Given recent posts on review threads, I felt it necessary to create this thread in order to solicit responses with respect to the subject line. To put my money where my mouth is, I will go first. As always, I could be wrong and I stand corrected in that case.

A site review to me is not done to make the requester feel good. It is not done to say, "site looks cool" or "site sucks". It is to point out flaws with the sole purpose of making the site better. It is like going to a *real* church - you don't go there to feel good but to receive a message that will make you go back home and think, "am I really living my life right?" Of course, a review is a 2-way street - I tell you what is wrong, you fix them. There might be some fuzzy areas where you either choose to implement such changes or not, or we agree to disagree, but for the most part, such flaws are pretty standard stuff and obvious.

When I perform site reviews, I try to stick away from stuff like, "site is cool" or "color combination is off" cos those to me are subjective. Rather, I stick to again, the obvious (contact form doesn't validate, grammatical errors, layout, code structure, logic, etc). The latter is more objective, IMHO. I also am the type of person who hates it when someone complains to me about something without offering a solution. To that effect, with each point I make, I try to offer a solution. What's the point of saying, "form doesn't validate" if I don't say, for example, "I entered bad data in your email field and the form took it" or "use of inline/page level styles is bad" if I don't follow it up with, "unless for a very good reason. Put all your styles in a stylesheet. This will among others make your site more readable as well as reduce page load time"?

Some might not want to hear the truth but as they say, the truth hurts. If you are not ready to stand the heat, as they say, leave the kitchen. Don't leave a site review feeling bad over what your peers have said. Leave with the attitude of, "at least, I have learned something new". Whereby you find none of such reviews helpful, kindly ignore and walk away. In YIMs with fellow forumites as well as at work, I take it and I dish it. Worse case, I agree to disagree. I never come back with, "oh, can I see your works?" or turn to ad hominem/"do you know who I am?" arguments. Off-topic rants don't help me at all.

We are on an online forum folks. You have nothing to lose. It's not like I will one day walk on the roads of Warri and say (for example), "remoranger, how u dey now? na you b dis?". Chances are that we will *never* meet each other in our life time.

The floor is now open to debate.

yawa-ti-de you are very correct site review to my own opinion is pointing out or reviewing what the eye of web developer is intensionally or unprofessionally "blind to" or not too certain or confuse about his/her site for instance www.websmsalerts.com will be officially launched on 25th July 2009 and as young professional developers (My Team) we are "worry" about some part of this project so to make the site better and the experience of our visitor satisfying we know that the best place to get help is nairaland big thanks to Seun and good people of nairaland and for those that have and still to point one or two things out to make our project successful


@yawa-ti-de i dey feel you keep the good work going

This your definition is different from what site review is on NL *here we bring our gunz to do a site review - fully loaded too*

GBAM. And the preachers are also good shooters.

nice analysis

ekitigene.com:
1) too crowded
2) contact us form doesn't validate.
3) links to the right: y r those thumbnails showing?

Bottomline, if this is a news site, there are better examples.  Like http://www.thenationonlineng.com/

Yawa-ti-de,
Thanks for the review.
Will try and decongest as suggested.
The contact us form do validate.
However, the website is not a commercial venture. It is just something I do by the side to bring Naija news closer to my people in diaspora. Its aim is just to get a collection of news links that I think are topical. Check out the Vanguard website, it is top of the tops compared with The Nation's.
Anyway, appreciated.

ekitigene

Hmm, this is great! Some information here for all to learn from. I must tell you I have gained something here. The question I ask sometimes is why are webmasters in such a hurry in publishing a website without checking everything that meets a website healthy performance. It is sad oo.

Let us do good jobs as professionals, we have worked hard to learn this trade and would not let finishing be a problem at this point. I dont mind criticism with my new website www.websitedevelopmentng.com, it will help us improve. Thanks all

In my own word answering to this question, "What the exactly a site review is?"

A site review is a place where webmaster or web designer asking someone to give feedback them with a lot of constructive criticism in the quality of website improvement before going LAUNCHED PUBLIC.

I agreed with yawa-ti-de's posting saying it all!  

uspry1

http://www.websitedevelopmentng.com/

1) Hovering over certain nav items, those nav items "jump" from side to side. You need to fix that so it is consistent across the board

2) I don't recall seeing a contact us in the nav items but I saw it at the bottom, though the link is unclickable. Since I assume your main aim is to get potential customers, I think this info should be more prominent on the site.

3) Home page: I feel instant quote should be moved to the top. It doesn't have to be that large either. It was at the bottom and if I didn't scroll, I wouldn't have noticed. I think this too is a very important module on your site. Worse case, provide a link to a more detailed page.

4) If you insist on having google ads, I say make it horizontal. The vertical one there is making the page unnecessarily long

5) I am torn as to the purpose of the guy with his mouth wide open. I think that photo needs to be more professional. I see that he is pointing at the site on the screen but that wasn't immediately obvious to me.

6) About us: too much text. Unfortunately, many people don't have the time to read anymore. Your text should be like ping pong game - kpam, kpam, kpam. Read main points, move on. Same with "promotion" and "website design".

7) Login page: Why is "forgot password" link not working? Also why the extra nav bar?

8 ) Articles link: not working, at least not on "login" page. Are you taking advantage of includes?

9) Branding page: Why provide info that isn't clickable?

10) Testimonials should be more prominent

11) Blocks at top right: I don't think that is necessary. You need to move up your projects which drive customers to your business.

yawa-ti-de,
I took your advise. I have decongested the homepage. It was after doing this I realised how truly congested the site was before your review. The thumbprint was utterly disgusting and unneccessary. I have also 'reworked' the Contact Us page.
Do I need to tell you, how much your review is appreciated.
Thanks

Ekitigene, the pleasure is mine.

Now, you will soon come to know me as someone is rarely satisfied with the status quo To that effect, I re-visited your site, found that it looks better than what it did the first time around but I think you need to take care of the following:

1) I clicked submit on your form, not filling out any fields and was redirected to a page that said, "Bad Referrer - Access Denied"

2) I think you can still make the home page less crowded - consider grouping your news items into say, national, state and local news. Put those nav items at the top. Then just have large images of the main news items per section.

3) Why is there a search bar on secondary pages but not the home page? Furthermore, why is is that the search bar seems squished by the google ad? I think you need to put the ad above the search bar and increase the width of the search bar textfield. I would also center the top horizontal ad.

4) I think you need to use CSS to style your table borders as opposed to using border="1". Also, get rid of the height. Let the table flow naturally

5) I think the date.com and bmi ads are out of place. You need to find a way to work them in such that they fit naturally.

Again, generally speaking, refer to the nation's website for pointers. Good luck!

yawa-ti-de! The  whole analyses is simply marvelous, you must be a SITE REVIEW guru I guess. You’ll do a great job consulting than you would main techie work you know(my OP). I respect your opinion  and you would see changes very soon as I  commenced  work prior to your reply(I had the privileged of having other people review the site too). It came at the right time though.

Thanks

efetur, thanks once again.

I have actually dabbled into the world of consulting in Nigeria. The problem is, IMHO, we aren't ready for it. I mean, some are not willing to pay more than 10K for a website. How will they pay 10K for a review? I guess I am shaking oranges off the wrong tree.

Sha, I haven't given hope. If it's meant to be, it will be.

Hello yawa-ti-de,

I've been on the review updates since the last time and I guess the new www.websitedevelopmentng.com, though still not finished, meets the outcome you talked about.

well, I will like to express here too that, though I took some of your advice, the other things(Nav Jumping and GAds, maybe a host of others) were left for company business reason, I hope you'd understand. But you could still look it up and probably let me know if I oversighted somethings on my part.

Thanks

Efetur:

To see why those things you raised in your last paragraph is bad, regardless of what the client says and wants:

1) On the left side, put your mouse in b/w any 2 items. Notice how the 2 items dance as if they are on crack

2) On the top nav, again put your mouse in b/w 2 items. Notice how the item to the right has only the left tip highlighted

Also, in FF at least, if you scroll down, you will notice that the white background doesn't go all the way down. I take it you aren't taking advantage of faux columns.

Look, I go through issues with clients all the time. I would say, more times than not, I win. Why? Because I offer them compelling evidence as to why what they want may not be right and at the end of the day, I could win or lose another job based on what I have in my portfolio.

yawa-ti-de,
Pls can u help have a look again and see if its improved. Though still working on it
http://www.ekitigene.com

thanks

ekiti:
Much better.  Very professional.  Good job buddy! At this point, I will say it is 90% done.  A few issues/concerns:

1) Move the headlines on the right further to the top.  I assume that is the best way to get people to read them.

2) I would go for image ads as opposed to text.  As it is right now, the text blends with the news and is hard to notice.  Also, consider moving at least one further to the top, maybe below the headlines. If I hadn't scrolled, I wouldn't have seen them.

3) Are you using a CMS tool? If not, I pity you when it comes time to update.

4) I won't talk in general as I am sure you are still working on it so i will focus on the "contact us" page instead - I notice that it takes me to a page that looks nothing like the home page.  This should not be.  The layout of every single page of this site needs to be consistent.

5) Think of adding RSS and ability to comment and maybe even a blog and/or forum

Wow! you take corrections so well I think I am in dream land.  Good job once again.

Thank you.
I note your observations. Will work on them.
I am using CSS this time around. Am a novice though. No idea of website design before this. That was why I hung on to all your advises.

@ yawa-ti-de

You are the best. Thanks alot.

Nairalanders,
Word of Advise: Take Yawa-ti-de's websites reviews seriously (if you have not already been doing that). The man/woman sure knows what he/she is talking about. A competent 'mind'.
Yawa-ti-de, abeg help take a final look at the finished work, and after i wont bother you again, I promise. Kudos to you.

http://www.ekitigene.com

Cool. Integrate what you have with a CMS tool like Joomla! and I say, you are just about ready for graduation

It was fun rubbing minds with you on this site. It looks way better than what it was in the beginning and you deserve every pat on the back you get cos of this