FSO: Fashion Students Online.com Design Review

I will evaluate this site based off of the elements listed in this article because I feel very biased about reviewing the site as it is quite similar to what I am doing with my own website.

Is the layout confusing?
The layout is a pretty standard three column design. The menu is easy to figure out and organized well with how many options are available. The home page seems to have a blog layout, though there is a menu navigation that you can click to "view as blog." I guess that is kind of confusing. Unless you haven't visited many websites, you should be familiar with how to easily get around this site.

Do you glide around the page naturally? Is the page balanced?
The page does seem to be fairly balanced, though it is very text heavy. The only images are in the header and in the right column; they are very unattractive, scam-like looking advertisements.

Does the color theme add to the site design?
The color theme of green, purple, and orange is not attractive to me at all. There is also some red text in the right column further throwing off the design appeal. In addition, the fashion students online logo (which I assume is the logo because it is in the header), is very plain (Microsoft Word font?) and colorless.

Are there any small details that add to the overall design?
There are not any details that add to the design. There aren't any custom looking elements, not even an attractive twitter button. Just this ugly little thing:


Are important elements, such as post headlines, clearly emphasized?
The post headings are clearly emphasized by an orange font. This looks a little ugly as it is placed on a website with purple as a main color. Hello Halloween?

Does the design make give the site a unique edge?
No, the site does not look very unique at all. There is a page that mentions that they are working on rebuilding the site. I feel like if they brought in a graphic designer to make a few custom images that match the look of the header, they would be well on their way to unifying and streamlining the look of the site. For example, look at these header and sidebar linked images from What I Wore:



Does the site allow commenting?
Yes, the site allows commenting, but it looks like there are only a few posts with 1-2 comments. Otherwise, it looks like it's normal for articles to have 0 comments.

Evaluation
I am as excited to see their site rebuild as I am to rebuild my own site with a layout that I am happy with. I think their site is nicely organized but could definitely use an upgrade on the custom design elements of the site; take it from a year 2000 site to 2010 site.