10 things: Whathuh Studios
26. Sep, 2008 
6 Comments
I think I’m reviewing myself into a corner. What started out as an endeavor to review web sites (but not excluding blogs), has taken a sudden turn to the blog side. This creates a bit of a conundrum for me since most blogs rely on pre-made templates.
I believe Whathuh Studios is my first request from an Entrecard member–the time I’m spending there might be panning out.
10 8 things I hate about your site:
- PayPerPost blog, or Whathuh Studios Rant blog?
- “We make web design personal” doesn’t
appear to be a very accurate tag line
for this blog. - The Digg widget–its placement just bugs me.
- Visit Flordia, the 51st state.
- Whathuh heck is that icon?
- Your sidebar widgets icons are magically disappearing.
- Translation: worth it, or pretty space-filler?
- Tag cloud vs. topics.
Details
10 8 things I hate about your site:
- PayPerPost blog, or Whathuh Studios Rant blog? I realize you participate (or used to participate) in pay-per-post via the blog of the same name. Is one of their requirements that you give them top billing? The first time I visited Whathuh I felt I ended up at PayPerPost on accident. The banner ad you have for them is more engaging than your header banner, and you’ve given it more prominent placement.
What does this mean? Amp up your header and rethink its size/location. I realize this will present a challenge since you are using a pre-developed template, however, if you don’t pay attention to anything else on this list, this is the one thing you should change.
- “We make web design personal” doesn’t appear to be a very accurate tag line for this blog. What part of web design are you making personal? The five posts displayed have nothing to do with web design–1 is political and the other 4 cover blogging tips and tools–there is nothing “designy” about this. Even when I click on “design” in your tag cloud, only one of the five posts could even remotely be considered a web design post.
What does this mean? Your tag line is misleading and doesn’t relate to the actual content of your blog. Maybe it did at one point, however, it no longer does. I’m also not certain about the personal reference, however, I think you get the point. I recommend going back through your posts and coming up with a more accurate tag line.
- The Digg widget–its placement just bugs me. First off, how can I “Digg” your post when I haven’t even read it yet? Then, if I do like your post, now I have to go back to the top of the page to Digg it, if I even remember there is a Digg option. Lastly, the Digg widget moves. On the main page, it appears right under the post title. On the post page, it appears above the title.
What does this mean? Move the widget to the end of the post. If you really prefer it remain at the top, I recommend moving it “into” the post by right-aligning it within the post.
- Visit Flordia, the 51st state.
What does this mean? Spell check.
- Whathuh heck is that icon? This is where I have to tread very carefully. Sometimes I need to address graphic elements, but I don’t want to offend any graphic artists. Generally, an icon should be representative of the product (in this case blog). It’s not that I hate the whathuh icon/logo. I just don’t get it. Maybe I’m not supposed to.
What does this mean? Nothing, if you are in love with your icon (and it’s really not a bad one). If you’re inclined to change it, you should consider something that ties in with your blog content.
- Your sidebar widgets icons are magically disappearing. In your sidebar, the little icons representing subscribe, twitter updates, people I recommend, and the meta, are being cut off at the bottom (click me for a screen grab).
What does this mean? Give your icons their bottoms back.
- Translation: worth it, or pretty space-filler? This is a question I ask anyone who has a translator on their site. Do you really get a lot of foreign-speaking visitors? If yes, the translator is a great idea.
What does this mean? If the answer is “no,” maybe re-think the use of this space.
- Tag cloud vs. topics. This is another one of those tricky/sensitive issues and everyone has an opinion. My opinion is that your tags too closely match your topics. There’s really not a need to repeat them, especially back-to-back.
What does this mean? Give some thought to what your tags should represent, versus what your topics should represent. When creating 10 things I struggled with the issue of tags versus categories (I’m equating your “topics” to categories). Nice2All posted a great article regarding the difference between categories and tags that really helped me see the light. Go read this article and see what you think.
Overall, I think you have a good blog and you provide good information. Don’t let that change!
You are great. Thank you so much for this obviously very well though out and informative critique.
My blog was an extension of my web design company, and thus the logo and slogan, but the ties to my company have remained completely unobvious, due to my… lack of making them obvious. I agree with every single point you made, and it’s wonderful to have a fresh set of eyes on the template that I’ve stared at for a couple of years now.
I’m still a little nervous about my review *cringes* lol.
I’m an Entrecard user, so he’s not the only one
And no worries, my design isn’t premade. I think even if you do use a premade template, you should customize it somewhat. I don’t like when I’m clicking through sites, and think I’ve visited one before, when really it’s just that I’ve visited another with the same template… which happens A LOT with Blogger sites!
Stefanies last blog post..Eco Coupons and Sales
It is refreshing to find a site that does a site review the way it is supposed to be done (my opinion anyway). You do not only give the positives but you also point out the negatives with some constructive criticism to rectify things.
Thanks for the link to my site, that was a guest post by a friend which I published a while ago.
Lyndis last blog post..Headless Entrecard
@Stefanie: I totally agree with you regarding pre-made templates (in most cases). I’m actually a fairly new blogger and I rely on other people’s themes. I started with WP and absolutely NO knowledge of PHP. Being a web designer, however, it was easy enough for me to modify the CSS and images for templates I employed. (My poor Web-Betty blog–my first–has gone through 6 different themes in a year!
) When looking for themes, I look for a layout that I like, knowing that I can modify the “look and feel” to be my own. Don’t worry about your review! My goal is to be helpful and give you good info you can use.
@Lyndi: Thank you for the kind words. Your blog is one that I go to every day (Entrecard or not). I enjoy your posts and the great information you share. Several of your posts have been very useful to me in trying to delve further into WP.
I’ve completely re-worked my blog since this review, and I’d love to hear what you have to say about it! I never did employ your suggestions (I’m sorry!) as I ended up having very little time. Instead I started from scratch.
One a side note, one thing I hate about your site is cufon. It doesn’t show the “10″ with the <strike> element like its supposed to (once the text is replaced anyway).
Keep up the great work!
Daniel Costalis´s last blog ..Automatically add LI tags
Hey Daniel,
I remember yours was one of the first reviews I did. I’d love to add your new look to the queue.
I appreciate the heads up on the problem you spotted. Can you give me more info on cufon and the <strike> element? In my posts when I have text with a line through it (like when I don’t have 10 things to hate, lol) I don’t use <strike> as it’s deprecated. I use a CSS class instead. Can you point me to somewhere the <strike> tag is appearing? I don’t see any problems when I view on my 2 computers.