@therages:
Please, let's stay on point. Can you delete your post, or modify if with a url to another thread, like maybe in the webmaster or programmer section?

owk @ yawa-ti-de

Brace yourselves 40 wise men!

haba!
I can't believe remoranger, dhtml, yawatide and our other great brains are behind this, this, this,,
well let me just say 40 people & 30 days for this "prototype" is overkill.

This can be achieved in one hour with wordpress! I mean it in every sense.

The idea is noble, the concepts is good, but the product? the delivery??
Ouch! Double ouch!!

Even I who considers myself not in your league could do better!

I even took a look at your template on http://linkoprojects.com/template/nigeria/

What's to code in the backend if the site has no backend functionality (strike that comment, I know better).

But most frustrating, annoying, perplexing and downright bamboozling is why on earth the drop menu should disappear as I mouse over them 99% of the time in google chrome & firefox!

Also please let the nav text change to green on mouse over rather than red.

I prefer nevosys idea and concept though it could do with a little tinkering, but all round better than the "prototype". I think he should be given the job.

If you need to add some features, plz add a dynamic map of the 36 states +1 of naija.

Most importantly, don't rationalize or explain your shortcomings, gaffes, mistakes etc when you are bashed, simply saying "thank you' will even make people offer better suggestions.

Remember you may not be the 40 wisest but I sincerely commend your voluntary spirit. An engineer once lost his job to a mechanic simply because, the engineer was looking at the complexity of the problem while the mechanic was looking at the simplicity of the same problem.

Overall a nice try. put more effort. Score 40%, position in class 2nd after Nevosys.

We will look into the apps. And please don't come and start proving you sabi write jscript here - we asked for review - not to post any nonsense code.
Sorry if I offend you. The crowsbrowser issues shall be taken into consideration. Thanks for mentioning it. The bug is from the jquery lightbox plugin used. And what is that about coding with hand and crossbrowser issues?
The latest version of jquery has issues with the latest version of IE - just stating a fact.

When you people review, don't come and start trying to show off on I know how to code - otherwise I might start asking you difficult questions that might embarrass you.

Ok guys lets not throw away most of these comments as detraction. Personally, when I saw the prototype it fell below my expectation. I am sorry I never took any active part in this project. . . the life of  a freelancer is crazy. First, judging from the fact that my name is on the credit list it means its not all 40 or so pipz that worked on this either fully or partly. I think most people didn't back up their interests with participation and action (like me).

I know this is a prototype but again a prototype should look like the real thing. We can't provide a Sedan as a prototype for an SUV.

I am a bit confused now. I thought the original plan was to (voluntarily) build a fully functional site that can replace the present site and then we present it to whoever for endorsement. Its now looking like the project changed concept. The concept I am seeing now is we voluntarily build a prototype in a bid to get a paid contract to build the real site.

Please lets be clear, what is the concept of this project. I want to know cuz they are two very different things.

A meeting should be called by those making decisions on this project to address the current state of the project.

First of all i want to thank the 40 webdesigners who invested their time and effort into identifying and responding to the problem of our country's image to the outside world. I'm sure it wasn't an easy task but at least results were achieved.

Now that's out of the way, i can get on with critiquing.
How did you not manage to squeeze in a REAL graphic designer into this project? As in, really!?
I'll give you points for site organization and content, but visually, it's appalling. No visible design style, nothing memorable. It doesn't fully represent the very essence of the Nigeria & it's culture and there is no experience value to it. It doesn't look well thought out. In fact, chances are, you'd lose more first users on the first page.

What i think?
[list]
[li]Get a professional UI designer. Infact get 2 UI designers and a UX designer/consultant.  It shud help put the site in proper perspective.
[/li]
[li]Secondly, create a relateable experience. Something to ease the user into the site. Treat the user like the first timer he is.
[/li]
[/list]

[size=15pt]This is not Jonathan-Sambo's site! Why shud that be the first thing i see?
[/size]

I do hope you and your team take most of the constructive critique posted here and goodluck pitching this to the FGN.

Cheers

So, now that the majority are of the opinion that the design could be better, here comes the real questions:

1) Where were you when we were sourcing for graphics designers? Remember, the thread asking for volunteers was also on the home page. Many commended the effort but only 4 actually signed up. Again, I am happy that at least this is spurring conversation.

2) Again, now that most agree that the design could be better, who is willing to step up to the plate and come up with a better design, and who is willing to take the new, "better" design and slice/convert it into html?

3) Not all prototypes are meant to be fully functional. If it is, then you might as well sign off and say the job is done.

I await responses from people for 1 and 2 above. . .

^^^All of you great developers talking, please answer the above questions along with your review.

*dhtml:

^^^All of you great developers talking, please answer the above questions along with your review.

you and 39 others designed otutu kpataki commot after 3 months and you are calling it PROTOTYPE.
going by your definition the original fed govt website is also a PROTOTYPE(otutu kpataki).

moderatorr:

you and 39 others designed otutu kpataki commot after 3 months and you are calling it PROTOTYPE.
going by your definition the original fed govt website is also a PROTOTYPE(otutu kpataki).

I think you made your point in your earlier posts. Try to be part of the solution.

yawa-ti-de:

So, now that the majority are of the opinion that the design could be better, here comes the real questions:

1) Where were you when we were sourcing for graphics designers?  Remember, the thread asking for volunteers was also on the home page.  Many commended the effort but only 4 actually signed up.  Again, I am happy that at least this is spurring conversation.

2) Again, now that most agree that the design could be better, who is willing to step up to the plate and come up with a better design, and who is willing to take the new, "better" design and slice/convert it into html?

3) Not all prototypes are meant to be fully functional.  If it is, then you might as well sign off and say the job is done.

I await responses from people for 1 and 2 above. . .

Yawa, slow down. Lets not rush into slapping patches on the cracks. Its best to go back to the foundation. Let's be clear on how decisions are made regarding the project. We may have to head back to the first thread and do some re-modelling.

But please I need a clarification on what the concept of this project is. . . concerns I raised in my post before this.

@Yawa-ti-de and @dhtml.

plz the answer to that is simple.
Team up with nevosys. His UI is far far better. All you need to do is increase the whitespace as u suggested and pump up the functionality.

I could actually take up your challenge, but am swamped with work I can't finish till end of January 2012.

I wish you guys the best and plz note that we do this bcoz we feel we should give the best we have to our country.
I applaud you guys.

Whether or not you guys get this one, I still doff my red cap to you!!

@ DualCore, I concur!, I concur!!, I concur !!!
@ moderatorr, Omo easy! The message is received. You will force Yawa into apoplexy

gbconcepts:

@Yawa-ti-de and @dhtml.

plz the answer to that is simple.
Team up with nevosys. His UI is far far better. All you need to do is increase the whitespace as u suggested and pump up the functionality.

I could actually take up your challenge, but am swamped with work I can't finish till end of January 2012.

I wish you guys the best and plz note that we do this bcoz we feel we should give the best we have to our country.
I applaud you guys.

Whether or not you guys get this one, I still doff my red cap to you!!

Just like you too have work to do, so do I and almost if not everybody that contributed to this outcome. The stuff was open for all you experts to contribute, so it is not anybody's fault if you failed to contribute to the development with your very great ideas.

just ate two ice cold apples now, so am bera tempered.
Ok.
My point is this is a federal government website you are attacking.
In obasanjo's regime, you could be arrested or exiled, ask eedris abdulkareem.
If anything were to save you it would be that the one you did was undeniably perfect/better.
Now with that in mind. Go back and redesign.
Do the design first, then the coding.
Remember these words while in the design.
Simple. Elegant . Robust and powerful.
I mean a simple white and blue like facebook would have been better than a longsized banner image.
Checkout the US website.
After the design you can then go into the coding.
I am attacking you because you first attacked the original one then came out with something impefect.

so babes are now called cold apples. im getting old.

i suggest we go back to page one on the other thread.

Dual:
I am not calling for band aid approach but totally starting from scratch

Gbcocepts:
no apoplexy here. You can't aprtner with someone who may not have the time. He is on this thread. If he reads it and is interested, he will contact. Better yet, he would have done so a while back

Moderator et al:
again, everyone is saying design should change. Agreed. Question: are you and/or others willing to volunteer your time? Don't ignore these questions please. Until someone steps up, the calls are a mute point

and 40 people are not needed. so how do we move forward?
Yawa. as the project manage i suggest you choose your small cabinet of about 3 members and you. this cabinet goes back to the drawing, makes all the major decisions while the development team of about 6 people approve the decisions taken by the cabinet.

nice

dnative:
All reqs were met, hence the deployment. I only raise the issue of a new design in response to the responses. I can be very flexible, when I need to be. Again, this is a volunteer project and its fluid. We are not under any deadlines per se so again, I am willing to go back and start anew, if only to give those who have chimed in here an opportunity to help improve it.

dual:
If there is to be a new "cabinet", then I would rather it come from this very board. I think it is only fair. Again, I await the volunteers.

I wish i could volunteer but i can't becos of, well, work (the usual excuse) and I'm not that much of a patriot *dodges pure water and laffing*
#okChill

We are looking for Professional Web Designers that can volunteer to help improve the website theme. Special provision would be given to those who have been loudest in offering constructive and helpful criticisms

http://www./172013582877604/ click to volunteer

Just logged in.

I saw the "good things" moderatorr talked about but you are going too far,  Read Carefully

Question: Is this a CMS
ANSWER: Yes.

The next question that should come to your mind before criticizing is "Is this CMS Open Source?". Do i need to say anything futher to you,
Seriously what is wrong with using open source scripts maybe you want to take a look at antigravity,

[pseudocode]

STRING PROJECT = 'carry out your analysis';
BOOL IS_CMS_OPENSOURCE = (PROJECT === 'joomla' OR PROJECT === 'wordpress' OR PROJECT === 'drupal' OR PROJECT === 'modx' , etc);

IF(IS_CMS_OPENSOURCE):
RETURN CRITICIZE;
ELSE:
RETURN NULL;
ENDIF;


On the design issue, "no comment"

--------------------------------------------
Kind Regards
Morrison Laju
http://xmlprov.com

The "Contact Us" Nav Link still jumps to the next line as illustrated by a contributor on the 1st page of this thread. Look into it. Using firefox 5.0, Win 7, 1366*768 screen resolution.

@nevosys i feel your job, well done

webdev no easy o. More grease 2 Your elbows. Sory if my prev post got u vexed. Buh even 1 person can do better.

Morrelinko:

Just logged in.

I saw the "good things" moderatorr talked about but you are going too far,  Read Carefully

Question: Is this a CMS
ANSWER: Yes.

The next question that should come to your mind before criticizing is "Is this CMS Open Source?". Do i need to say anything futher to you,
Seriously what is wrong with using open source scripts maybe you want to take a look at antigravity,

[pseudocode]

STRING PROJECT = 'carry out your analysis';
BOOL IS_CMS_OPENSOURCE = (PROJECT === 'joomla' OR PROJECT === 'wordpress' OR PROJECT === 'drupal' OR PROJECT === 'modx' , etc);

IF(IS_CMS_OPENSOURCE):
RETURN CRITICIZE;
ELSE:
RETURN NULL;
ENDIF;


On the design issue, "no comment"

--------------------------------------------
Kind Regards
Morrison Laju
http://xmlprov.com

What is wrong with you? Communicate normally

^^^I presume it takes a normal person to do that, just saying. . . .

Issue isnt whether he is a normal person but about communicating normaly. Its not only 'programmers' that read the forums.