Has abby got you guys confused or are you guys confusing yourself. What does it take to be a pro? she na your flash or na your code or na your navigation. Most of the people that have posted their sites on this topic might not have cool sites and all but you just can't say their sites are not professional or they are not pros. Wetin dey the STONEWALL+ site sef? tell me. she na flash. e don finish. is that site professional? is it? compare stonewall.co.za to microsoft.com tell me which is more professional despite the fact that there is little or no animations on microsofts site. TRUE we neva reach the level wey south africa dey for web design but that does'nt make us amateurs. its like comparing south african designers to american designers. e possible? ok compare www.stonewall.co.za to www.2advanced.com tell me what you think. all the things abby dey talk na pure STORY. Professionalism is not about having flashy sites. Flashy sites are just flashy like the name applies. No come dabaru our head for here.

Neptune:

Has abby got you guys confused or are you guys confusing yourself. What does it take to be a pro? she na your flash or na your code or na your navigation. Most of the people that have posted their sites on this topic might not have cool sites and all but you just can't say their sites are not professional or they are not pros. Wetin dey the STONEWALL+ site sef? tell me. she na flash. e don finish. is that site professional? is it? compare stonewall.co.za to microsoft.com tell me which is more professional despite the fact that there is little or no animations on microsofts site. TRUE we never reach the level wey south africa dey for web design but that does'nt make us amateurs. its like comparing south african designers to american designers. e possible? ok compare www.stonewall.co.za to www.2advanced.com tell me what you think. all the things abby dey talk na pure STORY. Professionalism is not about having flashy sites. Flashy sites are just flashy like the name applies. No come dabaru our head for here.

i cant agree with u less, to be frank i didnt want to post anything here b4 cus i was scared that i might be ban 4 calling the abbey guy something related to a@#, i was that mad, some nigerians just feel that because then they outside the country then those in it are crap, it really sucks, because say u dey where u dey see oyibo everyday don make u lose ur sense abi, u con come here dey make mouth say want tin want tin, the nairaland where u dey run your month no bi Proudly nigerian ,abi he dey inferior to anyother forum site any where in the would, i think we have given this guy enough attention, seun ABEG ban him

TO ADD I NO BE WEB DESIGNER BUT I KNOW ABOUT A GOOD WEBSITE WHEN I SEE ONE AND ITS NOT JUST ABOUT CHILDISH ANIMATION, ITS ABOUT HOW RELEVANT THE SITE IS FOR ITS PURPOSE.SEE LASU WEBSITE ITS NOT THAT FLASHY BUT IT DOES THE JOB,I.E U CAN CHECK UR RESULT,REGISTER ONLINE,ETC AND ALL THESE AS MADE LIFE VERY EASY AND CONVENIENT FOR US STUDENT, YES IT MIGHT NOT BE THE BEST WEBSITE IN THE WORLD BUT CALLING THE GUY THAT MADE THE SITE AN ARMATURE IS AN INSULT, WHAT ABOUT www.whogobuy.com,www.enownow.com,jambonline.com etc ALL THESE SITE WERE MADE BUY NIGERIANS AND WE ARE PROUD OF THEM,

To begin with what is a professional website?

I guess the answer to this question will go a long way in clarifying the issues here.

Professionals I believe are people that get paid for what they do.

Amateurs on the other hand are not paid for what they do.

Who sets the standards for websites? I guess there is a body responsible for that and websites (atleast for now) should be judged based on the adherence or otherwise to the set standards.

Anything outside of this is pure subjective, personal and sentimental.

For me the best websites are the ones that are task focused and are easy and fast to use unless people are just browsing aimlessly on the web.

YES Oh- my intention was to cause controversy because I wanted Nigerians to read my post (lol). My primary goal however was to make Nigerian webmasters ask themselves the question “Am I the best I can be or am I a local champion?” Some people called me a broke, arrogant, a-hole, and funny enough, some disagreed with me in public and then sent personal emails to me saying it was about time someone spoke up about the low standards in Nigeria!

This process has been an emotional rollercoaster for me because I am a very proud Nigerian and I was attacked personally for having the audacity to discuss Nigerian issues from another country- but like I said before, sometimes only your brother can say to you- “your mouth dey smell”.

I still stand by the following:

1. Nigerian designers in general should up-their-game.

2. You don’t have to design Flash Heavy sites (remember bandwidth restrictions in Nigeria) to be good designers – you can design clean, elegant, uncluttered CSS/html sites. (see: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/category/showcase/ ).

3. The Nigerian economy has nothing to do with creativity.

4. Nigerian designers should benchmark themselves against international sites and stop thinking “local”. (I think http://www.digitalthread.com/webdesign/ is a good resource).

5. A website is essentially a marketing vehicle and designers should apply traditional marketing principles to website design and development.

6. I think Flash is fantastic but designers must take their target audience into account. If you are designing for an affluent audience that has access to broadband internet then Flash is cool, otherwise use as little Flash as possible.

7. You can make Flash SEO friendly by coding a linked XML file for spiders. This XML file can even be updated dynamically (Google: Flash + SEO).

8. Nigeria needs a National design competition to unearth the best of the best.


I also challenged Nigerian web designers to prove me wrong by posting their portfolios on this forum- and I was referred to some excellent sites:-

• http://ruggedmanonline.com/ (This website really made me sit up and take notice. My brother YOU ARE TOO MUCH!!)
• http://www.webworksent.com/ (despite slight usability issues)
• http://www.webmastersofafrica.com/ (not for aesthetic quality but for Information Architecture)
• http://www.taviatech.com.ng/index.asp ( Elegant site - just a few image optimization issues)

The rest were SHOCKING in my opinion.

I also shared the following Resources:

• http://www.smashingmagazine.com
• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/category/showcase/
• http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/checklist.htm
• http://www.digitalthread.com/webdesign/

Cool sites (in my opinion) that I have been involved with:

• http://www.millerway.co.za/
• http://www.grahambeckwines.com/
• http://www.netevolution.co.za
• http://www.itnewsafrica.com/ (based on WordPress)


Other cool sites that I have found on the net:

• http://www.neostream.com/
• http://www.peroniitaly.com/za/age.html



To those of you who said I was broke and arrogant, you are probably broke and arrogant yourselves so no yawa.

To those who dissed my views and not me, you are my brothers and sisters and I look forward to having lunch with you very soon in Naija. (there’s no place like home).

To those of you who crucified me in public and agreed with me in private emails– have the courage to speak your mind!


Cheers!!

Other than #8 above for which I disagree, I must confess that I like the way you have calmed your rhetoric, from "all bad" to "I was referred to some excellent sites".

And yep, you are right about webmasters of africa. Aesthetics wasn't the aim for that site but the architecture (which is more my area of specialization) and being able to get the information you need presented to you easily and efficiently. Good observation

Again, IMHO, I don't think a national/regional competition is what will bring out the top dogs. Who will organize it for starters?

Finally, having followed your posts so far, I can confidently conclude that you are a nice guy and do have Nigeria's best interests at heart. Don't mind those who attack you personally cos whether you like it or not, pple will always attack you, be it to your face or behind your back.

Last year, a fellow NLer, prodgalson, organized a seminar in Lagos. He is based in the states. Perhaps you should follow suit. Besides, you are closer to Nigeria than we are

Let pple associate a face with the posts. There are pple back home who need the guidance but don't know who to turn to. I am working on something from my own end and by God's grace, it should be materializing soon.

Cheers!

3. The Nigerian economy has nothing to do with creativity.

That does not mean the citizens of Nigeria should not explore their own creativity.

Flash is being talked about everywhere even the best of foreign IT magazines
exhault flash.

Nigerians let me assure you that things could only get better. Our bandwidth now
is not as it used to be. I want to encourage all the creative Nigerians to maximize
their God given talent and come out with creative flash sites.

Personally my target is to create a better site than www.2advanced.com and I know
I will get there very soon.

check my site again http://biosmart-ng.com its a flash based sites and the download
time is not bad at all. "Its a world class" says a white friend who is also a web designer.
Not that I dont know myself sha

Kemjisuper:

@Abbywax

O merciful Director and CEO of this thread, Please check out my personal website and criticize it for the benefit of my improvement. There's not much in it at the moment, and please use soft words because I'm still an amateur. My dream is to do greater things with web designing and graphics in the very near future. Cheers

www.kemjisuper.faithweb.com

NICE TRY

michaelwe1:


NICE TRY

Hey, you're not Abbywax.

d most creative nija website in terms of design?
check out www.yinventures.com

dude, i ain't Amateur,
check out my site,
www.mrsgroupgn.com

sorry, its
www.mrsgroupng.com

was in a hurry,

Y must nigerians use green?

Not all nigerian sites are bad (although i have seen a few terrible ones) some are actually quite good.
Check out

http://www.tsiholdings-nig.com/
http://www.superior-equipment.com/
http://www.avantecp.com/
http://www.amgpetroenergy.com/
http://www.bluefinnigeria.com/

to mention a few.
That said i do agree that a lot of Nigerian designers are quite poor and should up the standard.

@abdul_D, yes you are a pro, you design just came across wack.

problem is creating the demand; that's what will drive innovation and make the profs come. whatever your definition of profs.

tai2 has said it jare. Most of the people won't admit it here, but i've gotten around, and 95% of Nigerian sites ARE mediocre. Sorry.

@hanen
That still doesn't qualify as "All". You can certainly say, "most" but not "all".

The original poster's logic fails courtesy of proof by contradiction.

@olush0la
As my2cents said over and over again, there is no need justifying the original poster's assertions. Doing so, in my opinion, amounts to us having low self-esteem. As my2cents said, if you googled for south african websites and you picked your first 10 results at random, at least half of them would be bad. Of course for someone like me, that wouldn't amount to me passing judgment on the entire South African Web Development sector.

There are bad eggs everywhere. Rather than insinuate, we should all get together and help each other out so that we can all LEARN something and improve as a result.

@yawa-ti-de: true talk sister. Let's have a forum where we can learn from each other.

well i believe, it depends on the creativity of the designer of the site itself





http://bizkitbizkit..com/

This is a joke, and a good topic to get peoples attention I must say, apart from that I don't know what else to say, I mean this guy Abbywax lives in South Africa, OMG.

There is no perfect website every where in the world, you have good and bad, so end of story.

I just see a very sad person here, very sad that to be honest thinks that there is life every where else but Nigeria, please lets pull you down to earth you are in south africa!!! Not the White House.

Why this thread is still continuing, after so many months, beats me

To all who have commented on this issue, there is no need to argue. I personally believe that no none in their right senses can compare the quality of websites churned out by nigerians to the crap called Nollywood!!
Nigerian webmasters however need to upp their games
ENough of this FLASH FLASH FLASH!!!
E DON DO OH!!
NO BE BY FLASH
by the way, maybe its the clients who need to be educated on flash

ohisng:

To all who have commented on this issue, there is no need to argue. I personally believe that no none in their right senses can compare the quality of websites churned out by nigerians to the crap called Nollywood!!
Nigerian webmasters however need to upp their games
ENough of this FLASH FLASH FLASH!!!
E DON DO OH!!
NO BE BY FLASH
by the way, maybe its the clients who need to be educated on flash

GBAM! Enough of the flash. Websites should be tasked focused not a graphics competition.

ohisng:

To all who have commented on this issue, there is no need to argue. I personally believe that no none in their right senses can compare the quality of websites churned out by nigerians to the crap called Nollywood!!
Nigerian webmasters however need to upp their games
ENough of this FLASH FLASH FLASH!!!
E DON DO OH!!
NO BE BY FLASH
by the way, maybe its the clients who need to be educated on flash

Well said Mr, too much stress on Flash websites its crazy

I have recently come to the conclusion, and I stand corrected, that the flash serves a hypnotizing effect on the client. In other words, the longer the client stares at the flash, the less likely they are to spot the crap that is on their sites. It might even help the "webmaster" charge more money ("eh, wetin you talk? N1m? whatever I go pay. no disturb me. I dey look this cool animation)

yawa-ti-de:

I have recently come to the conclusion, and I stand corrected, that the flash serves a hypnotizing effect on the client. In other words, the longer the client stares at the flash, the less likely they are to spot the crap that is on their sites. It might even help the "webmaster" charge more money ("eh, wetin you talk? N1m? whatever I go pay. no disturb me. I dey look this cool animation)

ROFL, yawa, damn you wanna kill someone lol, but you are right, people get convinced that they have got the best when they see flash, i suppose you spend more time working on it, its good for artist or photographers to use flash to show case what they can do.