Design of HowToConvert.org is certainly shiny and full of eye candy with transparencies, rounded corners and a beautiful blue splash in the header. It looks like it's floating on top of a glass plate or with some stretch of the imagination a glass table surface. Transparency style reminds a bit of panels in modern operating systems such as Windows Vista, Windows 7, OS X and KDE4 desktops. In any case a pleasant it's pretty and pleasant.

The sidebar looks pretty good as well with its soothing light blue background color, style of block titles and bullet point icons for links to recent posts. I also quite like the rounded search box. Main content area is stylish as well mostly due to the light shadowy background of teasers and the TV icon. But this is where some issues come to the fore.

The TV icon is on the very edge of the background border and there's unused empty space to the left of the teaser text. My guess is this is where teaser image would be if it was available, which would be great if they were on every teaser. Otherwise, that white space should probably be filled by the teaser so that the title and teaser are aligned which would look much neater.

Article pages could use some fixing as well. The light shadow frame is visible at the end of each article where the text ends up displaying on its borders rather than within them and the text overall seems a little too close to the edge of the white area making it feel a little crammed.

Aside from that a lot of articles are really badly disrupted by two square ads displaying within them, often positioned on top of each other. When I look at these ads and what they do to content I almost see them as some kinds of big blobs that clog the natural flow of content. For example, this one is really clogged. Square ads are positioned in such a way as to make a barrier between the beginning and the rest of the article. You probably don't need to take my word for it as it's quite possible some users might find this way of showing ads rather obnoxious.

Probably the best looking thing on article pages is the comment form.

Design Rating: 7/10

Focus:

The focus of HowToConvert.org is obviously on providing tutorials on how to convert one thing to another. Specifically, judging from content available, but also as may be expected, it's about various technological conversions from one digital format of music or video to another. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have an about page explicitly outlining the purpose and focus on digital conversion though.

Focus Rating: 10/10

Content:

Tutorials on HowToConvert.org typically start with a description of the involved formats and their properties and then continues with three short sections; "things you will need", "instructions" and "do's (or don'ts)" which are set up as simple bullet lists. Instructions are a numbered list of steps to follow in order to complete the conversion. This makes these articles quite brief, but useful and easy to follow. The introductory text however in some cases could be split into two or more paragraphs as it looks like a wall of text, especially if squeezed in by ads.

There's overall 23 articles available which isn't bad, but isn't a terribly large number either. But then again if it's only digital conversions that are being covered there's only so many of the conversions people may typically be looking for.

Content Rating: 8/10

WaysTo.org looks quite nice, but still a bit bare, especially to those who recognize that it is actually a ready made theme with modified colors. There is no logo, just a plain title on top so aside from the colors there really isn't much that is original about the design, at least compared to other sites who may use the same theme. Nevertheless, the theme is a decent choice as it is fairly pleasant and presents a content in a relatively neat and clean way.

The good thing is that the homepage presents articles with nice image thumbnails. The bad news is that this doesn't continue on further pages listing articles, for some reason. For the articles presented on the homepage there is a thumbnail near the title even on article pages and for others there isn't. So it seems like the thumbnails are intentionally added to articles chosen for display on the homepage. Anyway, it's not a big deal of course, just an observation, given that these images add positively to the overall look and feel of the site.

Since I've already reviewed sites based on this theme I can make some of the same observations pertaining to details of the theme I already made before. Namely the cutting off of the teaser texts, background color of the top sidebar ad clashing with the gray gradient in the background, top teaser boxes on the homepages touching the top edge of the header and the text style of the ads within content not being adapted to the content (they're default).

Additionally, content pages actually have whole of three square ad boxes in them in addition to the one in the sidebar. I'm not sure if this is even allowed by google policy, but it certainly seems excessive. A lot of the times one of these boxes is empty as apparently there aren't enough ads to display for available content. I think if there's an ad overkill, this just must be it.

Design Rating: 7/10

Focus:

While short and easy to remember the name of the site isn't necessarily quite clear and actually sounds a bit strange, at first at least.. The titles of articles however make it clear and kinda save the day there. Like some previously reviewed sites of this type the purpose is mostly conveyed by the titles of the actual articles as they follow exactly the same form. This also reinforces its focus. Even if the site talks about "ways to" do a whole lot of mutually unrelated things it doesn't matter because the site's focus is to provide information about "ways to" do something, not on any particular "something".

As usual, I never think it would be a bad idea to add some marketing info to it such as an about page. That always helps establish a kind of connection with the user so the site doesn't feel like just a dry repository of information. And that's the story.

Focus Rating: 9/10

Content:

My initial expectation was that the content of this site might be something like typical tutorials or "how to's". That's how I've read the "ways to" concept initially. However, sampling some articles the title makes much more sense, that is, the articles really show multiple ways of doing some things and aren't just normal "how to's". This actually makes this quite a valuable resource mostly because I think articles explaining multiple ways to do a single thing aren't as common as typical tutorials. Most that comes to mind are occasional list type articles (X ways to do X) published by some blogs and online magazines.

This actually brings me to a marketing idea for the site, albeit it may seem corny. Some articles could actually use this list format to gain some more attraction potential. For example the article about ways to raise money could be titled "5 Ways to Raise Money" and the suggestions numbered. There would need to be another way shown for it to add up to a round number of 5.

Anyway, such as they are the articles are fairly brief and start with a short, but engaging introduction that affirms the reader's confidence in finding what they're looking for in the article. That said, there's a whole of 88 of such articles so the site's content truly covers many ways to do many things. Not bad.

Content Rating: 10/10

HowToTransfer.com sports a simple, but quite modern and pleasing design. Header almost doesn't exist except for a lone home button and the search box whose input field is only faintly visible on that dark brown background.

There is no actual logo, just a "How To" title at the top of the sidebar with a nice red gradient for a background which almost looks like a polished fragment of red painted metal or plastic peaking from beneath the white board that is the main content area. Red color scheme combined with brown and white seems quite sharp and works really good.

The categories block in the sidebar also seems unnecessary given that it only displays the "uncategorized" category.

The main content area presents latest articles decorated with engaging images and a nice catching "read more" button. However the size of those titles might be a little too big making most titles jump to the second line of text. Reducing it to about 24 pixels with perhaps a bold font weight might make it look more elegant without ruining the emphasis that they require.

The view of actual articles on their own pages is a little less inspiring. The image is no longer visible, unlike in the teaser while the ads typically end up eating up quite a bit of content space on shorter articles making for quite an obnoxious intrusion. Titles of sections within the articles also seem a little too big and where they take up two lines the line height doesn't seem sufficient creating some overlap in text display between two lines.

A special graphic for bullets in lists is a nice touch, but the background color in the graphic doesn't appear to match the white background of the page therefore making the graphics look like blocks with a rounded button inside rather than just the nice button itself.

It might also be notable that the design is already seen elsewhere as a theme which is merely modified slightly in terms of the color scheme. It's not unreasonable to make at least a token suggestion or a comment towards putting a little more effort into at least further customizations of the theme or fixing of the above mentioned issues that come with it or at most doing a more thorough redesign that will make the site's design stand more on its own.

On the other hand.. it may simply be that the site is there to just show the keyword rich content, sell the ads and be done with it. I suppose it depends on the publisher's goals.

Design Rating: 7/10

Focus:

The name of this site is practically an unfinished sentence, but that could be a feature. In any case it is suggestive of the purpose of the site albeit not precisely of its focus. Apparently there is no focus other than on showing people how to transfer whatever can be transfered in whichever context, from transferring files from device to device to transferring money between bank accounts using various methods. Well, actually, all content on the site so far is precisely in one of these two categories, with the tech related transfers being more dominant.

What gives these kinds of sites a way out is always precisely this undeniable obvious link between their name and the type of content available which is evident from their titles themselves. In truth however these kinds of sites are built to serve one type of keyphrase on search engines and isn't in any way designed to attract people through the homepage and keep them for long. This makes it hard not to give a good rating, but with a strange taste of reviewing a site that's been produced half automatically as if on factory line. Regardless, I stand by my typical suggestion. Having an about page or an introduction or some other marketing material to show the highlights and spell out the purpose is always a good thing as it shows that the publisher cares.

Focus Rating: 9/10

Content:

Well, there's 22 articles mostly about transferring files from device to device or other transfer related uses of technology and transferring of money with most content being about technology related transfers. They're typically quite short and tell you what you need and provide step by step instructions to what you should do to complete the transfer. Some have a final "Do" section with what you have to keep in mind or a link to related content.

Given that information conveyed is almost strictly procedural this brief form is probably a good thing. It wont tell you a lot about the underlying process or make you understand all there is to understand, but it doesn't have to. It will tell you what to do or how to do it and as such it's useful.

Content: 9/10

On first load the look and feel of this site is quite catching. Given the association that the site's name makes with baking the background of TrueBake.com is indubitably a kitchen table! In any case the color scheme and style looks (and almost smells) right given what the purpose of this site appears to be.

Aside from the background the next most catching elements are the image frames, made to be stylishly fuzzy and look like either wood or cardboard. However it's easy to notice that the actual image we may expect in these frames is actually missing for all of the articles displayed on the front page. We can only feast on the image of potatoes from the topmost featured article. However even following the link to that article reveals a page which has no image on it either.

The suggestion I'm building up towards here might already be guessed. If we're given such nice image frames we've got to be given some nice images for them too, and for the sake of consistency and adding some of that attractiveness to article pages, the article pages should contain the image as well, the larger version much like the one displayed in the featured article about potatoes on the homepage.

Aside from that there are a few more detailed suggestions. What if that nice search box was put on the top bar instead of below it? This could allow the site to be put further to the top making more of the content visible above the fold. If it's easy enough, it might be something to try, for space efficiency's sake. Otherwise I think it looks great even as it is.

Secondly, on the top of the article pages there is a bar displaying "Posted in | no responses", but the color of the category and responses links is too similar to the background color making them harder to discern. It's safe to say the link color should be adjusted to something brighter or the same should be done with the background color.

Finally while the site seems to have more than 7 articles visible on the homepage there is no "next" or "previous" link or any kind of pager that would allow browsing other articles. They can only be browsed by clicking on categories. And the pages of those categories don't have category titles.

Other than that there's a standard critique I make of ads at least wherever we're given two square ads within actual content which sometimes end up disrupting the style of the article page.

Design Rating: 7/10

Focus:

The name of the site sounds slightly strange in that it's unclear what "true" bake actually means, but one might suppose it means baking things right, with the help of this site of course. While there is no introduction or about page or any kind of similar marketing it must be admitted that in addition to the name, article titles which restlessly keep repeating "how to bake" pretty much spell it out. Bottom line is that the purpose is still clear and the focus strong, as is already quite typical from this web publisher.

Focus Rating: 10/10

Content:

There's over 30 articles about how to bake a variety of foods. Just reading the categories reveals quite a variets.. beef, chicken, bread, cakes, cookies, ham, pizza etc. Speaking of category list "cookies" seems to be misspelled as it says "coockies".

The articles start with a description of what is cooked, how it can be useful and so on and proceed with instructions. The outline of article sections seems to vary from article to article though most seem to follow a general outline starting with ingredients, steps or procedure and additional information. Some have sections for various styles of baking the same food.

I would suggest using more of the list form for presenting instructions and procedures as this is easier to follow and more attractive.

Content Rating: 9/10

The look and feel of GrowGuides.net is fairly pleasant, consistent and of course its green color scheme is fitting to its topic as well as the background leaves on the top and the beautiful green plant on the left. It's good to see advertisements adapted to the color scheme as well making them feel better integrated. The mix of orange on titles and borders works quite well with green and gives the site a more bright and positive feel. I also like the RSS button and its position beneath the plant image.

It's overall a neat package with not much to complain about, except perhaps the amount of ads on some pages especially where square ads end up stacked up on top of each other or disrupting the flow of the "share and enjoy" button bar.

I've noticed that the articles are tagged, but there is no tag cloud anywhere so this might be a valuable addition to make.

I think it would be a great idea to add images of plants, veggies etc. that are being talked about in each grow guide so that someone browsing the site can simultaneously learn to recognize or learn visually how each plant looks like. It would also probably add to the visual appeal of articles. This would of course have to be done in a consistent manner across articles and in a way that wont be disrupted by advertising.

I would like to make further suggestions for improvement, but that would probably involve a sort of a redesign that would make the site look more unique and impressive perhaps including such things as a real logo, additional styling of sidebars etc. However this works and is overall not a bad presentation.

Design Rating: 7/10

Focus:

The design style, domain name and titles of the site and articles are quite consistent in terms of conveying the theme and purpose of the site as obviously being about guides to growing.. stuff that can be grown I suppose (including, according to categories, flowers, fruits, plants, trees and vegetables). As such the site is pretty much left to be self-explanatory without any introduction or about page that could perhaps outline some highlights. But nevertheless the purpose is clear and quite singular.

Focus Rating: 10/10.

Content:

I've counted 71 articles so far about growing various flowers, fruits, plants, vegetables which is a pretty good database of information. Articles usually start with an introduction to the thing being grown including its highlights and properties. Some articles follow an outline starting with needed materials then procedures and location while others have numbered steps, albeit numbers are expressed in words which might actually have some advantages. Maybe a good thing would be to standardize on a single outline across all articles as a feature. I personally prefer the numbered approach because it gives more of a "step by step" dynamic to articles which is what most people might expect "guides" to offer.

From a sample I reviewed articles seem to be well written, somewhat engaging especially in the beginning with commentary on the plant being grown and continuing with relatively condensed set of instructions and information regarding the process involved and important preconditions such as the choice of location.

Content: 10/10

An honest first impression of ExpertsForge.com is that of a professional and pleasantly colored, but slightly cluttered web site. We get a largely symmetrical header with a professional stylish logo, buttons and a search box combined with a relatively simplistic menu. But this is where some problems are noticeable. That search box covers the "le" in Google logo and leans right to the drop down menu to the right so it seems crammed in there despite the fact that it should fit in the area on which it resides. There is also a somewhat similar issue with the login form as the "go" button is pushed off the edge of the site.

Moving further down from the header things are fairly smooth even though it looks like a long list of stuff. The first block of the right sidebar ("featured authors") starts lower down the sidebar than its equivalent in the left sidebar ("categories") which slightly detracts from the neat symmetrical look. Also judging from some of the titles in the left sidebar it seems that if the sidebar was only a few pixels wider all titles would fit in a single line rather than breaking to the second one.

Clicking on a category for a category page reveals one good thing and one bad thing. The bad is the ad which is put above all the listings and even seems to masquerade under a title of its own "Application Tutorials" even though it doesn't list anything from the site, just a square adsense ad. There is another title below it "Latest Tutorials on Applications" which is apparently about the same thing. This seems to reflect a rather indiscreet advertising policy. The good thing however is how the right sidebar is used for subcategories (which are many) which makes sure that this particularly important part of navigation remains fully above the fold.

On the article pages the same issue with ads remains; two squares before the article content even begins in addition to the link ad unit below the article and a yet another square before the comment form. If it wasn't for such blatant ad positioning I'd have no complaints about the article page except that a larger font should be used for section titles, especially when there is a situation like this where the section title ("background") is just as bold as the first sentences of the section, making it indistinguishable. A heading tag would be more appropriate for any titles or subtitles (such as h3).

Design Rating: 7/10

Focus:

Given my experience sites with "expert" in the name for some reason always have something to do with information technology and computers. Same is true here and the slogan makes this clearer: "Internet's Top IT Resource Zone". I would assume experts are not just the people behind the site's content, but also the target audience of the site. Otherwise the term "IT" might be a little too tech savvy. That's as far as it goes in terms of explaining the site's purpose though. The rest are categories and actual articles.

An about page may be quite useful here however, especially for explaining how exactly does the site work and what types of content can be found. Further inspection of content reveals it to be somewhat like a community forum more so than a repository of articles as it may first appear. Clarifying this beyond any doubt would be quite useful.

Focus Rating: 8/10

Content:

There are many categories and subcategories, albeit not all of them have content. Not all content are articles and it is general split into three types: tutorials, solutions and questions though both solutions and questions seem to be about questions whereas only tutorials tend to be presented as more full sized articles. This is actually probably typical for this type of site. It's more like a community forum of experts sharing information (again, something to be clarified in the about page).

That said, there seems to be plenty of tutorials of varying quality which may be immediately useful, and the ability to ask questions and perhaps have them answered within the members area is a useful service as well.

Content Rating: 8/10

First impressions of HowToUse.org are quite pleasant. It's clean, shiny, smooth and colorful with nice thumbnail images for each article and no obnoxious advertising to ruin it. Logo is a little simplistic, but still stylish and attractive, thanks to slightly different colors of the words displayed without spaces.

There is one little miss on the homepage; the second article displayed is missing its thumbnail image ("How to Use a Pressure Cooker"). Also, the three dots after each title seem unnecessary.

I have only a few minor additional complaints with regards to site wide elements. The "How to use WI-FI" link in the main menu on the topmost black bar seems a little out of context. I tried refreshing and going to other pages to see if it perhaps changes randomly to another article each time, but it stays fixed. Secondly, given that the main orange menu already displays categories, displaying them again in the categories area of the sidebar might not be necessary. At least it's something to keep in mind if adding anything extra to the sidebar in the future so as to avoid adding clutter.

Article pages look quite good and elegant except the size of the section titles seems a little exaggerated. They might look better if the font size of the h2 tag was reduced to around 18px rather than 27px as it is now. One other thing to be noticed on article pages is that the image that displays as a thumnail in teaser on the category pages don't display, yet they might add a little extra attractiveness to the article itself. I suggest adding the image to float top left or top right to the article content.

Design Rating: 9/10

Focus:

The domain name and site title are meant to convey the purpose of HowToUse.org directly. What is covered by these how to articles is shown in the main orange menu corresponding to categories of content as well as a sample of guides displayed on the homepage. All of this leaves pretty much no doubts and prompts the user to check out the content.

Focus: 10/10

Content:

HowToUse.org offers seven categories of nearly seventy articles most of which (around 50) in the computers category which currently make this site most attractive to those looking to learn how to use something on a computer. Second most filled category is "technology" which also contains a featured tutorial on how to use an iPod Nano. What's good about the articles here is that they're presented in a consistent outline of sections and use list form to present information. Sections are "things you will need", "instructions" and "do's and don'ts". This makes them quite easy to follow.

If there's anything to complain about it may be the necessity to fill out the rest of the categories better, but that's probably going to be done as the site grows.

Content Rating: 10/10