FOOBAR REVIEWS LLIIVVEESSSS
I unintentionally took a 6 month break from reviewing, so now I’m over a year behind on my queue. I uh… fail at balancing time between my hobbies. Speaking of WPRs…
One reason to submit to WPRs is to get another look at the site from someone who is not you. It bothers me that are people who don’t understand this point. I misunderstood something on a reviewee’s site once, and he argued I wasn’t careful for missing something so “bluntly obvious”. You know… if you’re the one who created, of course it’s obvious to you! From my point, it was not, and that doesn’t mean I wasn’t careful. This reminds me of something I saw on Faltered Heart Reviews…
Unfortunately, after the long wait I’m a little disappointed. Generally this review is more of a critic’s examination of the site rather than a review, as a number of the points were made without full knowledge of the site’s workings or the suggestions are a matter of preference.
How are we supposed to know of a site’s workings when we aren’t the ones who made it? WPR reviewers are no different than your visitors. We cannot know your thoughts and workings behind the site just as your average visitor would not. We can only comment on what we see, and if it your intent was not clear, then that is your fault, not ours.
If an error is possible, someone will make it. The designer must assume that all possible errors will occur and design so as to minimize the chance of the error in the first place, or its effects once it gets made.
- Donald A. Normal (The Design of Everday Things)
Also, no matter how “unbiased” a WPR claims to be, there will always be personal preferences in a review. The only way there wouldn’t be any is if the review just consisted of spelling/grammar/coding/broken link corrections. Everything else is basically personal preference.
Anyway! It’s a 3-day weekend for the 4th of July, so I don’t have work today =D I am off for some BBQ and pool fun.
