Month: February 2001

This is the ultimate in minimalist expression. Either that, or a totally lacklustre attempt at a website.



There are practically no blogs. The most recent simply states that the author is too busy to post – this is not relevant information and so should be omitted.



Each post is on a separate page (there are only about 10) and are usually brief. The content is okay, if a little glum and depressed, and the situation is helped by the design.



There is no actual design, no real navigation, not even a colour scheme. There are no links to follow, no page to explain the author’s background or opinion.



There’s very little here to recommend a visit when there are so many sites out there worthy of your attention.*logged life, v2

Eliot Wilder is not a web designer. He’s far too busy to devote the time and patience required to build a good looking and effective site. So he got someone else in to do it, and the results are very good.



The masthead (animated, no less) is subtle in its use of colour and motion, and helps set the tone for the content.



And not having to worry about html has paid dividends, with some truly creative blog writing. It’s certainly worth coming here to read Eliot’s posts, and you can even download his novel.



The site is well balanced between ease of navigation and ease of reading, and the author’s viewpoint adds true character. A worthwhile visit. Eliotwilder.com

Dramatica does not get off to a good start when the blog first loads into the browser. Immediately several key design choices cripple the overall effect of the page.



First of all, there is zero spacing between lines. As a result, all the words look like they run into each other, making the blog almost unreadable.



Secondly, the text height is too small, and can’t be changed. This only makes a bad situation worse, and the blog that bit harder to work through.



And finally, perhaps the biggest mistake of all: the links all appear in one of the darkest shades of blue. On a black background. It’s absolutely impossible to know where a link goes unless you check the browser’s status bar.



The blog itself, or at least what I could read of it, is another example of a fifteen year old’s world. People a bit older will know what it’s like to be fifteen, and this blog will only help remind them. As Elliot Smith once sang, the author’s “just some dude with a tilted attitude that [they] learnt from TV.”



If you can stomach the attitude, and you have sharp enough vision, there might be something here for you, but otherwise, move on.[ dramatica ]

Squished Frog is not nearly as offensive as you might think from the title. It is in fact the personal homepage of a man called Eric who has decided to share his opinions and stories with the people of the world.



Sounds like typical blog fare then. Which it is, but it is good blog fare, with some interesting posts and commentary, with some insight that is definitely worth reading.



The only facet of the site that is keeping it from a solid 3.0 is the design. The colour scheme, layout and overall feel of the page harks back too much to the mid-nineties. The main content is pretty featureless, and the yellow background around the sites doesn’t provide enough contrast to really help the page flow.



Other than that, a good website with good content.Squished Frog Blog

Nice design aesthetic, interesting blog, and a ton of information you wouldn’t usually find on a personal homepage. These are all reasons why Fimoculous is worth visiting.



The blog covers a wide selection of topics, from movies the writer has seen, to websites that attracted his attention, and there is always a good amount of opinion with each one (ie if we only wanted the facts, we’d go to a news service instead).



So, the extras then. Aside from the blog (the main focus of the site), the useful information the author throws your way include the font used, the back-end technology, links to html and css validators, and links of interest (basically his own bookmarks as well as links to music he’s listening to). It is sometimes very interesting to know these things, and so their inclusion adds to the site’s appeal.



On balance, this is a good website. It survives very well with just a blog and an archive, and through some efficient coding, the site downloads very quickly. Certainly worth visiting.

Fimoculous