September 15

1. http://www.pinupgirlclothing.com/

I don't wear a lot of mod/retro clothing, myself, but I do have a strange sort of fascination with the style. Pinup Girl Clothing is one of my favourite sites to browse, though I've never actually bought anything from there. As much as I like what they're selling, I'm not a big fan of the layout.

There's a lot of information on the bottom of the page which seems to me a little sloppy. The first big section of text under the pictures repeats the same information three times. I would condense it into a concise introduction. I would probably put that in place of the pictures up top, since those are the same as the left-hand menu, and thus unnecessary, I think. I see the value in having more of a visual, but I think you could have a short intro an pictures for a visual without there having to be a second menu.

One of my biggest qualms with the site was the left-hand menu, but I notice they have updated it. It used to have pictures and text. It didn't quite fit that way and I think the text-only format is a big improvement.

At the bottom of the home page they also have a set of links as well as a few paragraphs "about pinup girl clothing." I would put these on their own "links" and "about" pages.

When you actually get into the site and look at the page for a particular item (that journey is a bit confusing, but I'm not going to get into that), the set up for that page is a bit weird, I think. They give a good amount of information about the item, which is definitely a positive. They also give information about the model and styling in the photograph. This seems a bit superfluous, except when you consider that Pinup Girl Clothing also hosts events with their models. Thus, I think it's okay to give this information, but I just think it could all be arranged better.

Also, I'd try to make it look more tasteful and less trashy, because the vast majority of their clothes really aren't. Admittedly, some of their clothes are a bit trashy, but you get the sense from the page that that's all they sell, which really isn't the case.

2. http://www.ursulavernon.com/

I've been a huge fan of Ursula Vernon for years now, ever since I discovered her art on the internet. For a long time her only website was metalandmagic.com. But when Ursula found success as a children's author, she realized that she was not known for children's art and as such it might be a good idea to create a new kid-friendly website in case any young fans happened search her out on the internet. Thanks to a good friend, the site was up and running in only a week or two. This website which focuses more on her work as an author. I think it's well put together. It's to the point, and doesn't overwhelm the user with unnecessary information.

3. http://ll30sims.moonfruit.com/

I'm hopelessly addicted to The Sims 2. One of the things that I think is great about the game is the players ability to use custom content to make the game whatever you want it to be. I spend far too much time looking at the different things people create for the game. LL30 Sims is a relatively new site. It features some of the best Sim Creators on the internet right now and is continuing to grow and develop. I think the site is pretty well organized and aesthetically pleasing. My only real criticism for the site is the way they organize the downloadable content. Each creator has their own page, and on that page is a list of names of the sims you can download. There is no way to preview the link before you click it, though. So if you like one of the sims pictured on the creator's page, the only way you can find that sim is to go through the list one by one. When you click on a name, there's no link to go straight to the next name on the list, so if you're looking for something that you don't know the name of, you have to click a name wait for it to load (which takes a while for me), then hit the back button, wait for it to load, then go to the next name. It's just a bit time consuming, and I would probably try to do something to make it easier.

4. http://www.gocomics.com/

One of the things I miss about being home is getting to read the comic pages in the paper. Some newspaper websites allow you to look at comics online, but the ones I've used only allow you to see one at a time. Go Comics allows you to create a page with whatever comics you like. You can either view your comics one at a time, clicking "next" to move to the next one on your list. You can also view all your comics on one page if you're willing to pay. My complaints with the site are that it's slow-loading (though that likely has more to do with fordham's wireless than the site).

I do like that they give a good amount of information pertaining to each strip without it seeming overbearing. I like that they give you a product related to the strip, whether it be "Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy Volume Six" or a print of today's Foxtrot. I also like that they give a brief history of each strip. The comments are a big plus for me since I don't love comics so much as making fun of comics, plus it's another way for the user to interact with with the site, which I think is great.

I love feeds personally. Most of the sites I use I go to through the feeds, so I was excited when I saw that I could subscribe to a feed for each of my strips. But I was disappointed that I can't see the actual strip in the feed, and that I have to go back to the actual site and wait forever for it to load. I do understand that they need you to go to the site to click on the ads so they can get paid. But since the majority of strips are updated daily anyway, it doesn't seem very worth it to me... to have a feed (let alone multiple ones) seems a bit unnecessary when I only have to go back to the site anyway.

So aside from their lacking a few key strips (Pearls Before Swine, Get Fuzzy, Mary Worth) I'd say that it's a pretty good site for comic lovers, if only I had faster internet.

5. http://www.sockdreams.com/

A website dedicated to socks... and a few other things. The site isn't fancy by any means, but it doesn't look amateur. I think it's organized well and is easy to navigate. The menu doesn't take you into confusing sub-menus like Pinup Girl. When looking at a particular item, they give you a good amount of information, but it seems cohesive and doesn't feel unnecessary. In fact, I think I'd like Pinup Girl a lot better if it was organized like this.

I think the quick search is a good feature, it has a lot of choices. I suppose that hypothetically it could be argued that it limits the user in a way because they can't type in anything they want and if it's not on the list then they just have to do a manual search. But we're dealing with socks here, and they give you so many options already I can't imagine that ever being a real issue for anyone.