₦airaland Forum

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.

You probably don't want to put a hit counter on your site - if you get low hits then visitors will think your site lacks relevance and may never visit again.

If you need stats, install google analytics (google it)

how will you or the organizers guarantee safety, per boko haram

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

Hint: It is standard practice on prototypes.

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.

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

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. . .

@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?

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

SEO is huge and very theoretical (as in, lots of reading). I find it odd that all you can find are demanding payments. There are tons of free intro tutorials, even without you specifying "free" in ur search terms.

good luck!

It might be time to look at the alternative: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-818199.64.html

@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

all4naija:
I will concern myself, based on stats, with IE 7 and 8 right now. Hopefully by the time IE9 is stable (as in, supporting ALL HTML5 issues), we would have implemented the actual project, which most likely won't use much of what you are currently seeing

remoranger:
Please add distance to that list of "irrespectives": I am in the US and another is in the UK. The rest, if I am not mistaken are in Nigeria. That means differences in attitude, processes and time zones, among others. It took one helluva coordinating to pull this project off, if you ask me and I am still amazed at our flexibility and devotion and dedication, despite the odds

vladimiros,

Haba! Even I have said it could have been better.  Having said that, i appreciate your candor  

We had 4 (volunteer. . . stress the "volunteer" part please) designers on the team.  Creativity isn't something that just hits you in the head. You not only have to visualize it but spend the time to put your vision into action.  All 4 submitted designs and the 40 of us voted on it.  I am sure that if we felt that none of the 4 were up to par, we would have solicited for some more designer volunteers (again, stress the "volunteer" part).

Having been through more gruesome reviews, spanning 18 years of professional development, featuring people not on a forum but people sitting right in front of you, that makes you want to go right to them and rip their heads off, I can say that what may be perceived on here as bad is not even up to 2 out of 100 on my "get yawatide angry meter".  I have heard and seen worse.  So, please proceed with the reviews/comments.

I will still stand by what I said originally: This is a prototype, which means that it is showing more of a proof of concept than anything else.  The actual product can, and would be much better. If you have actually taken part in a software development cycle, you will know that 9 times out of 10, a prototype is something that is put in place for the purpose of proving a concept and is usually scrapped in favor of a more robust solution.

Wallie,

No offense taken, at least from me. It is your opinion and it is definitely worth more than 10 kobo (does kobo actually, physically still exist?)

Thanks.

knoxranger, your comments are well noted and appreciated.

Per the pictures, trust me, and I guess I don't know how to work google, I searched a lot to be able to come up with what you saw. In the event that this project was for real, I would definitely take time out to go to as many tourist attractions in the country as possible with my SLR camera and take pictures

Actually no need for clearing cache. I have used chrome this year no more than 10 times and havent used it in the last 2 months at least. Firefox, I might understand but not chrome, at least for me. All the same, again, the feedback is appreciated.

Hmm, I can't see it unfortunately.  Perhaps if others can (more than 10% of viewing audience), it might be something taken into consideration if we were to go full time with this.

Thanks for your observations.

@.NET:
It's a prototype. Not all the pages are working. Our aim was moreso trying to show what a better option we have, from an information architecture standpoint, as opposed to making sure every single page works.

I have chrome but don't c what uv attached. Wat OS r u using and wat screen resolution?

@nevosys:
Though I prefer your green version, both are equally good. If you are still in the running for the job, I hope you get it

@muskeeto:
If you read all my posts from #1, you will see that I do accept criticism, both constructive and destructive. The 3 things I will NOT accept, no matter what are: Arm chair generals, distractions and monday morning quaterbacking. . . and yes, there is a difference b/w criticisms and the latter 3 things I just mentioned

An improved design for our country's official website is bigger than any one of us. Together with nevosys, we have hopefully kicked off a trend that we hope results in thinking out of the box and future success.

As with all things in life, there will always be detractors. We can't help it and it is to be expected. What's important is that despite all odds, we stay on point.

1) On a prototype, you demonstrate what can be done and note corrections for the actual site. So on those terms, we appreciate your input and feedback. In terms of changes being made now, that won't happen as again, it is merely a prototype

2) Yes, it is a dummy site which we hope can be improved upon and turned into an actual site.

Thanks

@afam4eva:
Sure, there are a gazillion better names but as we did with everything on the project, we voted upon what we settled with and more importantly, someone spent his own money to buy the domain (as cheap as it may have been, relatively speaking), considering this is a volunteer job.

Secondly, what we've done in no way is meant to compete with the actual site. This is merely a proof of concept and in time we hope to reuse it to offer our consulting services to other projects.

@afam4eva:
It's a redirect/mask from where it is hosted to the newnigeria.org.ng domain.

@all:
Thanks for the input so far. As stated in the OP, things can certainly be better in a paid iteration. This is just a prototype for what could be done and disagree if you must but agree that it is much better than what is out there currently. Also, don't forget to like us on facebook and twitter (@nigeria40) and like us on NL and to spread the word

Join the conversation, like us on facebook, follow us on twitter, help us promote it:

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-818199.0.html

He he, as they say, "tomorrow never comes"

On a serious note, please visit the newly-created thread that has officially announced the launch of the project:
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-818199.0.html

This thread is now officially closed, or at least, our efforts will now be turned towards the new thread as this was meant to rally the troops.

Thanks for your time.

On September 14, 2011, I made a call to all interested web designers/developers to join me on a quest to show the Nigerian community at large that there are still people in the Nigeria capable of walking the talk, with respect to identifying an issue and coming up with a solution, In this case, the look and feel of a website (reference: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-759968.0.html).

I didn't expect more than 5 people to participate but was overwhelmed to have 40 sign up. I budgeted 3 months for the project and we finished a few days shy of that deadline. I didn't know how we would do it or if we would make it. There were a few disagreements here and there but in the end, the overall goal was on our minds. During the course of this volunteer project, I have worked with some of the finest professional and discliplined web developers that Nigeria has to offer and wouldn't hesitate to work with them again.

Enough said, I am proud to present to you our prototype for a redesigned nigeria.gov.ng: http://www.newnigeria.org.ng/ - site credits may be found under the "credits" link, bottom right of the page.

Could it have been better? Could it have been done in less than the 3 months? Could it have been done by 1 person? Sure, to all of the above. What you won't disagree with is that, for a project handled by 40 people and done for free, it is way better than the current nigeria.gov.ng. Again, this is just a prototype. If we were actually paid to do what we did, based on what we've learned so far, some things would change for sure.

What you can do to help promote this effort:
1) Click the "like" button that accompanies each response to this thread on NL
2) Like us on facebook and join the conversation: www.facebook.com/nigeria40
3) Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nigeria40
4) Help promote us to all you know (blogs, fora, friends, family, etc
5) Help push this thread to the front page of NL where it will get maximum exposure

In time, we will be reaching out to various famous bloggers, newspaper journalists, etc.

Our goal:
1) Demonstrate that there are a bunch of individuals ready and capable of handling a job the magnitude of nigeria.gov.ng or something similar for individuals, corporations or government entities

2) Contrary to popular belief, to show that there are still those who believe in the greatness of Nigeria and who are willing to sacrifice to make it better. We all have PHDs (Passion, Hunger and Drive) and will bring this to the table, should you decide to use our services.

Thanks for your time and thanks for those who were aware of this project from inception (https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-759968.0.html) and offered encouraging words, thanks as well.

If you have any questions about the project overall that I haven't addressed, post them here. If I don't get to it, one of the other 39 will.

Thanks for your time

A big announcement is coming up tomorrow regarding this project. Please stay tuned

Cool it is but not a necessity, I don't think it is. When I saw it, I was expecting something big and "wow" but didn't and was left confused

Put it on a labs page and not on your main page/site

Now how come this long post didn't get flagged by the NL spam bot?

On a serious note, having lived in America for a while, I can tell you authoritatively that nothing is "free" and nothing is "unlimited" and you don't "save" money.

Very informative post. Please keep it up and keep them coming. . .

Some ppl no get job. Some still no get food to eat. Some no get light. Some get 3 phones but no light to charge. etc etc.

My point?
And some of you r surprised as to y not everyone is a twitter freak?