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©2009 =an3czka
:iconan3czka:

Artist's Comments

:B Hi there!
This is my first ever journal release, so I would be so glad and flattered If you liked it and found it useful. Please take a look at a live version.

:heart: LIVE VERSION :heart:

:B Some things that need to be mentioned
  • At the beginning I'd like to stress the fact that when I wrote this journal a few months ago I didn't realise I'll be sharing it now. So please bear in mind that it is not the easiest structure ever. It would be nice If you had some knowledge of html. If you haven't acquired it yet, there shouldn't be a problem, though. Just take a look at the bottom of the artist comments. There's a link to pre-made journal structure. Just copy it and paste to your journal.

  • The width of the journal, width of the menu and size of the first box is fixed. They cannot stretch.

  • Don't forget to put your own links and stamps in the menu (Options -> Skin Header -> Change 'Username' into your own name)

  • This template works best for Mozilla Firefox. As far as I know, it is also compatible with Opera and Internet Explorer although some effects will not appear.


:B List of features and fancy effects
( + browsers which support it)

  • Left side menu
    ( FF, Opera, IE )

  • Custom boxes and headlines with backgrounds
    ( FF, Opera, IE )

  • Custom cursors and hover effects *Courtesy of cursors-4u.com*
    ( FF, IE )

  • Feature table *inspired by `thespook's tutorial*
    (FF, Opera, IE [almost like a table XD] )

  • Feature hover effects
    ( FF, Opera)

  • Rounded corners
    ( FF )

:B Journal Structure and Tips
I have no idea how to make a code visible here, so I guess I'll just share .txt files with you.
:iconteamoplz: !! IMPORTANT !!
This journal is free to use under the condition that the proper footer will remain. Please do not delete the credits!


:iconjournalskins: has my permission to upload this to their gallery




:bulletred::bulletred::bulletred:

If you feel like commissioning me, I can make you your personal journal template. Prices vary from 10-15$. More information here

Critiques


:iconjournalskins:
First impressions
:bulletyellow: Live view looks more promising then the preview image
:bulletyellow: Ouch, fixed width...

Visual aspects
Visuals are actually not bad at all. From the preview image I wasn't expecting that much to be honest, but I was proven a bit prejudgemental there. :blush:
The design is actually quite ok when viewed live. The thumb effects ballance out well and the layout is really comprehensive. :)
A couple of things I want to point out about it though.
The main thing would be that the colour scheme is strongly biased towards brown, I think it could use more variation. Perhaps put in more pink or whites, it is after all a lily journal. This would probably give more spunk to the overall look and feel of the design.
Also, I personally am not a big fan of fixed width journals. It doesn't function as flexible and leads to lengthy journals. People with higher resolution monitors such as myself will have a lot of unused space on either side of the journal. (For me it uses about one third of the available space)
Besides that there are a few minor flaws I spotted. The stamps in the menu are set off to far to the right, not a big deal but you might want to center them a bit more. And lastly I find it strange that the feature of the week block does not have a 1px border, where the other blocks have.

User experience
The journal is quite easy making use of the new options available for Journal Skins.
Using it straight after installing and being an 'unexpecting user' just pasting a bucket of text from lipsum.com it works nicely.
Yeah there won't be fany boxes but it is ledgable and it doesn't screw up the page.
Then when looking around in the artist comments there is a link to a text file called Journal Skeleton. Not the most common name for it but ok.
Copy pasting it around is not that hard and will give satisfying results quickly without having to read to much.
Most of the class names are straight forward, such as headline is for... you guessed it. :P
Although I do have a different idea about what a tab is. For me that is [link] and I would name that class something with 'block'.
And the other thing I found was headline1 and tab1. The name of the class doesn't make it obvious that the 1 refers to the smaller block that should go first. Something along the lines of headline_small would have been more self explaining. :)

Technical aspects
Technically this journal is decent.
It works well in Firefox and isn't bad in Internet Explorer. Merely the effects of the bottom feature table doesn't work correctly in IE. It might be possible to fix this by using the element of the thumb for the effects rather then the div.shadow-holder. (IE doesn't support :hover on div's).
The efficiency of the coding has room for improvement. A lot of widths are specified where it could be done with padding and margins and a lot of !important tags, are not that important at all. But lucky for us, we don't have to read and understand the code, the browser does and seems to understand it ;)
I would however suggest that you don't use 'USERNAME' for the links in the install file. You might not have know this but for the header you can use the username of the person uploading and it will be replaced upon installing.

Conclusion
Overall your Journal Skin works well and is easy to use.
It's a bit brown and doesn't remind me of lily's that much for a lily journal, but it looks ok.

Liked this critique?
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The Artist thought this was FAIR
26 out of 31 deviants thought this was fair.

:iconginkgografix:
When looking at the preview i was confused if that was all for the journal or not. Gladly you've added a link to a live version, to see everything of the journal. :aww:

The first thing that i notice is the glossy headline. There are no other glossy elements in your journal, which really makes me wonder if there is any special reason why you've used it?
I guess you wanted to highlight the headlines/titles, but it doesn't fit to the plain structure of the rest.
My suggestion would be to either add something similar glossy to other parts of the journal as well(maybe behind the "Lily journal template"), to remove it or to find another way of giving it a bit more importance.

Another thing that stands out pretty soon is the bottom part of the sidebar. You have a spacing at the left, but not at the right. It's too much squeezed there and looks like the box is too small for it's content. Either a bigger width or some padding would work better here.

The rest of the journal is very well balanced and the brown shades work well together, some highlight color would be nice tough.
So while looking at the live version i realized that you have used different cursors. Personally i'm not a big fan of that, but it's a nice feature for those who like it and if it matches the template. In thise case i'm not sure if they really work well. The transparent cursor is a nice idea, but then again it's just another shade of brown. Why not grabbing a color from the lily at the top? Same for the hover version of that arrow. Nowhere else in the journal is a red. You have a highlight here, that's for sure, but either add more reddish colors or use another color for the cursor. The red is too bold here and sticks out too much.

While exploring your journal further i even figured out, that the hover on images changes the cursor once more. I really dig the idea of separating the cursors, but that little pink heart doesn't fit to your journals. It's too flashy. Instead you should go for something that will match with your flower arrangements. Maybe a flower, a butterfly or anything like that.

The last thing that might need some adjustments is the artwork at the top. I would put it on top of the brown title bar. I can't really explain why( + lacking english knowledge for that), but imo it would be more appealing and it shouldn't be a big problem to change that with the fixed width.
Adding some of the lighter colors for the brushwork(or additional brushwork) could be a nice contrast too.

So even if i have written a lot that are all just some minor suggestions. The overall layout is something really nice and i really enjoy the top part of it. Especially since you've found a nice way to highlight the special featured artwork.
Also good job with second featured part. The hover changes are simple but work well and do not disturb. Well made.

The HTML code itself could have been a bit easier, but in case you go on with coding you will learn how to simplify code with the time.
Hope to see more public templates from you! :nod:

Critique courtesy of *devCRIT
The Artist thought this was FAIR
13 out of 14 deviants thought this was fair.

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Comments


:iconborzoj:
mam go w schowku, fajny tylko zamiast tego zająca wolałbym np armate
:iconan3czka:
To tylko przykład jest. Możesz tam wstawić thumb jaki tylko chcesz ;)
:icondzika-koala:
Heh. ładny :)
Dobra robota. Ja w ogóle nie potrafiłabym takiego czegoś sama zrobić >D

--
The world needs wannabes
The world loves wannabes
Let's get some more wannabes
Hey, hey, do the brand new thing!

------
Please,visit my Gallery :hug:
:iconan3czka:
Dzięki. Stara pracka już sprzed paru miesięcy.
Oj tam ja w to nie wierzę :P Widziałam, że miałaś przedtem journale z własnymi grafikami i w ogóle :D
:icondzika-koala:
no miałam. ale to tylko obrazki podmieniałam. a całego journala sama..w życiu nie zrobie.

wiem,że stara. ale mi się podoba ^^

--
The world needs wannabes
The world loves wannabes
Let's get some more wannabes
Hey, hey, do the brand new thing!

------
Please,visit my Gallery :hug:
:iconcodiciosa:
<3 is the most beautifull skin that i never i see!

--
''The human race is found in the best situation when possesses the highest degree of liberty. '' - Dante Alighieri
>> [link] << Comissions OPEN!
:iconan3czka:
Omg thank you it means a word to me :love:

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May 25
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