Site: Velociteen http://velociteen.com/
Site owner: Marie
Review: May 4, 2009
Full screenshot (right click to open in new window): 1

Rating: 1 of 5 stars

First Impression: A bit colorful and does not mesh well together from the graphics to the content. It looks like a bunch of different things were slapped together.

Content: The site has some great information for adolescents needing a place for information and to try to relate with peers for issues like online abuse.

You have a lot of different sections that are informative about your organization, the site itself and it seems most of the sections like the magazine and more are in development. I see that your magazine is using Wordpress.

Coding: You have 99 coding errors for HTML 4.0 Transitional. The majority of the main part of your site has this issue are because you are using a Plesk sitebuilder.

At least that is what I got from your meta tags that you are using a sitebuilder. It is fine if you use site builders or webpage editors, but often they will not produce code that you will want. Is this from a template or did you made the graphics from scratch? (Are they originally created by you?)

Most of the errors stem from the automatic URL input for your style sheet.

You do have a missing image that is from your stats. It is at the bottom left-hand side of your page.

Design: Your site design for the main part is very jaunty. The background and graphics do not look like they should go together.

Perhaps something more uniformed will pull it together, especially to successfully present information to your visitors in a semi- professional manner.

It is okay to have some color, but right now it is very busy.

Also, I noticed from one page to another, the width of the page increases due to the content. It should not do that. You need to set the parameters for your content width. Also, you should think about putting a white background underneath your content and adjusting the font for your content.

Your header tags (example: h1, h2, h3) could be 16 to 20 pixels in height, but your words could be 12 pixels (12px) to still allow your readers easily read your information.

The focus of your site are teens, so you should not have too much trouble with visitors who may have extreme visual issues.

Your background for your top navigation has that ripped page look, but the rest, like your graphics and such have crisp lines.

You should consider more uniformity when designing. If you want those edges, then you should make all of them similar. This is part of what I meant that the site graphics and such did not mesh well together.

It is redundant to have the corner image with your logo and a main heading image that also has the same. You are branding your site with the logo, but you only need to convey your point one time. My suggestion is to do away with the large main image and use your logo. You can adjust the font sizes for the site name and short description phrase so it is not under the logo, but to its side.

I noticed that some of the other parts of your site are different, like when I visit the Sitter Weekly. The top image comes down, but you have the main image and then a second part with the name of the site again. This actually overlaps. I saw that was a Joomla template that you altered. If you do, you should remember to make it yours. Like I said previously, it is redundant to state the name of the site twice at the top.

Summary: The most valuable part of your site is the information you present to your visitors. The design is not a strong point at all. You are using a sitebuilder for one part, Joomla for another, and WordPress for yet another part.

You should try to be more uniform with your site. I know, I have repeated myself, but here is my suggestion.

As I mentioned in the ‘Content’ section of this review, I noted at least the use of WordPress for your magazine. With BuddyPress (WordPress MU), you can make your site more social… allow people to sign up and even have the sections you need like a forum and more. This would help you make your site more uniformed and personally, the magazine layout looks much better than the format you have for the main site. You should really consider it. You would be able to use WordPress themes and alter them (but do give them credit if you use them) to use on your site. Personally, I like the magazine layout better, but there are some tweaks to it that need to be done in the css to make it better.

With this, you could also allow users to have blogs, or the staff. It is really up to you. I would regroup on the focus of your site, with the layout and once you have something, go for it. You could use Joomla for your site, but as I said, you can try BuddyPress. You would be able to maintain the pages quite easily. It is an all-in-one type package so you will not have to bridge other programs into it, just click and automatically install the plugins you want to use.

Outside of the layout design-wise, since you are looking to get more visitors, you can also try to become more social like with Facebook and Twitter. Those who visit your site could follow your organization for updates. With a blog/ newsletter, you can post your news (well, they will appear with the title and the link of your post) to your twitter and facebook.

There is a lot that can be done with a site that has a focus on adolescents. I wish you all the luck.