buen buen trabajo, good good job

i will not say what everybody is saying.
I will say that you have done a very bad job, if this is all you (40 web designers!) can come up with after 3 months.

Remember you started by critisizing the already existing FG website.
(as if you can design heaven and earth).
Well here it is www.newnigeria.org.ng
a complete blank page as at the time am typing this.
People who could see it think the navigation had errors and the banner was wrongly fitted.
This shows the site was not tested.
I wonder who the project manager was.
40 web designers no graphic designer, sounds funny.
No testing team.
No documentation team.
40 member critic team.
Next time dont start out by criticising something you cant do much better than.

*dhtml:

Did anyone tell you this project was developed using drupal? or an existing cms? It is a cms alright, but i doubt you know the name.

if you its a cms you used, then go and sit down, you didnt do anything.
You are not a web designer, you are a cms installer, all of you.
And now i have more respect for any bager who did the present ugly fed govt site you criticised.

^^^If you can identify the cms used, i will actually shake you from here

*dhtml:

^^^If you can identify the cms used, i will actually shake you from here

identify the cms used on a blank page?

as long as its php i'll fishout any tools you used in minutes.
But this time its a blank page.

There are tools you have never seen. Not everyone downloads commercial code for every work na.

Good Job guys.

I commend your efforts because you have not only complained about the virus ridden dump-site the country has presently but have proffered a solution.

Kudos to you.

I honestly don't want to assume that you guys made me read over 20 lines of text over some lame website. I would do better with just front page extension 10yrs ago. Abeg make we rest jor. The website is purely a piece of junk. However you modify a template, it can never pass for a hand coded work.

Delete this nonsense post abeg.

Applying recommendations, please wait. . . .

1stCitizen:

Good Job guys.

I commend your efforts because you have not only complained about the virus ridden dump-site the country has presently but have proffered a solution.

Kudos to you.

BlakkBoi:

I honestly don't want to assume that you guys made me read over 20 lines of text over some lame website. I would do better with just front page extension 10yrs ago. Abeg make we rest jor. The website is purely a piece of junk. However you modify a template, it can never pass for a hand coded work.

Delete this nonsense post abeg.

When you people talk like that, that is Nigerian being Nigerians. But talk well, tell us your recommendations and what modifications to make to improve it.

I will also like to correct 2 things - 1) This site is custom coding, it is not a cms. 2) smashingmagazine.com is wordpress - and it is one of the most visited sites in the world.

Isn't this page compatible with mobile phones? Cos it only loads a blank page on mine!

Sorry to say this but I am not impressed!

Not a bit!

Once again, sorry

yawa-ti-de:

@chalarea

1) This isn't a template in the sense that we got some code from somewhere and plugged our content.  It is a template (just like google.com is a template) in the sense that one page drives the design for all other pages (in the same way that you are a template of other human beings).

2) As stated earlier.  Though we chose to go after the nigeria.gov.ng site, we were actually showing that what we are doing could work for the individual, an NGO, the government or a corporation.  We only chose to go after what is public property, with maximum exposure.  We could have chosen another site.

3) Since this is a volunteer project, we chose to reuse as much content as possible from the existing site, plus a few "lorem ipsicums".  On an actual project, where we would be paying someone, we would have an actual content developer who would interact with the client to determine what they want on their site and how they want it implemented.

4) Reference a prior post regarding photos

5) If you read the scope document I posted on the parent thread (reference post #1 of this thread for that url), you will see that I went to at least 5 different country websites, combining the good, bad and ugly from all of them.

@nakedall
Agreed.  We could smack on a design that even the UN votes to be #1 but if the citizenry see no use for the site, it becomes useless.  Again, this is where an information architect would come in handy.  If you look at the section before the green footer, you will notice that the middle column and the right column have items which we thought would immediately be of service to a website visitor and/or Nigerian citizen: online services and quick links.  The intention is to make that a global feature on the site.

Also, to the person who mentioned the white person in the video, I agree.  The video, if you click, has to do with Nigeria.  The screenshot however doesn't infer that.  It would definitely be corrected on a live version of the site.

@CashWithPc
Other than organic advertising/marketing (blogs, fora, etc), we have nowhere else to go.  We are hoping that through these media, the necessary pplz attention will be raised.  Having said that, if you or anyone has any contacts at any government level, do pass this along to them.  We would surely appreciate it

Thanks

You are trying to defend what you have done! You shouldn't have made it open for people to review. The truth  is you can't grow like that. What you have done is not good enough. It is not a professional design, it is as simple as that. You requested for feedbacks, you should be able to look into the feedbacks and improve. If you are saying 40 of you guys did the design, well it means that there is a serious problem.

What you have done is in the same class of the old one you are trying to re-design. I will advice you start with a real brief not based on the ugly old website but fresh understanding. You may look for a professional graphics designer to help you with the template graphics and general presentation of content with other factors in mind.

Logging in

What are most of you saying sef

The new website is to show that the current website can be better, do you want to now compare this with the current site ehn?

Those of you blah blah about it been template, cms, no documentation, blah blah
Ask questions before posting

My father would say "who asks question no de miss road"

Dont Assume, Ask (NEW NIGERIA)

peddylinko:

Logging in

What are most of you saying sef

The new website is to show that the current website can be better, do you want to now compare this with the current site ehn?

Those of you blah blah about it been template, cms, no documentation, blah blah
Ask questions before posting

My father would say "who asks question no de miss road"

Dont Assume, Ask (NEW NIGERIA)

new nigeria ke?
When you installed a cms?
Even after criticising the current site, then gave yourselves 3 months , and produced rubbish.
New nigeria ke?
Hand coding the site would have proven the nigerian pottential.
New nigeria ke, if the site goes live , prepare for a law suit from the cms creators for not including their links. Lol.
You guys should just start affresh.
Report card not marked.
Lol.

How I wish many understood what PROTOTYPE MEANT  

WHERE ARE YOU PHONES ALL YE OGBONGE PHONE USERS? WHY NOT TRY USE YOUR DICTIONARIES FIRST BEFORE YOU START SHOOTING?

Let's pipe low on showing off our ignorance. The website is a prototype and not an actual project. All there is in a bid to show you that something better can be done.

Pointers: IF YOU TALK AND TALK AND TALK AND ALL THESE CORRECTION GET IMPLEMENTED, ONE QUESTION: WILL YOU ALL AGREE AND ASK THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO ORDER WHOEVER IS IN CHARGE TO GET OFF WHAT HAS BEEN AND HOST THE NEW NIGERIA PROJECT

ENJOY!

The link doesnt open on opera mini pls

^^Very true, it is a prototype and is not mobile compatible yet.

@all, for the sake of some people here, a prototype according to wikipedia is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype

So having said that, moderrator. . .

And sorry to bore you,

pro·to·type (prt-tp)
n.
1. An original type, form, or instance serving as a basis or standard for later stages.
2. An original, full-scale, and usually working model of a new product or new version of an existing product.
3. An early, typical example.
4. Biology A form or species that serves as an original type or example.

Source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/prototype

So lets keep that in mind while we are talking. . .i refuse to take offense though. Thanks for the review everyone.

moderatorr:

new nigeria ke?
When you installed a cms?
Even after criticising the current site, then gave yourselves 3 months , and produced rubbish.
New nigeria ke?
Hand coding the site would have proven the nigerian pottential.
New nigeria ke, if the site goes live , prepare for a law suit from the cms creators for not including their links. Lol.
You guys should just start affresh.
Report card not marked.
Lol.

Please what CMS was installed? Just tell EVERYONE.
AND WHO SAID THE WEBSITE WAS AUTO INSTALL OR YOU THINK FANTASTICO OR WHATEVER BROUGHT IT TO LIMELIGHT?
HOW I WISH YOU WILL BE THERE AT THE LAW COURT DURING THE JURISDICTION BECAUSE YOU ARE SO BOLD TALKING ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW. WHY SHOW MUCH IGNORANCE? WHY NOT PRIDE THE PRODUCT OF MEN LIKE YOU THEN CONSTRUCTIVELY SAY WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO SAY?
THANKS FOR NOT SATISFYING THE WORK. IT WAS NICE YOU PUT IN YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS.

I GUESS YOU SHOULD LOOK WELL AT THAT WEBSITE AGAIN THEN START ALL OVER TO COMMENT.

A very good an noble idea. The result however came in way short of expectations. Some what depressingly bland and empty.
The question is what should be the content of a national website.

http://www.newzealand.com/
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm
A good place to start is to look at what other nations are doing in terms of concept and execution on their official site.

@nevosys,  great effort.
Nigerians must learn to go light on this green color hangup. Green is hardly an exciting color.
I was hoping this generation would depart from the heavy personalty laden culture that permeats our psyche to disastrous consequences.
For a start remove the link to the office of the first lady. There is no such office in the constitution.

I know you guys can do better.

@moderatorr , You are brutal. But you are RIGHT. .

jerseyboy:

@moderatorr , You are brutal. But you are RIGHT. .

He is right to a little extent, but unprofessional and wrong in another sense.

@moderatorr, you may be right in some sense, but you are also a goat in another sense,
because i coded the backend, and you unprofessionally called it a cms or whatever - it is very easy to tell what cms was used for something - you said if it is PHP, you can tell what tools i used - now go ahead and say it.
This is a public place full of professionals (and also amateurs), so if i used a cms, someone should have seen what cms i used by now. If you check my site -
home page - www..net - you will see no cms was used there,
yet if you check a place like www.classrooms..net - same site, same login, but that area is drupal - you can tell in many ways.

My point, the look and feel of a site does not depend on whether it is a cms or not. I agree to the fact that the template can and should be improved. But raving about cms or not is not your place - you are just not qualified to talk about what you dont know about.

@moderatorr, sorry for trying to take your head off. But i put it to you that www.smashingmagazine.com - a world popular site is a blog that is made in wordpress.
Now, do you have any work you have done with any tool that beats that common wordpress blog (i doubt it)? Yet in Nigeria, you people use wordpress to do nonsense and give wordpress a bad name in Nigeria.

I am not trying to defend our work here, i am just trying to state some facts, i dont eat crap @moderatorr.

jerseyboy:

A very good an noble idea. The result however came in way short of expectations. Some what depressingly bland and empty.
The question is what should be the content of a national website.

http://www.newzealand.com/
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm
A good place to start is to look at what other nations are doing in terms of concept and execution on their official site.

@nevosys,  great effort.
Nigerians must learn to go light on this green color hangup. Green is hardly an exciting color.
I was hoping this generation would depart from the heavy personalty laden culture that permeats our psyche to disastrous consequences.
For a start remove the link to the office of the first lady. There is no such office in the constitution.

I know you guys can do better.

+10, that is well said actually and i personally buy that.

Great Job

I know some ppl may be wondering. 40 People for prototype? haba!. Lol. Its not as it sounds. We grouped ourselves into teams in different aspects and we picked the best entries.

I appreciate those that stated that they dont like certain features about this and that - that is possible criticism.

But those that just condemn without any recommendations are not helpful. I can ignore them. But people saying rubbish about things they dont know about - like moderrator are a different story (we will slug it out - nairaland style - and shake hands later).
I mean how can you just open your mouth to just make a statement without any evidence? Haba!

remoranger:

I know some ppl may be wondering. 40 People for prototype? haba!. Lol. Its not as it sounds. We grouped ourselves into teams in different aspects and we picked the best entries.

And that is exactly how it is. And we made it free so that people can opt it and out. And i should mention that some people opted in only to vanish after (typical naija style).

not bad, let the top menu items that have a drop down get a 3-D effect to it. if i remember in joomla itz called the suckerfish technique, plus the drop downs can't be held down to select the items in it. Nyc job people,

^^Great review mr virus!

its good for a prototype, like you said

All around, thanks for the feedback.  To answer all issued raised since I last logged on, in one:

1) I was the project manager for the project

2) Of the 40 ppl involved, there were 4 designers

3) This is a prototype, aimed at improving upon the current site (which I am made to understand may be down at the moment).  The goal was among others, to increase the white space (the current site is way compact in this area)

4) I won't go into the issue of templates as this has been discussed already but will say that a "home grown" cms was used. . .not in the sense moderator is claiming. . .Not that there is anything wrong with that.

5) You all have to realize that this was a volunteer effort.  That means there was no money paid to anyone.  Though I am personally proud of the outcome, it could have been better if money were involved.  Why? Some people are just naturally wired to make money their motivation.  I can't help that.

6) Chalarea, what you call defending, I call justification: If there are aspects you don't understand, I have to clarify.  It doesn't mean I am trying to put lip stick on a pig and not call it a pig.

7) A fact in life is that you can't satisfy everyone.  Even if picasso did the redesign himself, I bet you there will still be haters.  By haters I mean criticizing not necessarily because they want to contribute but because they never see anything positive in anything in life.  Again, I can't help such ppl here.

8 ) At the very least, I am happy that what we've done has sparked this much interest.  It shows that there is a passion for better things in Nigeria.  It may not be the best solution but it is a bold solution, nonetheless.  Would I do it again, given the opportunity? You bet! For Pete's sake though, let us not be like what Femi Kuti sang about years ago, "so so talk, and no action".

Good or bad, like it or hate it, we are the trailblazers. Now you need to get in where you fit in

CROSS-BROWSER compactibility is ONE of the major targets of a good webdeveloper, if there are bugs in the big/desktop browsers then what abt the mobile devices?  AND for you to call yourself a web dev, and you can't code with YOUR HANd . . Mehn you never start. . Remember say na hand people take write some of dose Tools wey u dey use. AND PLEASE ALL JS CODERS WHAT WILL THESE 2 codes RETURN ?
//here it goes
   var foo = {     bar: function() { return this.baz; },     baz: 1   };   (function(){     return typeof arguments/[0/]();   })(foo.bar);
//And

var a;
if (!("a" in window)) {     
a = 1 ; } alert(a);