Hello,

Any thoughts on www.utalbuilding.com

Client insists on simplicity and speed and I totally agree.

Doesn't resolve, or am I mistaken?

kazey,

I think it's the way Afam has it typed out above. The correct URL is http://www.utalbuilding.com/

I just tried it out and it's up and running.

I just wonder why the company's logo is at the extreme right hand side - which you have to scroll to the right b4 you see it - than at the left hand side which i believe almost all websites have their logos placed.

Sorry for the mistake in the address.

I was specifically asked to push the logo to the right.

About scrolling to the right I never build sites to carter for 800px by 600px monitors as they are fast becoming outdated.

Hi,

Still on www.utalbuilding.com I will be handing over the site to the owner to run by tomorrow.

Any thoughts/comments will be appreciated.

do people still design websites like this

timmy:

do people still design websites like this

Considering the fact that the only real website you have worked on is the 800 static website where every page is static simply because you don't know anything about programming I will take your usual baseless comment with a pinch of salt.

Are you still looking for web designers as it seems no body wants you to touch his/her website even with a long pole?

This is why people who do all their website designs on discussion forums fail until they look for other businesses to do.

Considering the fact that the only real website you have worked on is the 800 static website

Timmy, I guess the above will haunt you for the rest of your NL life, Double ouch!!

Mmm, mediocre at the very best. Could be better arranged somewhow, it looks scattered, text could be smaller, and less sparse. If there isnt much content there isnt a point in it being so wide. The flash header, um, the transitions are too blocky, not smooth. The background colour also has no bearing with the rest of the site. The search box, is huge. It's like a header on its own.And that logo, it'd be better if yo had a high-res version of it. The news bit, why is the space between the lines so uneven?

Also, why in heaven's name is the bottom line linking to your site so big? It's not too nice. It should be tiny. The first thing people want to see on a site is not who made it.

Why are you biting at Timmy, guy's just speaking his mind. You asked for the opinion right? And if you don't know, there'll be people out there, who, when they see the site, will think the same. Ur that same guy who was tooting his own horn about his programming skills as if it would make up for his lack of design sense for justnigeriaentertainment right? How's that coming along?

Thanks for the comments on the search box size, the link to my site and the line spacing. All have been corrected but for the flash on the home page.

1. When you say the content could be better arranged what exactly do you mean? The client specifically insisted on the design the way you see it based on another site he liked.

2. The comments on Timmy are in order, he only got responded to in kind and if you are objective enough you will know that I also stated my mind just as you felt he stated his.

3. My skill as a programmer is not the issue here and even if it is I have every right to feel good about it for the following reasons;

i. I can program anything both web and desktop applications using just PHP and MySQL
ii. As a developer I can replicate any website based on design simply by taking a good look at the website whereas the best web designer out there cannot replicate a website that involves programming if the person is not a programmer.

So, your comments on www.justnigeriaentertainment.com are well noted but should I feel bad for developing sites that are more of dynamic and interactive than design as in colors, graphics and backgrounds? Certainly NO.

Talk is cheap, why don't you walk the talk? If someone is not getting it right as in the www.justnigeriaentertainment.com website why don't you lead the way by developing a better entertainment website, after all I am sure you would have done so if you had the necessary skills to make it happen.

Thanks once again for your comments that had to do with the thread proper, I really do value honest criticisms.

I personally am not a fan of primary colors(talking about the blue). I think you should use your design software to mix your colors properly (it takes time and a good eye) and u can even copy the color codes if you want to use them as css or whatever.

Also the fonts are not nice. Some fonts are just not nice and you need to know what fonts look nice for a particlar font size.

Also the red bar, same primary color problem. not mixed with any tint of black white or other complementary colors.

Structure, organisation and symmetry is ok but can be better.

And a professional conclusion is that this creator of this site is probably more of a programmer than a designer, as a matter of fact I don't see any design here, all the visual elements are generated by html/css.

HONEST OPINION.

Not trying to knock you down. Building a website is one thing; Creativity gives you a cutting edge. Average at best imho!

Been away from Nairaland for quite a while. Just dropped by, quickly accessed the Webmaster area and found this thread.

Afam, I've known you from a while back. When Nairaland had just 20K members or something, if not less - I felt inclined to say something to you. Not a review of your work, but something about reviews on Nairaland.

I personally think invitations to site reviews generate quite a number of comments the poster finds disparaging, rather than a constructive analysis that would generally improve what he or she has done.

Afam, Nairaland is a great place. One of the best places to chill but seriously I think you should just stop asking people to review a work you just did. You could PM my2cents or any other person that provides useful reviews, rather than open up your just completed work to folks to assess. Moreover, I notice that people rarely carry out whatever changes others ask them to carry out. So? Isn't it rather pointless?

I have been designing sites, since I stopped being an active member of Nairaland but I do not come to anyone here for reviews.

Not that we don't have great guys here who would help, but most times, its just not worth the hassle of reading some rather hurtful comments about a site you just did.

Cheers, my man.

Hi Farriel,

Thanks for that.

I will certainly consider doing just that. I agree that call for website reviews often lead to invitations for personal attacks rather than the website in question.

I take criticisms well and I equally handle insults well. I practically effected all the changes pointed out by hanen while responding appropriately to his personal attacks.

What I have found out is this, only people that are not good in web development will resort to attacking someone about a project as no good web developer will spend time focusing on the person rather than the website.

Like I always tell people, TALK IS CHEAP, WHY DON'T YOU WALK THE TALK?

Thanks once again for the comments.

Hello Afam,
just abt 3 comments here:

I still feel that the logo can have a higher and better resolution that the present on; also I think that the flash banner could be less blocky and the space by its sides could have been more useful.
Lastly, you may want to make the red line accross the top a bit thinner,
Cheers,

Thanks. Will sort them out as soon as possible.

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First, learn how to change the title of the original website you tried to copy.

Marshall Michigan Web Design, Web Development Company and Web Hosting

Hey, whats this about? Am I missin somethin?

Marshall Michigan Web Design, Web Development Company and Web Hosting

digital,

Many atimes, it doesn't suffice to just look at someone's website and say, "wow! what a job". You have to read the tea leaves. The internet does allow for, as I read in some article some time ago, "benevolent plagiarism" but be smart about it.

Kenflipper in a bid to announce to the world that he is the latest developer in town has pasted this same thread in at least 30 places. He obviously copied from somewhere cos in his haste to launch his site, he forgot to take care of the contents of the title bar. Take a look at the site again, note what's on there then see what is on the title bar.

It takes a discerning eye to catch something like this and Afam definitely has a couple of those.

Still missing something? If so, let us know

my2cents,
are u sure he is not the Marshall Michigan guy? Coz I notice that the same thing appears underneath the yellow label on his site


what do u think?

It's possible, in which case I say the company name and "Marshall, etc" don't match or at least look familiar.

I guess my point is, how can the site say, "kennwebdesigner" yet the title says "Marshall Michigan"? Both should read the same thing, regardless of which is to be used.

For example, my company name is "Ace Web Solutions". That URL was taken so I went with acewebdevelopment.net. Not the same, but at least "Ace" and "Web" are part of the company name and URL.

I hope I am making sense.

afam abeg remove that flash now now.
it is better if you did not put any
it is too poor

jitguide:

afam abeg remove that flash now now.
it is better if you did not put any
it is too poor

Unfortunately, the client is ok with it so it stays. You know the client decides on what stays or what goes because he is the one paying.

Thanks for the comment though.

(My2cent or My2kobo & Afam)

You guys are simply ignorant!
Where did you learn your webdesigning from?, who said the name of the website has to be same with the company title if so where is ur creativity. If you can't do it, that doesnt mean the world will be still! waiting for you. I m sure if u took your time to hit the contact page you would have known that the website is base in marshall michgan USA. 136 circle drive is my personal address!!!, so no fear !! its only an affirmation that what you thought you knew about webdesign isnt after all.
and incase u didnt know Marshall is a city, Michigan a state!

Men afam, I think I must conclude that you are a bit too tilted to the attacking side, abeg cool down. I think this guy was just playing around with some SEO. At least give him benefit of the doubt before you start attacking him or ask. And also the comment I made about your site, it was a honest constructive opinion, you took it as an attack. Please take it easy.

Afam:


What I have found out is this, only people that are not good in web development will resort to attacking someone about a project as no good web developer will spend time focusing on the person rather than the website.

Well @ Afam, It seems you have been caught in your own web! People like you never learn because they believe they know too much, whereas they are complete empty barrels. Have you ever heard of the terms 'seo and keyword research'. Well let me do you a favour. Type that into google and I guess that should keep you occupied constructively for the next 1 year!

@kenflipper, just wait till the next google pagerank update and your website would be soaring. I bet you've done some proper link building.
@mr cents, don't allow yourself to be fooled.

now regarding utalbuilding, I think you shouldn't base your judgements on 'the client is happy with it . . ' Most of these people we call clients have no idea what good design should be. Moreover, since they don't have anything else to directly compare a completed job with, they have no choice but to tell you 'they are ok with it'.
Similarly, such bases destroys your portfolio. Don't hide behind the fact that you program(I assume). Go out there and get resources on how to create beautiful websites. Its the beauty everyone sees and not the code behind it (I learnt that the hard way). Also regarding the simplistic thing you were going on about, simple doesn't mean bad. Check out this extreemely simple but classy site I stumbled upon sometime ago

http://www.alakija.com

Well, a word is enough for the wise. You can either choose to continue attacking people on nairaland or go onto google and learn how to be an excellent, all round web developer. Good luck my brother.

kenflipper (I could do as you did and say, "or kenslippers" but I won't sink that low),

There is no need for ad hominem attacks. Stick to the issue. I could go personal but I will hold my fingers just this once.
Besides, personally, considering the amount of blasting you have done with respect to announcing your company site, I think you should be banned permanently - 1 simple post could have done that effectively. But I digress.

If you take a look at say, 100 websites, I bet 99% of them will have a name that is reflected in their URL. It is a fact that it helps with you page ranking. Besides, and I am speaking personally, if I go to a site and the title bar is very much different from the URL, I will smell a rat. I probably would stick that in the meta tags or in your content somewhere but not the title bar. What you have done it tantamount to trickery, like it or not. When I saw the name difference, I did a google for "marshall michigan" and saw it is a city in michigan, so spare me the geography lesson.

Though I stand corrected, I still insist that you should make your title bar reflect the actual URL, no matter which you choose to use. Think about it. If you had me and Afam fooled (danteweb, like you, I am human and from time to time, despite my best efforts/Naija genes, will fall for 419 every now and then), how many other people out there have you fooled as well?

Whether you choose to admit it, there is a disconnect and a sense of suspicion when one sees "kennweb" at the top of the page but then scrolls down to see "marshall web design" further down. When I saw that, the first thing that came to my mind was, "hmmmm".

2 Lessons here:
1) Always stick to the point of a post.
2) Don't mass-broadcast on a 1000 posts. You are lucky Seun hasn't banned you already. He has done it before.

As always, my2cents (in case you are wondering, the name implies what I say here is my own opinion and shouldn't be believed unless one has independently verified the information to be true for themselves, so get the name right, or else)

went straight for d gallery and noticed u hadn't implemented wot had been recommended in ur earlier sites

CREATE A SLIDE SHOW!!!