From The Herald Tribune, December 12, 2007

The Winter of Discontent in Italy

Age-Old Problems in Internet World

By Ian Fisher

ROME:  All the world loves Italy because it is old but still glamorous...because it eats and drinks well but is rarely fat or drunk.    Because it is the place in hyper-regulated Europe where people still debate with perfect intelligence what, really, the red in a stoplight might mean.

But these days, for all the outside adoration and all its innate strengths, Italy seems not to love itself.   The word here is `malessere,” or malaise, and it implies a collective funk - economic, political and social - summed up in a recent poll: Italians, despite their claim to have mastered the art of living, report themselves the least happy people in Western Europe.

“It's a country that has lost a little of its will for the future,” said Walter Veltroni, Rome's mayor and a possible future prime minister.   “There is more fear than hope.”

The problems are, for the most part, not new - and that is the problem.   They have simply caught up to Italy over many years to the point that no one seems clear how change can come — or if it is possible anymore at all.

Italy has long charted its own way of belonging to Europe, struggling like few other countries with fractured politics, uneven growth, organized crime and a tenuous sense of nationhood.

But frustration is rising that these old weaknesses are still no better, and in some cases worse, as the world outside outpaces it: In 1987, Italy celebrated economic parity with Britain.   Now Spain, which had joined the European Union only the year before, may soon overtake Italy.

Its low-tech way of life may enthrall tourists, but Internet use and commerce here are among the lowest in Europe, as are wages, foreign investment and growth Pensions, public debt, the cost of government are among the highest.

The latest numbers show a nation older and poorer, to the point that Italy's top bishop has proposed a major expansion of food packets for the poor.

Worse, worry is growing that Italy's strengths are degrading into weaknesses.

Small and medium-size businesses, long the nation's family-run backbone, are struggling in a globalized economy, particularly with low-wage competition from China

Doubt clouds the family itself: 70 percent of Italians from the ages of 20 to 30 still live at home, condemning the young to an extended and under-productive adolescence.   Many of the brightest, like the poorest a century ago, leave Italy entirely.

The stakes have risen so high that Ronald Spogli, the U.S. ambassador with 40 years of experience with Italy, warns that the country risks both a diminished international role and relationship with Washington.

America's best friend, he notes, are its business partners.   And Italy, increasingly, is not.   Bureaucracy and unclear rules kept United States investment in 2004 to $16.9 billion.   The number for Spain: $49.3 billion.

“They need to sever the ivy that has grown up around this fantastic 2,500year-old tree that is threatening to kill the tree,” Spogli said.

But interviews with possible prime ministers, business people, academics, economists and ordinary Italians suggest that the largest reason for this malaise seems to be the feeling that there is little hope the ivy can be cut — and that is turning Italians both sad and angry.

There is a connection between the nation's errant political system and its worsening mood: Luisa Corrado, an Italian economist, led the research into a study at the University of Cambridge that found Italians the least happy of 15 West European nations.   They link happiness, as measured in 2004, with trust in the world around them, not least in government.

In Denmark, the happiest nation, 64 percent trusted the Parliament.   For Italians, the number was 36 percent.

"Unfortunately we found this issue of social trust was a bit missing,” Corrado said.

Two best-selling books — both sparked months of self-probing debate — capture the current distrust of large powers that cannot be controlled.

"The Caste" sold a million copies (in a nation where sales of 20,000 make a bestseller) by exposing the sins of Italy's political class, how it became privileged and unaccountable.   Even the presidency, considered above the fray, was not spared: The book put the office's annual cost at $328 million, four times that of Buckingham Palace.

"Gomorrah," which sold 750,000 copies, concerns the mob around Naples, the Camorra.   But politics, the book argues, allows the Camorra to flourish, keeping Italy's lagging south poor and organized crime, by one recent study, the largest sector of the economy.

These are Italy's age-old problems, but Alexander Stille, a Columbia professor and Italy expert, argues that this moment is different: While the economy expanded, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Italians would tolerate bad behavior from their leaders.

But growth has been slow for years, and life is tipping into decline.   Numbers now shown percent of Italian families under the poverty line, and 15 percent have trouble spreading their salary over the month.

“The level of anger is great because before you could slough it off,” Stille said.   "Now life is harder.

Italians rarely associate this crop of aging leaders with capacity to change: They are, in fact, the same people who have battled it out, trading terms in power, for more than a decade.   Last year, they voted out Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's richest man and prime minister first in 1994, for not keeping his promises for American style growth and opportunity on merit.   When he left office, economic growth was zero.

But after the election, it became clear that getting rid of Berlusconi would be no magic cure.   Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who also had the job from 1996 to 1998, has been saddled with a shaky coalition of nine warring parties.

He promised a clean slate, but his unwieldy center-left government disappointed with its first symbolic act.    Its cabinet had 102 ministers, a new record.   He has managed to push through two reform packages, and the economy is growing again.   “Ours is not a happy situation, but it is better than before,” Prodi said.

But the government has fallen once and threatens to again at every difficult vote.   Small proposals spur protestors to the streets, one difficulty making change as protected interests seek to preserve themselves.   Pharmacists closed their doors this year when the government threatened to allow supermarkets to sell aspirin.   The cost for just 20 aspirin tablets at a pharmacy: $5.75.

The measure passed, but in all, the government is largely paralyzed.   Voters are fed up, and Prodi's opponents know it.

“I understand the bad humor, the malaise,” said Gianfranco Fini, leader of National Alliance, the second largest opposition party.   “People are starting to get strongly angry because you have a government that doesn't do anything.”

There is a connection between the nation's errant political system and its worsening mood.

Economically, it was once easy to solve problems by devaluing the lira.   That is now impossible with the euro, which has also increased prices, particularly for housing

Then there is the family:  The divorce rate has risen.   Large families have been replaced by one of Europe's lowest birth rates, the fewest children under 15 and with the greatest number of people over 85 apart from Sweden.

Unemployment is low, 6 percent.   But 21 percent of people aged 15 to 24 did not work in 2006.   And the old are not letting go.

Evidence of Italy's age is everywhere: In parks, clutches of old ladies coo at a single toddler.   On television, stars are craggy (median age for the presenters of this year's Miss Italia contest: 70.   The winner, Silvia Battisti, was 18).   In politics, Froth is 68, Berlusconi is 71.

“The generational problem is the Italian problem,” said Mario Adinolfi, 36, a blogger and aspiring politician.   “In every country young people hope.   Here in Italy there is no hope anymore.

"Your mom keeps you home nice and softly and you stay there and you don't fight.   And if you don't fight, it is impossible to take power from anybody."

He added: “We don't have a Google.   We can't imagine in Italy that a 30 year old opens a business in a garage."

In September, word spread through a house of young Romans, over beer and pasta, that Luciano Pavarotti, the tenor and arguably the world's most famous Italian, had died.   `Dammit" yelled Federico Boden, 28, a student.   "Now all we have is pasta and pizza!"

Italy does not seem to rank as it once did for greatness.   There is no new Fellini, Rossellini or Loren.   Its cinema, television, art, literature, music are rarely considered on the cutting edge.

But it does have Ferrari, Ducati, Vespa, Armani, Gucci, Piano, Illy, and Barolo — all symbols of style and prestige.   What Italy has is itself — and many believe the future rests in trade-marking mystique into "Made in Italy."

Italian wine was an early test.   Producers moved with success from quantity swill to quality.   Illy, the coffee house, has flourished by combining quality and uniformity — they make just one blend — with innovation in methods and style in presentation.

"This is where Italians are winners.” said Andrea Illy, the company's president.   "Use your particular strengths, which are beauty and culture.”

But Italian industry depended on low wages, making it vulnerable to competition from China as labor costs here rose.   Alarms began ringing several years ago, with fears that many of Italy's traditional businesses — textiles, shoes, clothes — could not compete.   Many could not: In northeast Friuli Giulia, a capital of chair making, the number of chair companies has shrunk to about 800 from 1,200.

"At first they thought this phase would just pass," said Massimo Martino, director of Max Design, a small furniture company.   "But in reality many businesses ended up closing because fundamentally the market didn't need them anymore.   They didn't want to change.”

Some companies took up the challenge.   Wood was the primary material there, but Martino began to create chairs, mostly of molded plastic, well-designed but inexpensive.

Others decided competing on price against China was impossible.   Instead, the aim would be quality and Italy's uniqueness, something China could not match.

Pietro Costantini, head of a third generation furniture company, said he began focusing not just on the upper end — he makes extra-large furniture for big Americans — but created lines that would sell the Italian lifestyle itself.   Customers, he said, are returning.

"For example, if you pick a Russian type of customer, he must have a German car, a Swiss watch and Italian clothing," he said.   "Like Italian clothing, we are sure they are looking at Italian furniture:”

It is not clear this “Made in Italy" strategy will be enough.   Skeptics argue that foreign investment, research and development, and venture capitalism remain too low, as does competitiveness with other European countries.

But the nation's entrepreneurs are one bright spot in a landscape with few others.   Some argue the younger generation is another key, if not now then when those in power die off.   They are educated, well traveled and — like Beppe Grillo, an actor and comedian, in attracting his masses — use the Internet.

Peter Kiefer contributed reporting from Rome and Trieste and Elisabetta Povoledo contributed from Rome.

Web sites, awful and not

By Alice Rawsthorn

Sunday, September 28, 2008

 

LONDON: When did you last see a well-designed Web site? One that wasn't just great to look at, but so easy to use that you found what you wanted effortlessly? And when did you last grumble about a badly designed site having spent far too long trying - and failing - to find something?

 

I'd love to think that there'd be more enthusiastic answers to the first question, than grouchy responses to the second. But sadly for the millions of us who waste so much time struggling to extract information from the Web, it's bound to be the other way around. The blunt truth is that far from being visually pleasing, intelligently organized and simple to use, too many Web sites are ugly, cluttered, sluggish and brain-fuddlingly difficult to navigate.

There's no logical explanation for this. Lots of smart design graduates go into Web design, and it's at the forefront of technological innovation. Even corporate dinosaurs now recognize the value of a well-designed Web site, and design budgets have risen accordingly. Why then are so many sites so poorly designed?

1. It's difficult. Designing anything well is difficult, but Web design is especially so. One reason is because it's such a new medium that there are few design rules, and most of them were imported (not always successfully) from print. Its newness also means that the 99 percent of us who use Web sites, rather than create them, aren't sure how to judge whether or not they're well designed. Another problem is that technology changes so fast that Web designers constantly have to abandon old tricks and learn new ones. (A particularly painful lesson seems to be designing sites that are remotely legible on cellphone screens.)

A third is that the designers have no control over how their work will be seen, because that is influenced by so many other factors. Will the site be seen on a computer or cellphone? If it's the former, on a Mac or PC? (Even typefaces can look different on the various formats. Take Georgia - gorgeous on a Mac, and ungainly on a PC.) The type of browser changes things, too, as does whether the screen is adjusted correctly for brightness and color, and if it's dusty or stained. But don't feel too sorry for Web designers. They don't help themselves by working - and showing off their sites to clients - on state-of-the-art computers. Popping into an Internet café to use its elderly PCs would give a more realistic impression of how most people will actually see their work.

2. Too flash by half. One of the worst habits of Web designers - and the clients who let them get away with it - is to "prettify" sites with digital animations created by Flash software. Think of how many times you've logged off Web sites because you've been locked into a seemingly endless (often irritating) animation. That's Flash. It was fashionable in the late 1990s, but fell from favor when Web designers started obsessing over "simplicity."

Ironically Flash still tends to be popular with would-be fashionable brands. The chief offenders are fashion labels. Chanel, Dior, Lanvin, Stella McCartney and Louis Vuitton all have unfashionably Flashy sites. "Often those brands are trying to recreate their print ads, which are very elaborate and very beautiful," said Daljit Singh, creative director of Digit, a Web design group in London. "You just can't recreate that level of finesse on the Web."

3. More isn't always merrier. Another common crime is cluttering up Web sites with inessential stuff that makes it harder for you to find what you're looking for. "I don't understand why people think that putting everything on the page will attract more clicks," said Chanuki Seresinhe, co-founder of the London design firm Design Science Office. "It just confuses users. We're already overwhelmed with too much information, so why do they throw too many choices at us?" Quite. She cites the online shop of Liberty, the London department store, as an example of a site that's "full of useful features without creating too much clutter."

 

4. Not that you'd notice. A well-designed Web site looks so straightforward and is so thoughtfully organized that you can find your way around it instinctively. One of Singh's favorite examples is Google Maps. "Just fantastic!" he said. "It goes to show that keeping things simple and human does make a difference." The better designed a site's navigation is, the more intuitively we'll use it. Like the user interface software with which we operate cellphones and other digital devices, we only tend to notice Web design when it goes wrong.

One obstacle to usability is the fragmented nature of many Web design "teams." The designer often works with a user experience expert, who's in charge of navigation, as well as a graphic designer responsible for the aesthetic of the site and the developer that builds it. With so many people pitching in, it isn't surprising that Web sites often seem incoherent.

5. To print, or not to print. Sometimes I wonder whether Web site designers are so entranced by their screens that they never print anything on paper. They certainly seem determined to stop the rest of us from doing so, either by making it fiendishly difficult or ensuring that the end result is barely legible.

A prime culprit is www.nationalrail.co.uk, the online information service for Britain's railroads. The site is so poorly planned that details of a single journey are spread across several screens, and printing the information gobbles up pages of paper. A link to "Timetables you can Print" just fobs you off with directions to other sites. Then there's www.ica.org.uk, the Web site of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. It looks O.K. on-screen, at least it does on a Mac because the font is Georgia in an elegant shade of gray. But if you print a page, the gray type is so pale that it's barely discernible. Great.

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