Comments on: Kenya’s Web Design Problem

By: ken

ken — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:09:30 +0000

Ni comments every one but simply too many to read. What research @Yamtaa, it’s called googling buda. The African Scifi site was done by Majiqmud, a dude who si real good in 3D. He’s also real good in AS2. Stop beating down on his site, it’s annoying that it doesn’t have good SEO, but it looks good as compared to this site that still has errors

By: Is your Kenya web designer getting to your nerves?

Is your Kenya web designer getting to your nerves? — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 05:50:22 +0000

[...] laughable that Kenya web designers are still stuck on THEIR OWN ideas. White African has an article about Kenyan web design. The interesting reading is the comments disparaging the coding on the site. In all my experience, [...]

By: Derek

Derek — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 06:55:26 +0000

PS – strange that time on this “African” website is 7 hours behind the rest of the continent?

By: Derek

Derek — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 06:53:49 +0000

I see the http://www.africanscifi.com website continues to be all tables and graphics… so none of this discussion has had any effect on them?!

By: hmurimi

hmurimi — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:29:11 +0000

Been snooping around source codes and I must say its disappointing.
table based joomla allover etc. The other worrying trend is the use of cheap or free downloaded templates denying those of us who can hand code and develop our own themes the chance.
a little snooping on *Ihub_ coincidentally favicon resembles css-tricks.com`s ( I like the logo though.. very usable can even be done via keyboard!)… tables on home page!.. free theme!.. come on *Ihub_ techies!.

By: Kimani Tiga Waana

Kimani Tiga Waana — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:16:17 +0000

Blame it on the schooling system i would say.I have met several 4th years about to graduate with a very cool project copied from else where on the web.I tried asking why one would wanna leave campus without wanting to pay attention to html or any scripting language;the answer;who care!

I think the market deals with every html/css weirdo when it gets to the point of originality,there is no escaping the 5 minutes of hero to zero.

By: Alex Maina

Alex Maina — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:30:34 +0000

I’m finding this topic very interesting.

This is not a problem with the designers ONLY. This is a problem with Kenyan business practices.

The kawaida kenyan businessman wants to be a jack of all trades. For the so called web designers in Kenya, they want to be the SEO expert, the social networking expert, the web designer, the graphics designer, a wordpress expert, a joomla expert, the site developer etc etc.

The client wants a website for less than is beyond logic. The so called good coders want to add things to a site that have absolutely no relevance to the goals of the company. The client wants to add things to the site but is not willing to pay for them.

The laws of demand and supply dictate that it will change naturally.

So instead of complaining about other people who have done bad coding on their sites, which is the normal coders problem. Take the time to educate the clients on the difference between:

1. A graphics designer,
2. A web designer
3. A web developer ( and consider expertise in a product)
4. An internet marketer ( this will never be an IT guy, sorry)
5. An SEO expert ( please please, just because you can fix a meta tag and get backlinks does not make you an SEO expert)

You will be surprised at how happy your clients will be.

Otherwise, this noise making which is common in Kenyan politics will continue to the detriment of the clients.

Experience has shown that it is not beautiful coding that makes a sale for the client online. It is working with the client to achieve his goals.

I know I will annoy the so called great coders out there, but there are hundreds of ugly sites that make money for their owners. There are hundreds of beautifully coded sites that will never make a cent for the client.

So stop telling your clients you will make them a website. Build them an online business instead and all these shady companies charging 400,000 for a joomla website will disappear.

Having said that….Whoever is teaching flash in Kenya should be hanged with a rope.

By: yamtaa » Blog Archive » Kenyan Design problem SOLVED!

yamtaa » Blog Archive » Kenyan Design problem SOLVED! — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:47:18 +0000

[...] few days ago, there was a post on whiteafrican.com titled Kenya’s design problem. The author used the African Scifi Factory in Thika as an [...]

By: Kalekachali

Kalekachali — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:47:56 +0000

Good one yamtaa! thats what am talking about….

By: HASH

HASH — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:14:02 +0000

A young designer by the name of Martin Kariuki decided to take the specific example of African SciFi Factory into his own hands after this blog post, and re-created the whole site in HTML. See his blog post and work on this here. Great job by Martin for doing this! Impressive initiative and a nod to the goodwill in this community.