt though some pages, I find it really odd that the two columns aren't the same length, and that the purple bar at the bottom is wider than them. You should make it all fit, and make the columns go all the way down, no matter how long the content in them is.

Owner
Somehow, the simplicity of just the header and the links looks good here. You got great line height.

Autobiography - this is good, the combination of a little text about yourself, and the random facts. It feels like we get to know you a little here.

Contact information - there's so little information here, it looks odd. Either make a little more fuss about this page, or put in in the autobiography. It fit between the text and the facts, there.

iPod game - nifty little page, this.

Photography - these are impressive. You should add links to bigger pictures on them, though, these looks like just thumbnails.

Portfolio - oh, this opens in a new site. Nice layouts, though the orange header are in too much contrast. And HOLY COW. I got a whole new respect for you by looking at these. You got skills! They are awesome, all of them. This really doesn't show though in your current layout, if I were you, I'd change it right away, when you got skills for things like these. Ahh, I think I'll come back later just to oogle these.

Resources
This page is neat too. Though, I don't fancy those heart arrows. Also, the arrows on the rules look like this; ï¿½. Error sign. You got a lot of content, which is good.

Brushes - these looks interesting. Nice, colorful previews, too.

Fashion scans - oh, these are nice. Not much else to say, really.

iMix - I've never seen anything like this. I think people would rather go to last.fm or something, but it's nice anyhow.

Patterns - these look really nice.

PSD's - you got a lot of these, great!

Psp scripts - these are nice, i think a lot of people would use them.

Reviews - looks like everything's 'after the book' here. i won't go into it.

Scans - you got a lot here, and they all look interesting. I would definitely use some.

Textures - the light textures blew me away! The scratch ones looks good too, but I'm not so sure about the others.

Color palettes - wow, you got a lot here. They look really good, too.

Donation station - huh, quirky page. The icons are amazing, though.

Aim me - these are good enough.

Wallpapers - here the awesomeness from your folio shines though again. W O W.

Icon gradients, textures - I like these. A lot, when I think about it.

Icons - oh, I see that you know what to do in this apartment. Your icons are really cool.

Tutorials
I won't look thought these, but it looks like you got a lot of interesting stuff here. It definitely attracts visitors, and I see there are both advanced and easy stuff here. Good!

Advice
New layout, huh. I like it, though.

Site
i won't go too much in depth here. The about site is informative and nice, and it's good that you've added a lot of credits. I think both having a advice and a questions page is a little unnecessary. It would be enough if you stated that people can ask for advice on your FAQ page. Polls, I bet this is a good way for you to know what your visitors wants. Great.

Conclusion
I don't really know what rating to give you. Your portfolio and some of your resources show that you are SO talented, but it doesn't really show on your website. At least not without looking for it. If you'd just had a great layout like those in your folio, and much less depressing CSS, and MUCH better coding, it would be so much more impressive. And I know you are fully capable off it. You got a lot of great content though, and I love your work, so I'm going to give you three and a half. And that's only because of the awry coding and look this layout got. It makes me feel like four is a little too much.

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omgitzvicky gave it on 3rd Dec 2008 and said:
WOOOOOOOOWIES
I like what I see...
I love the layout although the navigation is a bit hard to see at first but once you know where it is, it's wonderful.
The colour scheme is amazing, I love the browns and purples
I think the navigation on the pages (links to brushes, textures etc), the colour needs to be changed because it's quite hard to read as the black almost blends in with the background browny colour.
I think all your content is of good quality and I loved the brushes, how ever I think the previews got boring after the coloured ones. I know it's a pain to make interesting brush previews but the colourful ones are suuuuper cool and with the black and white ones everything just kinda mashes together.
You have tonnes of tutorials which are easy to follow.
The side bar is nicely placed and the most popular pages links I think are an extremely good idea :)
I love your sites name and it's definitly one I'll be remembering for a while.

<3

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moneypenny gave it on 28th Nov 2008 and said:
I'm a bit confused as to the relevance of the header image. Does it fit the don't-break-my-heart theme because it shows a couple walking in the snow together? I guess it also fits your site title 'behind the heart' because, from the perspective of the visitor looking at the photo, we are behind the couple's hearts. *shrug*

Your colors are kind of grungy and depressing, but I like them. I like that dirty brown used as the background of your content container, and I think the purple-to-pink gradient up top is an interesting touch. It helps to add interest to a layout that would otherwise just be a big header image and a column of content beneath it, so that's good.

I think your font size is too small in both the sidebar and for the main blog entries. You have nice large text for your main navigation and your entry headers, and I'm not suggesting you increase the regular font size that much, but it would be easier to read if it weren't as small as it is.

In your sidebar, your blurb text is smooshed right against the right side of your photo; I would put a right margin on the photo to prevent that.

I think decreasing the line-height in your sidebar to something a little less than your main column would help to emphasize that the sidebar is secondary content. It would also make the sidebar text easier to read, IMO, since it's in such a narrow column.

Why do your 'Popular Pages' links have hyphens as bullets when your 'Affiliates' do not? They're right next to each other in the sidebar, and they're each a list of links, so I think they should look the same for consistency.

Since there's no space between your list of affiliates and your 'music player' image, they look connected visually, but I'm guessing that they're not. If they're not, I would space them out.

Yikes, your Owner page looks terrible! The content section is very very short and it looks unbalanced with that same long sidebar. I would show some sidebar content only on particular pages, like the index. For example, why show the blurb about yourself in the sidebar of the Owner page? Obviously you've enticed the visitor to read more about you already, or they wouldn't be in the Owner section, so you don't need the blurb anymore. If you're using something like Wordpress, there are functions like is_page('Owner') where you just pass in the page title and you get back a true/false result. You can make use of these to check which page the visitor is viewing and display content in the sidebar accordingly.

On your Autobiography page, I don't understand the use of question mark images for bullets. It's not like each random fact is a question. Also, if this is an autobiography, it's the shortest autobiography I've ever seen. You might just call this page 'Info' or something else that doesn't imply a long, written essay about yourself.

The layout is all right (nothing that wowed me but it's not ugly, either) and I like the colors, but the font size could be increased. The lack of consideration for the huge sidebar and tiny content section shows a lack of attention to detail, IMO, and that's the most important thing: you have to keep going with your design, looking at all the little details, once you've got the base stuff looking good. Other little things bugged me and I couldn't see a reason for them except that you hadn't considered them (e.g. the lack of padding between your blurb photo and your blurb text).

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Anna's Response:
Thank you :-)
thissong gave it on 16th Nov 2008 and said:
People say first impressions are everything, and your site has an amazing first impression! The layout is simple and nice. The coding really suits it well. The only thing I'd change is the 'dont break me i bruise easily' font. It doesn't seem to match to bottom fonts.

I really like the header styles you used. The colors match pretty well and they're not too big or super tiny. At first I had trouble finding the navigation. This might be due to my blindness (;-;) but I'd make the link colors just a bit lighter. For the advertisements, I'd suggest putting them higher on the sidebar or it seems kind of unimportant all the way at the bottom.

The ipod game made me laugh x]] That was nice... The photography seems random and out of place. I'd suggest scattering them in the autobiography. Your portfolio is really nice! So pretty *-*

Ahh, the content.
I really like that you have SO many resources! The brushes are very cute! (I use many of them [:). I'd say that there's too much space in between each brush preview. Other than that, it's really nice. The Itunes mix is really original. I haven't seen that on any site so far.

I can't say much about the other content - It's all really nice. It's organized well and there's plenty to choose from.

Agh! Your site seems almost perfect!! There's so many tutorials to choose from and they all seem well written and easy to understand. One thing I noticed here was that on the front page, the bottom bar doesn't extend all the way but on every other page it does...

The advice page is cool, it's very unique. I like the site section; very nice. But the poll page seems kind of disorganized. It was probably meant to be that way but it seems cluttered to me.

Overall, your site is definitely going in my favorites. Only a few minor things could be changed and the rest is all beautiful]:). I'd say that there's too much space in between each brush preview. Other than that, it's really nice. The Itunes mix is really original. I haven't seen that on any site so far.

I can't say much about the other content - It's all really nice. It's organized well and there's plenty to choose from.

Agh! Your site seems almost perfect!! There's so many tutorials to choose from and they all seem well written and easy to understand. One thing I noticed here was that on the front page, the bottom bar doesn't extend all the way but on every other page it does...

The advice page is cool, it's very unique. I like the site section; very nice. But the poll page seems kind of disorganized. It was probably meant to be that way but it seems cluttered to me.

Overall, your site is definitely going in my favorites. Only a few minor things could be changed and the rest is all beautiful!

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Anna's Response:
Thank you very much for your review!
exclusive gave it on 15th Nov 2008 and said:
Ok, lets just get right too it. ;)

My first impression of the site, was good. I like your layout, it looks like you spent more than 20 minutes on it, which is always good. I like how you have the navigation links right across the top of the screen, so it's a lot easier for visitors to come to your site and find what they want as quick as they can. I think you should make the link text a little bit lighter, so it's easier to read in other browsers, and for the people with bad eyesight. but nothing too bright.

For your sidebar, I think some things aren't needed. The 'stats' part, at the top of your sidebar can be moved to a separate page, or made smaller. I think the part where you have your picture, and a little about you should be moved to a separate page. Then, you can write a little more about yourself, and it doesn't make the page unnecessarily long.
I think the idea for 'popular pages' is good. It catches the visitors attention, and it makes them want to check out the pages. Good way to get more views on other pages. ;)

As for your content bar, everything seems okay, but there are a few changes that would help you out. When you post fanupdate posts, try to make it so that only 1-3 posts per page. Otherwise you have too many posts, and your page seems very long. That makes visitors not want to read what you posted, thinking that their going to have to read gallons of words. And if you really want your visitors to be able to read your other posts, make it so that the other posts go on a new page. That way it doesn't stretch out your page. If you don't have a code for that, I'm sure there are many all over google and yahoo.

Now, onto the owner part. Everything for the most part seems fine. But I did notice that when I click on portfolio, that it creates a whole new window. You might want to fix that, it frustrates me, and surely other viewers. ;)

RESOURCES :
brushes: everything seems good, your have a great variety of stuff, and I'm sure visitors would keep coming back, and would tell their friends. Make sure to update it often, brushes are something that everyone always wants more of.

fashion scans:
I like the scans you have. It would be nice if you had some scans from the same article. So if people want to make a layout with them, they have matching ones. Overall, they're good. Once again, adding more wouldn't hurt anybody. ;)

itunes imixes:
I love how you have this. I'm always looking for new music, and I'm sure other people are too. This is a great way to get more visitors, especially if you'd update this about every month. Everyone loves new music on their ipod. ;)

PSP Scripts:
These are good, try and have more of a variety. Some look a little the same, but I know it's probably hard to find different, good looking scripts.

Reviews:
I love how you have reviews on your site. It's a good idea to get more visitors, most people want to know what to improve on.

Tutorials:
You have a very nice variety of tutorials. They're good for inexperienced and experienced visitors. They weren't too hard to understand, and overall they're good.

The rest of your content is good, I didn't notice any huge flaws.

Advice:
Having advice on your site could attract a lot of visitors to your site. Everyone goes through hard times, and they need some advice. Also, some people need help doing something, and it's good how you have advice for that too.

Overall, I liked your site a lot. I learned somethings that I'm going to do differently on my site. Very good site, keep it up!

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Anna's Response:
"When you post fanupdate posts, try to make it so that only 1-3 posts per page."
I agree, I have been trying to fix this, but for some reason it's not working.

Thank you for the review (: â™¥
chelseaRIOT gave it on 15th Nov 2008 and said:
First Impression-
The site looks well put together, and the color scheme is nice.
The picture is simple and that's good because it's annoying sometimes when people go overboard on editing. The background is nice, but for some reason, it seems like it's from a past layout or something, and it wasn't meant to be with the header picture. The text on the header, I can hardly see what you wrote on the header, I think next time in Paint shop pro, you should set the text to Sharp or None in the Anti-Alias.
Content:

Owner-

Autobiography:
Your 'about me' seems a bit too happy with the exclamation points but all is well.

Contact Info:
Yeah alright, I can contact you many different ways. Has anyone really asked you for your number before ? I feel like it looks as though you think the users of your site are completely stupid enough to go that far.

iPod Game:
It's a fun game and it's nice to pass along, I just rather it be in a blog or something, so people could respond back to you with what they got as results. It's not really about the owner, it's more like, what the owner listens to.

Photography:
I like it, I have nothing else to say.

Portfolio:
As Jem said, I did not expect to be brought to another site. I think with your next layout, you should make your portfolio one of the main links, at the absolute end. I also looked at the pictures, and it messed up the page. here it is.

Resources-
I didn't really have a problem most of them except I don't see when anyone will use the iAm me graphics, I guess only on Myspace or whatever, but then you should put that under a myspace section. I don't know why reviews are under resources, maybe that can be moved to advice. Tutorials should be removed since you have a main link at the top for it.

Tutorials-
They all seem to be Paint Shop Pro. That's nice but some Photoshop users over and over again say they don't like that. Since you don't have Photoshop, I think you could direct them to specific affiliates of yours that give Photoshop tutorials at the top of the page. I have a problem with the Scrapbook layout tutorial. Mostly people who use those type of tutorials are people who don't really know where to start on making layouts and want to learn a certain way so that it can lead them to make their own. I couldn't do that with your layout if I was really really new at this. I know at the top you say it's for advanced users, but Advance users really wouldn't look at the tutorial because they're advance enough to know how to make their own layout. And, the finished product seems a bit too small to actually be used as a layout. With the Image rollover I couldn't even tell the difference, the images seem too similar because the words and brush is too light. I can't tell the difference with the Border Removed thing, because Safari remove borders for you.

Advice-
I guess it's a nice idea, although I personally would never give advice. The layout seems halfway done though.

Site-
It's just the normal website stuff, so it's whatever to me. The set as homepage button freaked me out, because it didn't do anything except reload the page and I'm like "oh crap, is she my homepage now" so I'm not sure of that code, but that needs some fixing.

Overall-
Your site is a wonderful one, and it has some problems here and there, but don't most sites have that ?

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Anna's Response:
"The set as homepage button freaked me out, because it didn't do anything except reload the page and I'm like "oh crap, is she my homepage now" so I'm not sure of that code, but that needs some fixing."

Haha! Sorry about that xP I just deleted the link.

Thanks for the review, it is very helpful (:
Diana gave it on 15th Nov 2008 and said:
I have a few notes on the header:

1) It's so nice. I love the soft, romantic feel to it. Makes me feel fuzzy.
2) The text is unnecessary. badly placed, and I can't read some of it.
3) Your site name should be the more prominent.

On to the rest of the layout.

The navigation--I like the style of it a lot, but it should be brighter. I can barely see it.

Actually, all the text should be brighter, especially your links on hover.

I would prefer the date to be after the title of each blog entry. Images need more padding, as do the div layers that are holding your content/sidebar.

Your autobiography has the title of "Behind Her Site" which I hope you didn't do on purpose. And it's not an autobiography :P The list bullets aren't showing up for some reason.

The iPod game page is pointless, albeit cute. I don't like how you don't specify that the Portfolio pops-up. Or that it pops-up at all. There should be a little parenthesis'd comment next to the link with "opens a new site."

You have a lot of resources O_O Are all these needed? Just know: copyrighted stuff= bad. Not for your use. Your stuff= awesome! Remember to put effort into it, though. Some of your brushes, quite honestly, look like anyone could have made them.

The tutorials--they could be useful. However, they could use some pruning out.

Your advice section is another site, so I won't review it.

Site--I don't care about your hits :P I want to know about the site itself. More information, please!

Some of the sites in your credit section are DEAD. Remove the links?

As for the polls, just get rid of them. You can get a statistics tool to figure out what browser/platform/resolution your visitors are using.

All-in-all, you seem like a very nice girl, with talent. I probably sounded mean, but your site definitely has potential, which is why I reviewed it, so yeah. Exploit your talent more :)

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Anna's Response:
"It's so nice. I love the soft, romantic feel to it. Makes me feel fuzzy."
I'm so glad :D I was hoping that came across to others.

Thank you for the review--I'll definitely take your advice. ;)
L0V3R10TX gave it on 15th Nov 2008 and said:
Layout
I love the image you chose, it has a romantic yet simple feel. The background gives it more detail and it looks really nice (: I don't like the placement of the font and the font you chose. The smaller text on the bottom right corner leads you away from the site name, and is distracting. Over all, the color is nice, but the font needs work, and the background is a nice touch.

Oh, and by the way - I love the light texture you used, did you make it?

Coding
The navigation links are nice, and that's all I can say. Your container code is wierd though, the sidebar doesn't go all the way to the bottom? About your CSS - The content table's background is so dark, the text is hard to read (maybe its just my computer?). The headers are so plain, and if you're using Georgia as the text on the layout, I suggest using Georgia for the headers too.

I think that you have too many blogs showing at one time too, and I suggest editing the code that should be on your index:

I saw you asked about that in your blog, also, so I hope that helped you.

Resources:
- Brushes: Amazing, you're skilled at making these. Sometimes I feel that you just rush through making these, so you have something to update with. Try to make them when you're really inspired, and I bet they'll be amazing (:
- Fashion Scans: I don't use these much, but they look very high quality.
- Itunes Mixes: What is the point in these? I'm sorry, but I see no reason to have ITunes mixes on your site.
- Patterns: Nice, I love patterns and I've used a few of these. I love the colors.
- PSDs: Also nice, well cut and high quality. I've seen many of these before though, but all of them look like they were cut with extreme care.
- PSP Scripts: I don't use PSP, maybe add some PS Scripts?
- Stock: I LOVE these. The colored ones are lovely, but I love the paper stock.
- Textures: Many of your light textures are just huge. They're nice though. The grunge textures were nice too. I don't like the textures under 'Other' - They're just not something I would use in my work.
- Tutorials: I've used a few of these, such as the Emotions tutorial. They've helped me, so I'm guessing you're doing something right (;

I'm not going to review your graphics, they just don't seem important to me on a site for reviewing.

Icons: Your Icon gradients and textures are absolutely amazing. I have used your textures, and based some of my site's tutorials with use of them (proper credit is given to you). Your icons are absolutely adorable, they have so much color, vibrancy, and the Tokidoki ones are so cute I just want to hug them (: ! The effects are gorgeous, but I feel like you onver-sharpen sometimes.

Your site is nice, I recommend some work on your resources, but other than that, it's a site that I'll keep visiting for a long time (: Good luck!

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Anna's Response:
Thanks for the review, Dani. =)
And I do often rush through the brushes--gotta work on that ;)
Annaleigh gave it on 15th Nov 2008 and said:
Layout
+ The header picture is really beautiful,
- but the random sort of text is distracting.

+ The css is nice and simple,
- but I can literally not see the navigation or tites for your blogs and the sidebar; I have to scroll over them so they are highlighted to see them.

- {2/4}
+ {2/4}

Organization

Blog:
- There isn't much separation from your date and title in your blogs.
- I really can't see the titles and links, make them lighter! I have to highlight them to read / find them.
- The blogs drag out really long to, is that because you just recently switched to a new program (or whatever it is they're called)?
- The comments page is still screwed up.
+ Yours blogs are funny and interesting, I'd probably read them when I first got to the site unless I as in a hurry.

- {5/6}
+ {1/6}

Sidebar:
- I don't like that the stats come first; I'd prefer near or at the end.
- Headings ARE NOT VISIBLE!
- I really don't see the point in having music players; you're really probably better off just putting what you're listening to in your blog under the date or something.
- It looks like there is a probably with the padding in your mini autobiography section.
- Your links take up a whole bunch of space. More columns, perhaps?

- {5/5}
+ {0/5}

Pages/Content

Owner:
+ Gilmore Girls is a tv show, not a "chick flick."
+ Yay! Wedding Planner! I thought I was the only one who likes that.
- The autobiography is really short. Like, 5 lines? Really?
- Why on Earth are there question marks in front of the 'random facts'?
- I'm pretty sure "a few" is 3 or 4, not 20.

- {3/5}
+ {2/5}

Resources:
- Brushes: There are WAY too many, and a lot of the previews looks completely different.
- Scans: And where exactly are they from? "Various" is not specific enough. Teen Vogue? Cosmo Girl? Seventeen?
+ iMixes: Cool idea. A tracklisting and more mixes would be nice, though. (Rob Thomas and Death Cab for Cutie are "unknown"?)
- Patterns: The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th rows all look the same to me; just different colors.
+ PSDS: Not that a whole bunch of people use them anymore, but they look well cut and everything, I guess.
+ Psp Scripts: Most of them are nice, others make me gag (#3, Amanda Bynes, how BRIGHT is that?)
- Reviews: The 2 reviews you've done are different in the scoring. Ariel has 'overall', Brittany does not.
- Stock: Why is there one .zip file and all the others are individual?
+ Textures: Well made, but the previews are like 2 different sizes.
- Tutorials: I don't like scrolling. Separate the tutorials by linking to them as individual pages. (And sorry, but ADVANCED icons? Those are the simplest things I've ever seen.)

- {6/10}
+ {4/10}

Graphics:
- Animations: Not that great. The 2nd one is really pixelated too.
+ Blends: Cute, but some of them are way to bright. Ever heard of 'Brightness/contrast'? PSP: Layers>New Adjustment Layer>Brightness/Contrast
- Very long; scrolling required. More columns, please.
+ Donation Station: Cute; I like the linking back. Please add more.
- iAm Me: Really pointless.
+ Wallpapers: Very considerate of you to add different sizes. I hate when some people have the largest/smallest size possible and you can't resize it to fit your screen. Add more.

- {3/6}
+ {3/6}

Icons:
- Why are there a zillion links under 'LJ Icons'? Please make 'LJ icons' a link and list them there. (Why are they called LJ icons? People use 100x100s for things other than livejournal.)

- {1/1}
+ {0/1}

Advice:
- Why is 'previously asked' on the side? Put in the main part.
+ The actual advice is pretty good.

- {1/2}
+ {1/2}

Overall:
Your actual graphic / site ability is good, but you need to work on your css/organization.

Overall Score:
- {26/39}
+ {13/39}

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Anna's Response:
Thank you for the review.
It's strange that everyone keeps commenting on the brightness of the css. I can see it just fine...maybe I have the settings on my computer different?
Anyway, I'm glad you (along with others) have pointed it out. If you didn't, I probably wouldn't have known it was an issue.
Magically gave it on 14th Nov 2008 and said:
Okay, this is my first review at rev.iew.me, so here I go:

First Glance:

I love the photo that you've used for your header. The colour scheme's great too ........... except the light purple colour when you hover over the titles and used on the sidebar (it's also quite narrow, like jem said ... rule of the thirds, rule of the thirds!).

I think you should position the titles of each blog post to align with everything else. Right now there's a little gap in front of everyone of them.

Footer, looks somewhat weird to me. Since the sidebar doesn't extend as long as the content, footer looks off-centered.

Now I'm just going to go with the order which I looked at the pages.

Comments
I think the comments page is not working at the moment? The whole structure of the index page just disappeared when I click into comments.

Since each comment is center aligned, I think the comment box should be too.

I do like now you styled the comment boxes though.

Owner
I know the photographs of you looks great, but what's with the blinking?

The ipod game is interesting.

The back and next navigation buttons/links different from all the pages different? I think the image ones are probably what's left from your old layout. You will be able to fix that in a few secs.

Portfolio
Not sure if I should be reviewing this page since it's in a new window :P Love your designs but not so sure about the colour scheme of the page.

Resources
I guess you wanted to put emphasis on the LJ icons? It looks quite strange because that whole block has a different background colour.

Icon textures --> I really can't see the subheadings, make them bigger.

I loved the stock pictures, very nice and colourful.

PSP scripts --> I'm wondering what is the difference between all the different scripts.

Tutorials

There's quite an extensive list of tutorials, pretty impressive.

Site

It's pretty typical. Just a question why did you align poll options all to the right?

Conclusion

I think you've put a lot of work into the layout and overall I think it's looking pretty good. Fix some of the minor errors, your comment page and most importantly the purple and it will be on its way to looking great :P

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Anna's Response:
Thank you for the helpful review! I appreciate it.
Jem gave it on 14th Nov 2008 and said:
I'm not very good at witty intros, so I'll dive right in...

The first thing I noticed when I clicked behindherheart.com was the size of header image. I've seen bigger, but felt it was a little oversized nonetheless. I think the problem lies in the fact that I have a widescreen laptop; my vertical viewing space is particularly cramped (not helped by the various toolbars I have in Firefox) and so when your image takes up over 50% of what I can see, I feel overwhelmed. Obviously everyone's screens are different but it's something to bear in mind.

In terms of physical disk space, your header could also be improved. Photoshop reckons that the image could be saved as a 59K jpeg with no noticeable lack of quality. I'll quote you a snippet from my tutorialtastic article on Understanding Graphics for the Web because it's useful advice (if I may say so!):

You can save lots of bandwidth by choosing the right file format, so don't fall in to the trap of choosing the first one you come across. If in doubt, make separate copies of your original image saved with all three formats and see which holds the best quality for the lowest size.

In terms of colour scheme, it is quite a soothing theme you've gone... very autumny. I'm not sure the purple fits in that well with the browns of the main content area but it's not garish so I'll not hold it against you. ;)

I think your sidebar is too narrow in comparison to your content area. I don't say this very often (people often get the content too narrow)! When it comes to two-column layouts, the easiest way to decide optimum sizes is to split your container width in 3. Your layout is about 750 pixels wide, so that should give you a main content area of 500px and a sidebar of 250px. Obviously you don't have to follow this exactly but it'd give you a rough idea of more appropriate sizing.

One other thing that's too narrow in your layout is the padding. Words need room to breathe, but at the moment your text is quite close to the 'gutter' of your layout. I use a minimum of 10px padding on content at all times.

My design 'rules' and what you choose to do are going to be different things... it would be boring if you constructed your layouts just like me. However, I hope that some of the things I've brought up give you ideas for possible improvements :) Now, on to content...

Under 'Owner', the Back and Forward buttons are bright blue. Are these left over from a previous layout? They don't fit in with the current one. On your Autobiography, "Umm I don't know what else to say lol...uhhh that's about it!" is redundant and could be removed. The first paragraph is plenty big enough so it's not like you have to stumble for words. "If you would like to contact me ..." should be in a paragraph of its own. Portfolio is a separate site entirely, and doesn't really suit being listed under Owner (and, you really should create proper thumbnails for it so that it loads quicker -- my connection struggled with it). You don't need "Go Back To the Home Page" after the page list because you have a Homepage link in the main navigation.

There's no point in my commenting on your resources; I don't download things like this so I've no idea if these are good, bad, average, or whether or not they're truly useful for your audience. The same goes for your graphics tutorials (I don't "do" graphics). I won't lecture you on the celebrity images as I see Aisling already mentioned it, although it is something worth addressing.

All of your coding tutorials need to be updated to display the code properly: use <code> not <textarea>

The JavaScript Back/Forward links are pointless, to this day I have no idea why people put them in their web pages when there's back/forward buttons in the browser. Nonetheless, there's nothing actually wrong with the tutorial so I'll shut up moaning.

Your Basic HTML is missing quotation marks around attribute values on the <img> and <a > and <style> should be <style type="text/css">.

The Bullet Points tutorial should be renamed to "Making Unordered Lists" or something like that. You may also wish to mention that using <ol> instead of <ul> gives you a numbered list.

Your Click Message tutorial is pointless, and the clock cursor code is incredibly irritating (makes me glad I block JavaScript by default).

Anyone who plays music on their site using <bgsound> deserves to be forced to watch daytime television as punishment; I don't want to listen to someone else's crappy music (you've also got another different set of back/foward images on this page).

In your header decorating tutorial (which has a title of "Tutorials" while the others have their own titles) you're giving away this line: text-background-color: silver; which won't actually do anything. It should be: background-color: silver;. Likewise, you suggest that border-right: 5px solid yellow; would "add a border line above, underneath, or to the sides of your header" but in reality, this would only apply a right-side border. Although you clarify this later on, it would be better to change the code to border: 5px solid yellow; and then give instructions on changing it to -left, -right etc.

In the Remove Borders tutorial, you may want to suggest the alternative method of adding img { border: 0; } to the stylesheet. It beats having to type border="0" on every image!

In 'Html Roll Overs' you're giving far too much code. The only styling that it needs to actually work is a.nav { display: block; background-color: blue; }. Of course, if you want to set this up in to a menu, you'd approach it in an entirely different way. You'd want the links in a proper, semantic list for starters. I recommend giving Semantic (Vertical) CSS Block Navigation a read.

The Image Rollover tutorial uses JavaScript, but the technique is achievable with CSS. I recommend avoiding JavaScript where possible because not everyone browsers with it enabled. See: CSS Sprites: Image Slicingâ€™s Kiss of Death

The Showing Text tutorial is a broken link.

Nothing to say about the Title tutorial... it does exactly as it says on the tin.

Because you seem like a nice girl, I won't swear at the fact that you're distributing one of the most insecure ask and answer scripts there is. I will ask, no... beg you to please remove both the Waks script and tutorial from your website. The sooner we get this abomination wiped from the face of the Internet, the better. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you'll want to read why Waks Ask and Answer is insecure.

Advice takes me to a different site when I wasn't expecting it... I don't like expecting to go to a page and ending up on a subdomain! I suggest removing this from the main navigation, and putting both this and your portfolio as links in your sidebar or on a 'Network' page under Site.

You seem to have a few issues with your coding. For starters, when I view source I can see two lots of doctype/<head> stuff. I'm guessing you've got one as your main header and you're including a second header or have pasted more <head> stuff in to a fanupdate file that is being included.

In the header div, your image tag lacks an alt attribute (read why alt attributes are important) and there's spaces after the quotation marks that need to be removed. Some of your blog links and images lack quotation marks around the attribute values (it should be <a href="url"> not <a href=url>) and any images with missing alt attributes need those adding.

The navigation <center> tags are unnecessary, just add text-align: center; to the #mainlinks properties in your stylesheet.

In your sidebar, instead of adding a line break after every affiliate, it would be tidier and more semantically correct to use an unordered list (<ul>) When people talk of semantics on the web, they're generally referring to using the right tags to do things. You've started well by using header tags for your headings, divs instead of tables and so on... take that one step further and use lists for the link lists :)

There's a few problems with your CSS. I've not run it through the validator to see what that picks up but I can see a few things myself. For instance, you're using font-family to declare font SIZE and family, here: font-family : 0.71em/1.95em arial;. For the code to be correct, that should be font : 0.71em/1.95em arial, sans-serif; (note the addition of sans-serif - you should always specify a generic font family for those who don't have the font you'd like). However, link font styles are inherited from the body, so as long as you provide a font size and family there you don't need to re-apply font styling to links. The 1.95em in that styling gives a line-height of 1.95em, but you're then using: line-height : 20px; too (AND line-height : 9px; on visited links!) - you need to decide whether or not you'd prefer 1.95em or 20px, but again this would be inherited from the body stylings.

You've got a couple of "0px" in the stylesheet, but you need only put 0 -- 0 is 0 irrelevant of the measurement.

In div.box { }, your padding:

padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px;

...can be shortened to padding: 8px 10px 8px 10px; (remember the order as TOP RIGHT BOTTOM LEFT -- like a clock) or it can be shortened even further to: padding: 8px 10px; (this basically provides the top and right styling, and the bottom is inherited from the top and left from the right)

border-left : 0px solid #f3edf7; is redundant in div.mainblog { } -- if you don't want a border, just don't specify one.

In your h3 { } styling you've got two different line-heights again. You're also specifying font sizes in pt, which is a bit of a no-no. "pt" is designed for print, and produces varied results on screen (what you see might not be the same as I'm seeing). You should use px, % or em for screen fonts.

--

I browse sites like this every day. I see countless webmasters around your age with blogs, resources and tutorials, all trying to squeeze their way in to a very crowded arena. And, despite the fact that the majority of this review is aimed at pointing out flaws, it's not necessarily indicative of the quality of your site (don't worry, I always review like this). You're doing a better job than many of the other sites I see, and have picked up some healthy code habits along the way. Your site, while it could benefit from a little tidying here and there, is not bad. I think that your HTML tutorials are mostly redundant and you could do with tidying your CSS, but otherwise you're on the right track. Keep it up. :)

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Anna's Response:
Thank you very much for your review! I took in every word and will absolutely act upon most of the things you said.

Q&A Script DELETED. I had the script installed last year and was hacked numerous times. I guess I forgot to remove the tutorial as well. As for the music tutorial, I agree. Having a song played automatically on repeat is very annoying, but you would be surprised at how many requests I have received to add that tutorial. For the ones who sent the requests, it will stay.

The back and forward buttons. Yes. They have been one of the biggest things mentioned in the reviews. A few years ago I added the links on the bottom of EVERY page (yes, I know that's what the footer is for, but at the time I didn't.) and have yet to remove them all. I thought I got most of them, but because I don't look at every page on my site (perhaps I should, some of them need desperate attention) there are a lot of buttons left.

"You seem to have a few issues with your coding."
Haha! Yes, I'm not exactly the best coder around; I won't deny this. I have a lot to learn. Maybe one of these days I should take a class...teaching myself hasn't been the greatest idea haha.

Once again, thank you for the review :)
adreams gave it on 14th Nov 2008 and said:
First impression:

Layout:

Colour scheme: Not a fan of that dark red being there or the light purple with that brown, just doesn't work for me but on the other hand, it totally works on the header, it looks awesome to me!

Sidebar: The way it just stops and doesn't follow the height of the news makes it look incomplete

News: I love the title style, i'm such a fan of that font, the news is simple but not too simple, there is a bit of flavour in there.

Navigation: Maybe the grey link could be just a bit brighter
______________________________________________

Content

Owner: The index of 'owner' looks messy with the back and forward buttons having that mismatching background. You haven't overdone it with the page choices and you've kept it simple which is good because, let's face it, who cares THAT much about someone's personal life? Your contact page would be safer if you added [at] for @ because of the spambots that will pick your e-mail address up. The photography page is amazing, professional photos do well for me.

Resources: What's up with the lighter brown for one area of the page? It looks odd IMO. I don't like the way you've used bold for one letter at the beginning of each rule or that block for a bullet. You're list of resources is plenty and I think i would find all I want if I was looking for resources so that's a bonus.

Tutorials: Now this page is a perfect example, no ugly back/forward buttons with a too bright background or lighter brown somewhere in the page. The bullets you used are much better than the heart pixels in resources. it's great

Advice: Maybe you could build it into the site? It shocked me when I first clicked it and it changed into this whole new layout, I guess my opinion will change if I knew it was coming but you would probably be better off using the main site colour scheme. The idea is very good also.

Site: We're back with the back/forward buttons lol, lighter brown would look better than blue/purple. Advice: You might look more updated if you changed your copyrights to 2008 instead of 2007 on each page. Your poll page looks messy, they don't have any background but look like random floating buttons

Overall: Good site, great header and some great content apart from the picky points I have pointed out. 4/5

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Anna's Response:
"let's face it, who cares THAT much about someone's personal life?"
That's exactly what I was thinking. They don't really know me, and I don't really know them. Why write a novel about my life story?

I didn't know about the @ symbol attracting spambots. Thank you for the tip!!

Hm, I didn't think of using the same color schemes for the advice page. Good idea.

Thanks for the review. It was very helpful. (:
KaylaMae gave it on 14th Nov 2008 and said:
Layout
First impression: wow. I love the layout. The use of colors is among the most original I've seen, and you've actually made them work. The header image is great--the center light gives the image a focus point.

I think the text, header size, nav bar, etc. all work together perfectly to create the perfect kind of balance.

One thing I noticed was that your text is too close to your images on the side when you wrap around them. (Ex. on your short bio on the nav bar, Nov. 12th blog post).

Content
I can't believe your only 16 years old. I wish I could've understood how to design a website that well when I was that young. 0.o Great, detailed info in the 'you' section. I love the photographs. :) Most sections for the web owner can be very boring, but yours is worth looking through.

I'm looking through the resources now and first noticed how the sub-category for LJ icons are in a lighter div. I think they should be either in the same color or darker, so your eye leads to it last.

I do like your graphics though. Your very artistic! Rarely do I come across a graphics site where I would like to actually use the graphics. I think I may use some of yours! I'm probably going to use one of your cute icons for my Teahouse avatar, and I'll be collecting patterns and whatnot along the way. :) All with credit of course.

Yes! You use Paint Shop Pro! Everybody seems to own Photoshop these days, but how do they afford it!? I'm glad I found a great resource with some useful tutorials for PSP. If you can however, make some Photoshop tutorials if you have access to it, it could probably make your website more versatile.

Not much on the advice section yet, so I won't review that. Cool idea though.

Site section is basic, informative.

I love your site. Just keep adding more! :D

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Anna's Response:
Thanks for the very nice review! I really like your suggestion for the LJ div box. I will definitely change it to a darker shade.

Photoshop would be a dream, but a dream that costs close to $800.00. I'm thinking I'll be using Paint Shop Pro for a while. But I agree, offering PS tutorials would make my site a lot more versatile. Maybe one day. :)

Thank you once again for the great review and high rating! :)
MelissaSue24 gave it on 14th Nov 2008 and said:
First Impressions: The color scheme is absolutely lovely. Very pleasing and goes together nicely. The top image is also very pretty.

Definitely add some padding between the images and the text. It's distracting and makes my eye twitch.

Sidebar:
The stats should be closer to the bottom of the page, it just draws your attention from the actual content.

Owner
The blue "next" and "forward" buttons are extremely distracting. Either change them or lose them. The "click here" flashing is also somewhat...annoying. Not overly so but just enough. The content in this section looks pretty good though.

Resources
The page is just a little too spaced out for me. I'd move the lists closer together. I'm not going to harp on the celebrity image thing. I don't think it's as taboo as most people would think. There are some fair uses of those photos, you should look up that copy right if you're interested. A friend of mine and myself became very well versed in it earlier this year.

I like that you offer color palettes, but please watch the spelling -- it's not pallets.

The extra LJ icon list you have is very distracting -- try adding some padding to that ordered list so that it looks cleaner.

In your tutorial section, you're using to display your code. You should use . It's what that tag was designed for.

I'd watch offering the Q&A script. If the owner is no longer around, chances are it's not being updated for security issues, unless you're doing that yourself.

Your advice section is very cute and it's not something I've seen often. It might be my browser settings, but the yellow against the gray is just a tag too bright.

Overall, I enjoyed your site. You have tons to offer and very few problems. Mostly just tiny design flaws that wouldn't keep me from returning.

Good luck :)

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Anna's Response:
Thank you! I agree, the "next" and "forward" buttons need to go. I added those a while ago and forgot to take some of them off. When you say "move the list closer together" do you mean the line-height?

I forgot I still had the Q&A tutorial. Deleted. :D
Tiffany gave it on 14th Nov 2008 and said:
Layout
Pretty header, but the random text is distracting. It's not incorporated very well into the content either (does that make sense?). I also notice your blog scrolls a little too much, creating an unflattering end in the sidebar.

- Dingy colors. You have a purple hued header, but you choose to use grey and a nonmatching brown.
- I wish the gradient in the header flowed throughout the page.
- Typical navigation. Try making it pop a little more.
- Not enough padding/space in the footer. Makes it look cut short, like bad pants.
- Did I mention the bad color scheme? None of the colors fit together. The colors should complement each other.

Organization
When utilizing colors properly, organization usually follows. Didn't happen today.

Blog
- No separation from your date to title.
- Once again dingy colors. Reading the title, I'm already put off by the grey that makes my eyes hurt. I have no enthusiasm to read your entry. Change the color of the title.
- Padding/space from your pictures makes everything streamlined.
- Subheadings go unnoticed with the brown background.
- Meta-data looks just like text. Can't really differentiate.
- Too many entries on one page (esp. your main page).

Sidebar
- Why do stats come first? I would think they would go last.
- We come across the padding to image issue again.
- Subheadings go unnoticed with the brown background. (repeat)
- Your links take up too much space, divide them in two and make columns?
- Didn't even notice the music player there.
- And the sidebar ends, abruptly.

Pages
Owner
- Wow. Its just a bunch of links.
+ Sure teeny for an autobiography.
+ Ooh. I though I was the only one who liked The Wedding Planner.
+ BTW Gilmore Girls is a show.
+ You hate typing eh?
- Just noticed your forward/back buttons are random.
- Why is there a home page link on your owner page?

Resources
- Brushes: THERES A PAGE TWO?!
- Scans: I would sure like to know where some of the scans come from? Is that Teen Vogue I see?
- iMixes: Cool. Should add the tracklisting.
- PSDS: THESE STILL EXIST?!
- PSP Scripts: Huh. Photoshop calls them actions.
- Tutorials: I do not have the time to go through everyone of these, but some look pretty rusty.
+ How to print screen?!
- Icons
+ Adorable: WHOA TOKIDOKI?!
+ Models: VS models are surely real models eh?

Advice
- What?!

Summary
Definitely quantity over quality.

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Anna's Response:
My blog does scroll a lot. I have been trying to fix that problem for a few days now--no luck.

Thank you for the review, I really appreciate it.
Aisling gave it on 14th Nov 2008 and said:
Ooh, pretty colours, first off! The photo you are using is very cute. I can't really see the title of your site, you should perhaps make it stand out a tad more.

Your navigation is a bit hard to read, you should bring it up a shade or so. I understand the subtle look you're going for, but just a TINY bit more, please!

The font is TINY! Make it bigger, 10pt is comfortable for most eyes, I think. Your site is pretty, now you want people to be able to read it, right! Also, add padding to both your content area and your sidebar. 10px should do it, and your text will look less cramped, and neater. Your sidebar should expand to the bottom of the screen, because of the way you have your footer. You'll probably need to use an image background to do this.

Owner- OMG SOMETHING IS BLINKING AT ME! That is not fun, especially since it is so bright. Someone visiting your site and looking around is bound to click that bit anyway, the extra attention is a little redundant. If you MUST, please use something a little more subtle.

Back/Forward buttons are kind of... useless, don't you think? I mean, we all have them built into our browser. ;)

The pages in this section are all well-written. The photos of you are AMAZING, so I can see why you'd want extra attention on them. You just need a different approach. But, wow, really lovely.

Resources- I'm sure you know all about copyright laws and realize that using celebrity images on graphics is illegal. You seem to have talent in other areas, however. You should ditch the celebrity graphics and focus more on your more original talent. :)

Why do you link to Tutorials on this page and ALSO on your main navigation? Link it once, please, we'll get there!

The LJ icons box is a little weird...

Tutorials- Your tutorials are well-written for the most part, but not particularly ground-breaking. As in, most of them I've seen done in some form, over and over, since 2001. Also, the illegal images are RUNNING WILD.

The Advice section is off-site, so I will not be reviewing it.

Your site section is pretty typical.

All in all, I think you have a lot of potential as long as you ditch the celebrities and get out there on your own talent. Judging by your layout, you have a lot of it, work on refining your style, and you'll do very well!

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Anna's Response:
Thank you very much for the review :)
I will definitely take your advice and fix things up.
And, is the font really that tiny? It's the same size as the font on this page.

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behindherheart.com

behindherheart.com has 16 Reviews

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