Keep it up guys.

^^^nay, you are not missing everything. Tis the site we are presenting, not the url. Thanks.

http://www.lipsum.com/ - read the "why do we use it?" portion. . .

Hint: It is standard practice on prototypes.

Phate07:

^^Okay, accepted.
But why did you guys not bother to even edit the template you used? The site still bears  'Lorem Ipsum' standard text.

See screenshots beloww

If the 'Lorem Ipsum' is the reason you are saying its a 'template', then think again. Lorem Ipsum is dummy text you use to represent normal text when you are doing a sample, demo or mockup for your clients. 'Lorem Ipsum' is even a module/addon in some browsers now for developers to use. I am not standing brief for this design but dont go around stating confidently that any site mock up/sample you see with 'Lorem Ipsum', is a template site.

Ok, it seems Yawatide was posting the reply while I was typing mine. That link should explain it more @Phate07

Meanwhile, you can check that stuff again. The linking to .net has been cancelled a bit.

And for those that get a blank on mobile phone, that issue has been resolved.  If you view it on my blackberry (like me) it shows properly.
A mobile theme will be adapted later.

So funny how this thread is suddenly becoming quiet since Yawatide asked for who will come up with a better design.

For sure i know that both non website developers and website developers have reviewed this project, judging from what i have read
from the beginning of this thread.

Some made good points that the 40 team members should really take into consideration, while some fo olish ly criticized the project.

Now and at least from what i'm seeing on this thread, no one is yet to volunteer to come up with a better design.

I know that the non website developers can only say what and what the website should look like, but what about the so called
website developers who criticized this project or perhaps those who were wise and knowledgeable enough to review it rather than
criticize it, who is now volunteering?

^^^Aint that typical Nigerians eh? Meanwhile, the 40 people that was said volunteered freely o, no one paid them, and some chose not to do anything eventually. So the right thing to say is 40 free volunteers. . .now we need volunteers for a better design, and now. . . . .

As I have been saying on here every now and then, at the very least I am happy that this project has unleashed the passion that I thought never existed, among us Nigerians, with respect to wanting something better in life, in this case a better-looking website. I hope that this project encourage others to look inwards and figure out how to make things better in other spheres of Nigerian life (electricity, etc) without waiting for the government to do it or someone else to do it, with them sitting on the sidelines waiting to see if it will succeed before they themselves jump in. If this project has failed in other areas, it hasn't failed in "unleashing the passion", that's for sure.

Back to this project. Now it is time to convert that passion into action.

I am still waiting for volunteer designers.

^^^Ya mean volunteer professional designers to impress us greatly.
- Hasta la vista, see ya in da classrooms - www.classrooms..net

Yawa, has the "cabinet" been formed? Nevosys' design is okay and I think things have to be done one by one. First start from planning to execution. If however all that is not taken into consideration and all thats needed now is volunteers. . . I am ready to convert Nevosys' or any other person's design into standard xHtml 1.0 (Transitional) and CSS (Level 3). I will need the single design in a PSD and all non-standard fonts used (these fonts should have the right licenses), all the images used. . . we must have proper permissions to use.

P.S: this may take me 2-3 nights cuz of my time.

But Nevosys says he is already pitching that same design to the authorities hoping to get the job.

Dude needs to profit from his handwork if he has gone far ahead with it. I have not seen him say he wants to donate that same design so this might be putting him under unwanted pressure.

I think you guys should come up with a new design. Maybe having nevosys' idea and structure at the back of your minds.

Ok then, some graphics pro should come up with a design.

soloqy:

But Nevosys says he is already pitching that same design to the authorities hoping to get the job.

Dude needs to profit from his handwork if he has gone far ahead with it. I have not seen him say he wants to donate that same design so this might be putting him under unwanted pressure.

I think you guys should come up with a new design. Maybe having nevosys' idea and structure at the back of your minds.

who are the youguys? come up with something and be acknowleges or exit();

*dhtml:

who are the youguys? come up with something and be acknowleges or exit();

Even if I dont come up, it doesnt mean I cant appreciate good designs and make contributions as to directions it should take, abi?

Yawa, has the "cabinet" been formed?

Ok then, some graphics pro should come up with a design

You might want to pull up a chair, sit down and hold your breath. I have been doing so for 3 or 4 posts now and am almost getting blue in the face (can this happen to a black person? )

^^^^^
Maybe someone is already brewing something and wont say it till its done.

Not bad at all,

I think as a suggestion Nigeria's official site should be highly efficient and work well on Mobile devices, as the number of people of mobile devices is alarming.

So scaling for Iproducts, Mobiles Phones and co won't be bad in the end.

I personally have not been on PC in a long while. My Ipad seems to be my new baby!

^^^
That's a good suggestion!

Update:

Someone with guts (hint: not from anyone who has suggested a new design on this thread) volunteered with a new design. It is in the process of being presented to the group, after which it will be sliced, diced and uploaded to the test server.

Nicer than nigeria.gov.ng. Well done.

UPDATE:
Those who made suggestions but could not come up with a design, count yourselves among the GUT-less.

That's according to the UPDATE before my UPDATE.
Okay-o

Someone with guts (hint: not from anyone who has suggested a new design on this thread) volunteered with a new design. It is in the process of being presented to the group, after which it will be sliced, diced and uploaded to the test server.

That is true but you forget (or seem to) that some have said that they are designers, some of them I know are designers, and some of them actually volunteered to help out but didn't (for reasons best known to them). These are the people I am referring to.

Hello Fellas, this site i must confess is too too crappy to represent a federal state like Nigeria. I am really, really disappointed after all the long waiting.

I am really, really disappointed after all the long waiting.

(1) The site banner is poorly designed; it should have included pics of three people or more in native atire representing the three main languages in Nigeria.

(2) It is not brower friendly

(3) It has poor content layout

Please, you guys should go back to the drawing board or better still start it all over again. Web page design is all about TESTING! TESTING!! TESTING!!!

Are you in any of these fields: photography, theatre, music, visual arts, illustration, graphic design, film making, architecture, acting, web design, publishing, poetry, makeup art, carpentry . . .

Join http://www.creativxchange.net, Nigeria's first online platform for showcasing and discovering creative work!

Typical of Nigerians(apologies to the very, very, very few), bitching about everything. Kudos to all those who participated(actively).

My broda yawa-ti-de, i must commend you and the 39 others for such a patriotic spirit. I find it very inspiring that you guys actually made out time out of your busy schedule to do this. But what i suspect is that perhaps the graphics designers and the site layout guys that actually got their hands dirty on this project were not very experience in this regard @ the time of site construction, hence the outcome of the site. So i would advice that you guys try another shot at it in this regard. Remember working on this project was an experience for them, so given another opportunity, the will perform better. Thanks you for leading the way.

Well done - at least someone is trying to do something.

We did this back in 2004 http://www.nigeriancomputersociety.com/gov/ as a demo on our own bespoke CMS - you can use some of the content if you want.

If you planning on doing something for the government - I suggest you build a CMS from ground up - easy to do - that meets their needs. Most people would say why build a CMS? why not use something like wordpress, drupa, joomla, umbraco, etc. I have my reasons - least of all security. I am a great believer in using home-grown talents for this type of projects - I am sure we have good developers in Nigeria.

Another template we create recently to showcase a typical state level website can be found here http://projects.creotec.com/dev/oyostatec - copy ans use if you wish.

I am happy to support you guys. It's very encouraging to see at last Nigerians embracing the collaboration spirit for the good of the country.

Remember though - the easiest thing is to design the website and develop the CMS - what will make the website useful is content. This I am afraid can only be done if and when you have the right local team in place (in Nigeria) to find, aggregate and maintain the website.

Lastly - don't be too eager to add all those so called social media stuff - focus first on content for these groups - citizens, businesses, visitors and government. Tailor your website to the needs of potential website visitors.

Enough said. Visit direct.gov.uk, etc has others have suggested.

PS: We created the first ever mobile direct.gov.uk at http://ukgov.mobi/ (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directgov) using UK government's syndication API back in 2010 and we have also started playing with creating a single search gateway to all UK government website - see prototype at http://projects.creotec.com/dev/gov-it/ - doing this was easy because we did not have to think too much about the content - just technology

Michael G
@CREOTEC ^tm

Our new plaything: Get your personal contact page at http://socially.at

e.dide and michaelg,

Happy new year and thanks for the compliments. As I told everyone at the beginning, it wasn't about skill sets per se. I was just happy that people were willing to give their time, as you 2 have alluded to. There were only 4 designers and we all voted on what was the best, based on 4 designs. Yep, we rolled with what we had out our disposal, with the total understanding that it could be better. One thing many of the critics don't understand is that it isn't easy for people to give of their time to do something for free. Yes, when something should be done, it needs to be done well. That notwithstanding, as they say, "use what you've got to get what you need." What I learned from this project is more than the designs. Most importantly, I learned that there are dedicated individuals in Nigeria who not only see what is wrong with the system but are willing to fix it, even at the expense of their time and money.

Since launch, another has submitted another design and based on feedback, we are taking our time to vet it. A website is an ongoing thing so we expect to make things better over time. Thanks for the 2 urls shared, granted the oyo state one isn't opening, at least on my end.

We would be honored to have the both of you as a part of our closed facebook group. I will forward your posts to the board for discussion.

Thanks once again, and happy new year, to you and yours!