Review
Robert Brooks
August 11, 1999
Into The Utero

---

Introduction

A lot of Nirvana sites' names are derived from album or song titles, this site, Into The Utero, is no exception.  In Utero was Nirvana's very last studio album.  Take the sounds of Bleach and the experience from Nevermind and you have In Utero.  Is this site as good as the album?

---

Connectivity Test

• Modem:  US Robotics 56K Winmodem

• Connected at 44k bps

• "Welcome" pages is not part of the test

Internet Explorer downloaded the page in about 24 seconds, while Netscape Navigator downloaded the page in about 26 seconds.

Explanation: The page seems to have downloaded quite well in the browsers, and the download time is done slightly below average, which gives users who have a connection speed higher than 28.8k the advantage.  The main reason why the page downloaded so well was the way it used images usefully and the moderately size of them.

[Impression: 8.5 out of 10]

Site Interface

If you have been to a circus, you know that there is a lot of colors that are displayed during the shows.  The colors that clowns are most likely to use can be use about anything, particularly purple and yellow.  Besides purple and yellow, the site uses white as it's text and black as the background, a wonderful mix.

For example, near the top left corner of the page it has a nice feature that shows transcripts from interviews with Kurt, very effective.  To the right is the navigation menu of the site, which seems to be fairly large, but it doesn't seem to bother the download time, however.  A little ways below the interviews image is the site's updates and news, as well as some other stuff.  The interface is very well put together, the compression of the page's interface is good.  

Suggestions:  Make the navigation map a little "crisper" and it'll look great.

[Impression: 28 out of 33]

---

Site Content

It is a theory that the less variety of content a site has, the more original it actually is.  Although that theory has not been proven yet, would this site help support that theory?

• Editorial - Something very rare on Nirvana sites nowadays.  So it's refreshing to see something original and something from a Nirvana fan.  There are a total of three editorials so far.  All of them are well written and to-the-point.
• Chat Room
• Webring - Into The Utero's own webring.
• Pictures - 18 pictures in all, with a special touch added to it.  However it is the slide show that is the highlight of the area, showing several pictures of Kurt and Frances.  
• 1967-1994 - Scanned version of the note and the text version of the note that was Kurt's last.
• Downloads - The basic stuff: a calculator, themes, and fonts.
• Links - Just a few bannered links, but it gives a link to it's webring.
• About - A little background information on the site, nothing on the author, but it would be nice to see something on the author.
• Miscellaneous - Again your "basic" stuff.  The tabs are available for download, the lyrics are for all of the released albums.  As for the sound files, there are 2 MP3 files and the rest are MIDI files.  The obituary is a little different than most, describing Kurt's life from a different perspective.

[Impression: 49 out of 56]

---

Conclusion

The site has a very strong foundation that it can build upon.  With the right material, content, and interface, it can grow into a very successful site.  It seems to be taking the route for editorials, and I think it should certainly take that route; but do not forget about the other things on your site as well.

[Accumulated Overall Impression: 86.5 out of 99]