Italia.it - the (Brand) Connection Has Timed Out

It's taking too long to respond, there is no connection. It doesn't happen only on a high volume day, it happens also when too many are involved in creating a site.

Italy made a brutta figura (egg all over its figurative face) when the project to create the country's official Web site went South.

How did that happen? Apparently, too much of everything was thrown at the project - money ($66 Million), time (5 years), and people. According to the WSJ [hat tip to Jonathan Trenn]:

Several government ministries -- in two administrations -- and each of Italy's 20 regions were involved in creating the portal. Associations of travel agencies and hotel owners had their say as well, while the design and creation of the site was assigned to a consortium of three different companies.

Mamma mia! The brand connection has indeed timed out. Projects of the scale of this one will fail without a clear vision and direction. No Web site has ever made sense when designed by committee. What this project needs is a strong visionary to become the champion. Here's how I would go about it:

• Decide who the champion for the project is. She/he will then hire one agency to create the user requirements. 
• Figure out who your audience is. Is it tourists? Good, now proceed to write up the requirements for what that looks like. What do they want to do? Where would you like to focus their attention?
• Get all the people who need to be involved on the same page. Interview designated representatives from the regions, associations, hotel owners - enough of them to know that you are looking at some trends.
• Collect their ideas and comments on paper. Summarize, call out the insights.
• Use the input from all interested parties and the information about your audience to write up a user requirements document.
• Take that document and translate those requirements into a wireframe.
• Mock it up in an interactive environment and test it. Does it allow a user to do what he wants to do? Good.
• Collect, index, write, edit and fact check all content. Repeat for photographs and illustrations. Do so in a way that allows you to connect the dots for your audience.
• Remember that you do not want to show them and give them everything on the site - just enough to whet the appetite and to provide an experience without overwhelming. Link to other, specialized sites for depth, if necessary.
• Find a good agency to design and create all the interactive elements of the site. They will work with the wireframes and the copy.
• Get the content up and test navigation and flow.
• Review, tighten, make sure the whole site is telling a story - the brand narrative.
• Launch and keep on top of it.
• Include a social media layer once you have a stable site. It will help you show the character of the people inside the story you are telling. Italians are fabulously hospitable. I can talk from experience.

This may seem quite simplistic, but getting this kind of project off the ground requires clarity and lots of direction. I'm sure you have plenty to add to this list. Heavens, it should not be so hard. Italy practically sells itself! Everyone back away and let the champion do her work. Put the brand personality in and the connection will be there.

[image of Valle del Panaro, Samone di Guiglia (MO), Roby Ferrari]

Comments

[Dion Hughes]

Oh, that's so very sad. Isn't it just incredible how smart people get in the way of themselves - time and again. I agree with your process list. Reminds me of some very smart advice I received once from David Dabill, now partner at NY ad agency Toy. I was laying out in great detail my vision for the agency of the future - structure, offering, staffing etc etc. He agreed with all of it, but felt that if I was to create it, it would end up looking nothing like what I had originally planned. And that such a perfectly detailed picture of the future was holding me back. His advice: just start. The rest will happen organically, guided by your own instincts, events of the day, and yes, that original vision.

[Rick Simmons]

This is a good example of what happens on smaller scales every day with many nonprofits looking to really engage the online space. The well meaning nonprofit has the necessity to run everything through a committee which not only slows down the process but very often ends up like this project - out of scope, out of budget and out of time.

Yes I am suggesting a shift in how nonprofits might want to consider running their online work. Give it someone who is dedicated to the cause and let them run with it - I know this flies in the face of "how things have always been done" but this medium needs a different approach and from definition for most nonprofits - you have a group of passionate folks who are dedicated to your cause. Many more are online looking to connect with you - don't slow down the process.
By the time you agree on what to do now - it is 3 months too late.

[Gianluca Brugnoli]

The site was shut down by Francesco Rutelli, the former Italian Ministry of Tourism, in January 2008, after one year of problems and plenty of protests from the Italian web professional community.

Rutelli, who inherited the portal by the previous Government, acknowledged the problems of the project which was "born already obsolete in technological, organizational and conceptual terms".

The technical partner who won and led the entire project was IBM.

The 20 regions and other institutions, was involved as content providers, not as designers or managers.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Dion - you bring up a good observation. The best sites I launched were sort of incomplete at launch but they beat other "perfect" sites within short weeks. One of the reasons why it is easier to tweak and experiment on the go is that you got over the site launch jitters. it's out there and now you can breathe and become comfortable with how it is being used.

@Rick - I like your connection between the passion that characterizes non profits and that of those who are dedicated to the online medium. It's hard not to be obsolete quickly in this age that is a bit addicted to newness, too.

@Gianluca - thank you for providing some insight into the project. It hurts to see a country with such beauty, cultural heritage, and much of so many other things get bogged down by bureaucracy. Brand Italy deserves to shine, it has a big heart and fabulous style.

[Sara Borghi]

da Italiana condivido appieno le tue osservazioni, Valeria!

Il nostro ò un paese splendido, dove la personalità è espressa in ogni singola regione,provincia,paese.

Ma dal punto di vista turistico, manca proprio una "narrativa" che valorizzi e colleghi i vari nodi territoriali (senza considerare la mancanza di un'istituzione che li promuova sul mercato in modo innovativo e che offra una "vision" per il futuro...), e il problema si è rispecchiato (ed enfatizzato con conseguenza drastiche)anche a livello di web design.

Sono però fiduciosa che prima o poi, anche il nostro bel paese troverà il "champion" in grado di scogliere questi nodi e rinnovare il nostro brand anche a livello online! c'è tanto movimento nell'aria...

[Valeria Maltoni]

For those of you who don't speak Italian - shame on you! Kidding ;-) Sara here is saying that she shares many of the points I made. Italy *is* a magnificent country and each region, province and town has its own personality. If you traveled to Italy, you will know that already.

The country misses, however, the narrative that would connect and highlight the various places - not to mention the lack of a central body that would champion and promote a vision of the future. The symptoms are evident in the web design, alas.

There is a lot going on right now, so there might be a brighter future for Italy online and the country's brand.

[Margherita]

...not so confident there's a lot going on in Italy right now...but who knows let's keep hoping something like italia.it won't happen again!

[NWGuy]

Valeria,

It's sad to see a project like this fail but how could it succeed with all of the different passions. The main government site should have just been a large umbrella and let each region provide their own vision. Of course, easier said than done. No way would I want to coordinate something like this for the 50 states in the US.

It's more natural for things to grow than to design/build for the big bang approach.

Hope you enjoy your time away; going back home to refresh?

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Margherita - hope is the last to die, isn't it? I root for Italians helping Italy find its voice.

@Bruce - plenty of passion, I'm sure. What is hardest in a project of this scope is not deciding what to put in, rather what you take out. One vision would be a catalyst for corollary and complementary sites, I think. It's the white paper or blank screen syndrome. Gotta have something to react to! I will enjoy my time off for sure.

[gluca]

maybe you don't know that the italia.it disaster had a bizzarre spinoff, with an attempt from italian blogosphere to re-write from the bottom the project or at least give advices, by a voluntary and loosed coupled team of web designer, consultants, etc.
For the launch of this alternative project, called ritalia.it, a crowdy barcamp was arranged, with a lot of talks and so on: but, apart of barcamp, no one took really on operative steps in the months after.
My wrap up: top-bottom project didn't work, bottom-up project didn't work. At least Italy should try some kind of mashup :)
cu soon
gluca

[Valeria Maltoni]

Actually I did know about Ritalia.it, I even blogged about it at the time. I forgot to link to it in related posts ;-)

You bring up another good point and a further example that without a champion owning the project the best of intentions fail.