The homepage is cluttered with too much information and often my eyes didn’t which direction to go in.

According to Jessett.com, one in twelve people may not be able to use web site due to some form of color blindness. Jessett suggests avoiding red and blue.

On the “Il corriere della sera” the main colours are red and blue. 

Jakob’s rules add that the banner masthead should be in the extreme left hand corner. On this website is in the centre.

On the other hand there is an archive which according to Jakob Nilsen’s guideline it’s very useful to the readers.

Speaking with my colleagues/classmate we agree that the flash news are significant part of the web site but the space for them is very small.

According with web credibility.com  restriction as problems with print must not to be placed on users. “Il Corriere della sera” does not have any print facilities. Further more in the web there is not the section “about us”.

Writing

There is not an introduction on the Il Corriere della Sera. Headlines are consistent but there is no lead in every article. Content is pretty much consistent but visually poor.

Some of written piece are informative but words are not easy to understand.

According to Jacob Nielsen’ rules familiar words spring to mind when users create their search queries. If your writing favours made-up terms over legacy words, users won’t find your site

The majority of my classmate noticed that most of the paragraphs are really long. Certainly Il corriere della Sera is not following the F – patter of Jacob Nielsen rules. 

Me and my Italian colleagues also made a point that the paragraph contains some invaluable details.

In addiction we underline that there is no consistent punctuation anywhere on the site.

Statistics are not visible in any articles. Also there are only a few hyperlinks visible.  

Many articles begin with value judgments instead of the standard “inverted pyramid” route.

Jacob’s rules suggest to use a predefined narrative.  Websites must support the user’s personal story by condensing and combining vast stores of information into something that specifically meets the user’s immediate needs. Thus, instead of an author-driven narrative, Web content becomes a user-driven narrative. In the website that I have chosen is the other way round.

Content

I counted 26 contents. The most important are the news and political issue that is showed in the home page. Music and Fashion content are not visible at all in the web.

Jakob Nielsen also underlines that use of English (American or British) is necessary for any website to succeed. There is any English or American in the Il Corriere della sera website. On the other hand it is visible a Chinese section of the web journal.

Some of Web 2.0 essential (dynamic contents) like video and multimedia are in   the site but they are not easy to find.

The option to find blogs is not easy. They are under Opinion section.  Further more RSS feed are completely absent.

User can not make any comment. That means that there is not interface or feedback.

The unique particularity of the site are interactive games as sudoku and crossing words.

Navigation

Navigation menus have to be intuitive, precise and easy-to-use. It’s important to make sure that your visitors will find they way around the site structure – however complex the latter might be. smashing magazine has reported.

According to Web Developer’s Journal, there are 3 basic rules to get a good navigation.

1. Tell people exactly what is available on your site.
2. Help them get to the parts they want quickly.
3. Make it easy to request additional information

Also Web Developer’s Journal points out that most of the web site need to have the following link:

       - About the Company

       - Our Products and Services

      - How to Contact Us

Il Corriere della Sera obey to the first basic rule. Every user can find in the home page the main stories regularly updating.

The second principles is the tricky one for the web. Visitors have to scroll up all the articles if, for example, they want to read a local news.

It’s a matter of fact that the web journal does not add any other information a part what is written.  

There is no clue if a reader wants to contact the web. No web letter at all!

Once again Jacob’s rules has not been followed.

Conclusion

The web should be more organized especially regarding the home page. Il Corriere della Sera need to add comments. This could improve the feedbacks. I believe it’s very important to get the opinion of your readers. Web journalist can not lose them!

I was writing my article regarding the new military chief of the Basque separatist group Eta arrested in France when I’ve discovered something really odd.  

At the beginnig of the article BBC news named the leader as Aitzol Irionda and then Mr Iriondo. Too much confusion!!!!.  According with AFP the name of the Eta’s leader is Aitzol Iriondo Yarza.

I did a quickly investigation just typing both names in Google.  I found that BBC made a BIG, HUGE MASSIVE MISTAKE.  The correct surname is Iriondo NOT Iorionda. So the first paragrafe of BBC’s article was completely wrong.

I don’t know in Uk but in Italy, my country, journalists that write incorrect names will be fire straight away. Further more if the person involved is a criminal or even worst a terrorist journalist MUST pay attention to report the real name. Someone who is called Aitzol Irioda could sue BBC for defamation.

BBC is one of the most important networks not only in UK but around the word. I supposed they are really strict but honestly this is an error that only amateur can do.  

Now I just wondering what is Jakob’s opinion about this?  

Implication

Obviously BBC was not the only one that wrote the name incorrectly. Many online journals followed it!

Do you want some example?

BRT news,  M&C Europe, News Agency Trend News, European tribune …. and so on.

Some foreign online journal made the same mistake. Obviously none of the spanish one!

http://www.hanoimoi.com.vn/vn/44/190335/

http://www.tvn24.pl/0,1576606,0,1,numer-jeden-eta-aresztowany,wiadomosc.html

Fortunately not only AFP picked up the right name but also Al Jazeera and France 24 

Me Myself and I

Apologized if I didn’t introduct myself to you! I think it is time to do it … so let’s start.

That’s me, or better this is one of my black and white pictures.

Are you wondering who I am? I am simply the Queen of this blog. 

 This blog is for  who want to know international news. Someone who have a desire to discover more than what happens next door.

I am writing for someone who have curiousity and never stop to discover the truth, also when it is not convenient at all.

I am one, no one and 0ne thousand person in one body. Just one suggestion… when you believe to know me  you will understand that you were wrong.

For so many years this mysterious figure has been on a killing and burgling spree across southern Germany, France and Austria.

She left nothing to identify her but a trail of female DNA , left on a tea cup, a biscuit, a revolver and in a patrol car where she killed Michele Kiesewerrer a 22 years old German policewoman her last victim in April 2007.

Her crime story

She became a killer in 1993. Her first victim was Lieselotte Schleneberg, a 62 year old churchwarden. In 2001, the killer struck again, in the south-western German university city of Freiburg. Jozef Walzenbach, 61, known as a respected antique leader, was found in his shop.

In both case the only clue of the killer’s identify was DNA. In October of the same year a seven year old called Jurgen Buller found a syringe containing trace of heroine and DNA of the trouble killer. Through it Interpol could linked the Killer with other crimes. Her case was connected with several burglaries in small shops.

Her personality

Kurt Kletzer, a noted Viennese psychiatrist said: “Woman without face is intriguing and disturbing in equal measure” Grazia has reported. He explains that probably the killer has an ordered personality that maintain composure even thought evidence. He added: “Stealing small amounts of cash is an indicator that she has need which must be served but she doesn’t go for a “big score” which might trap her”.

The psychiatrist asserts that she can have an aura of normality while being anything but. Kletzer suggests to police to look for someone from a damaged home, perhaps a foster child or orphan, a child who was abused or whose carers were addicts themselves.

The killer’s DNA has turned up following 30 robberies and hold-ups, and addiction to six murders. No fingerprint was found in the scene of crimes. Nobody has never seen her face. German police works really hard to find her but still now her face and her identity is unknown. The phantom killer may become Jack the Ripper of her age. With two only exceptions: she is also a thief and she may wear skirt.

According with bbc news website, the Swiss voted to allow drug stores to prescribe heroin to help chronic addicts kick the deadly habit.

“Heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) is designed to help severely dependent heroin users who have fallen through the net provided by other treatment options,” the Federal Department of Home Affairs said on its website.

Magnus Arrival, a Swiss student in West Minster University said: ” If I were in my country I would vote for the proposal because I think that government needs to take care on people who couldn’t give up with heroine”.  He added: “I believe that numbers of new addicts are falling with medicalised heroin ”.

An anonymous reader, made a comment about the article on the website http://members5.boardhost.com. He  wrote: “In Liverpool, during the early 1990s, Dr John Marks used a special Home Office licence to prescribe heroin to addicts. Police reported a 96% reduction in acquisitive crime among a group of addict patients. Deaths from locally acquired HIV infection and drug-related overdoses fell to zero. But, under intense pressure from the government, the project was closed down. In its 10 years’ work, not one of its patients had died. In the first two years after it was closed, 41 died. Regards,N. “

Opponents of heroin prescription, like Sabine Geissbuhler of the association Parents Against Drugs, said that attitude is exactly what is wrong, guradian website revailed.  During the referendum campaign she declared: “I have four children, and I would never, never, put them into a heroin prescription programme. What kind of freedom is that? I’d rather they were dead.”

There were turned debates around this controversial treatment. Legalised heroine program  is now a reality with overwhelming approval from Swiss voters who simultaneously rejected the decriminalization of marijuana.
]]> http://overlookword.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/swiss-approve-prescription-heroin/feed/ 1 overlookword http://overlookword.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/racist-is-no-longer-in-the-air/ http://overlookword.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/racist-is-no-longer-in-the-air/#comments Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:03:44 +0000 overlookword http://overlookword.wordpress.com/?p=7 ]]>

Those who thought that on Youtube, the portal of the most famous videos, anything could be broadcast, were wrong. Videos of 99 Fosse (99 tombs) an Italian neo- nazi inspiration band have been darkened. Their songs were judged as an exaltation of the Jews’ extermination which is the main theme of the band.  Another inopportune detail has been the nick name of the author that has loaded the videos: “Karl Gebhardt.” The same name of the physician of Heinrich Himmler, minister of the interior during the third Reich known for having conducted experiments in the female concentration camp of Ravensbrück, using as guinea-pigs Polish and Russian prisoners.

Explicit lyrics

The incriminated songs are contained in the album covertly published and entitled Zyclon B, or rather the poison used in the gas rooms. The titles and the music are those of very famous Italian songs but the text has been readjusted to emphasise the themes of anti-Semitic issues. Particularly clicked was the song entitled “Anna is no longer here” that uses the melody and strongly twists the text of a romantic Italian song (Laura is no longer here) in Nazi key. The reference is obviously to Anna Franke, the girl who wrote a diary about her dramatic story.  She was forced to run away from the Nazi retaliations and then died in a concentration camp. Some of these songs contain explicit lyrics inciting people to attack Jews and immigrants.  The Italian political have firmly condemned youtube to have given access to racist contents that incite violence. The reactions from the Italian Jewish community have been of indignation and shock.

An international view

Nazi songs surely are not a fact that concerns only Italy. A few day ago Germany‘s Supreme administrative court has ruled that a neo-Nazi rock group that spread racial hatred was a criminal organization, upholding the first such statement in Germany against a music band. Two men were arrested in Denmark on 27 August 2008 for allegedly distributing recordings that have been deemed illegal because of their extremist content.

In the United Kingdom there is an association called TWAFA (Tyne and Wear Anti Fascist Association) which signals musical texts inspired to the ideology promoted by Hitler. The Anti Nazi League continues to run a campaign against racism in music with this slogan: Love Music Hate Racism