There are three essential following steps to illustrate our own charisma on the Net. The first is organized around an operations’ set summarized with the words "designing a website", the second step is concentrated around the "research and development of content" to be placed and the third is called  "maintenance of the site." The three stages are in chronological order, but passed a year you must start from the structure to improve the usability of the site, to update the style to today’s graphic tastes and, above all, to keep it alive and "attractive".

Presenting the charism

The desire to tell our own charisma on the Web is born by our Religious Institute or Congregation’ s love, by the desire to know how the charism is updated in today's society and everything that the founder or foundress have to tell us today. Already in 2000 the Pontifical Council for Social Communications pointed out that "the Church would be well served if those who hold offices and perform functions in her name received communication training"[1]. Recall that a website is an immediate presence, interactive and -now more than never- participatory.
We must use our creative skills and cultivate the ideas of efficient site structuring. After identifying the people taking care of the website, we start doing an intense group brainstorming (or storm in the brain) where we expose all points of view on the design and content to be included on the site; then we will try to practice and cultivate creative display, a process that helps us to think and refine the site metaphor, or that set of graphics and text is our charisma. Those who work with and for young people could choose the metaphor of a path with, on the background, the silhouettes of some young on backlit. This production stage requires the presence of a "project manager" that holds the strings of what is being gradually realized. Who directs the work of design and construction of the site should belong to the Institute, having a good knowledge, from the inside, of charisma. You do not need to know programming or to be responsible for graphics, it is essential, however, that he could translated into lines and colors charisma.

Step by step

We start from the structure of the site: it is the context that makes possible to navigate, that organizes informative content and defines the relationship. It is the answer to the expectations of the persons to whom it is addressed. The greatest expert in this field, Jacob Nielsen, has repeatedly said that it is important to understand the mindsets of the users of a site: "Designing the structure of your site without collecting the information about your users can cost you much. No matter how your site looks attractive and sophisticated: if users can not understand it, is worth nothing. You have to plan for their comfort, not for your "[2]. This is why the language must be appropriate to the present day! There is an anthology that would  be displayed here, about some Religious Institutes’ sites. The basic structure of most used is hierarchical: a home page gets you to the pages of the next level and this leads to the next and so on. A structure that can be represented by a tree diagram and must meet the following conditions: consistent subdivision with the goals; easily understood by visitors; lack of overlap content between the various sections of the site, and the use of a clear terminology to indicate the various sections.

      The site map has a function similar to a book index, it shows how the various content are organized and helps to get there quickly. It is a means of access to every single page of the site, facilitates the understanding of the structure without forcing the user to scroll needlessly. It is a "graphic representation at the highest level of abstraction of the architecture of the site'.[3] With the map, it is designed to navigate the site which is to be predictable; it should make the visitor feeling able to explore the site; it should allow to move back and forth with the certainty of not getting lost.

Areas and Graphic

An important part of the navigation system are the tools used to ferry us from one point to another of the site: navigation bars, dropdown menus, index, search box, table of contents and site map. The home page briefly explains the purpose of the site and what it offers to the user. Two areas of the page contain an explicit statement of the subject site: the tagline and the welcome blurb. The first of these areas, the tagline, located right on the site, is read as a description of the entire site, while the welcome blurb or words of welcome, is a concise description of the site, a text block highlighted in its own right, visible without scrolling. We must not linger to describe our mission, but it should be left to the visitors the joy of exploration. Please note that nothing beats a good tagline! We are looking for a nice concise phrase that characterizes the entire charisma,  summing up the meaning and identity of it. Users expect to find a concise statement of the purpose of the site: six / eight words are sufficient. An example? At the institutional site of the Salesians, www.sdb.org we read: "walking with young people."

     About the design of a site, necessary we have to highlight the following elements: the layout of the pages should be optimized for the most popular video format;, the graphics and color choices have to quickly identify the most important information; the colors must be nice; they should be used clearly legible and clear in relation to the background color; the graphics must be pleasing as a whole. We should not forget "empty" space that separate the various logical blocks within the page and help us to recognize the content that should cover from 50% to 80% of the page. A quality web site supports the user in performing functions that are used, such as, for example, to operate a research and communicate with who runs the site.

The contents and their attitude

     The information content of the site must be reliable, timely and understandable. They are grouped in categories appropriate to the objectives that the site aims to achieve. For this purpose it is essential to create a visual hierarchy that is the separation of content more important than secondary and complementary, for example through the different sizes of fonts, colors and spacing. It should also highlighted the similarity of the content by grouping them under one title, presenting them with a similar style or placing them in an area clearly defined. There are various types of content classification. In general, a good organizational scheme should suggest a clear mental model, intelligible to visitor. In reference to how to write for a site, the third law of usability Krug says: "Get rid of half the words on each page, and then got rid of half of what remains”.[4] Long texts and "without structure" do not work on the Internet. It needs to write synthetic and concentrates texts. The syntax must be flat, it not be used unnecessary adjectives or adverbs. Treating the text for the web is a must. We are thinking of the beauty of our charism, which is structured in apostolic activities. We put also all the care that we are able to tell it! With respect to content, it is important that offered information is reliable because it is enough an imprecise information to destroy a heritage of credibility, won with great difficulty. It should be borne in mind that "users are so busy, and on the Web is so much information that it is not worth wasting time on the rest of a page if what you see at the beginning of the page is not of convincing value» [5]. What we write must be written and edited to touch the hearts and minds of our readers. The images associated with texts should not be weighing and must be of good quality as well as evocative or of documentation. The site that tells our charism and our presence in the Church has to be constantly manned. By whom? By the webmaster or site manager, by technician web farm where our web site is hosted as well by the Internet Access Providers, or by any person who, directly or indirectly, guarantees the correct functionality.

Care and Listen
      Every religious family who runs the site must take care that meets the objectives of charisma. It must ensure that the information architecture of the site is maintained, it must also ensure its adaptation to the demands which are slowly changing. Particular attention should be paid in connection with site users: do not go so never left unanswered e-mails arriving at the site and our response should be prepared, courteous and personalized.

     Being present with a corporate website designed according to orthodox canons and maintained with creativity and fidelity to the charism, it is a real challenge for vocational animation today. We must go to the new generations speaking the language they understand best. This commitment will be possible if we cultivate an attitude of listening and a bold proposal of  values in ​​the prospect of a life that is not afraid to go against. We use the chat as a genuine dialogue of values, we use the blog to talk about the beauty of the response to the call to consecrated life, we use the forum to talk and answer questions that young people want to do to us and then we use social networks to go from being on the net to be network. It commits ourselves to have a lovely and daily maintained site. But it is worth spending more and more, because  young people lives in the web, are nomads of the web and there they must find us, consecrated men and women, happy to tell the charisma that gave meaning to our life choice.

[1] PONTIFICIO CONSIGLIO DELLE COMUNICAZIONI SOCIALI, Etica nelle comunicazioni sociali, 2000, 26.   

i2] J. NIELSEN-H. LORANGER, Web usability 2.0. L’usabilità che conta, Apogeo, Milano 2006, 173-174.     

[3] M. VISCIOLA, Usabilità dei siti Web, Apogeo, Milano 2000, 155.         

[4] S. KRUG, Don’t make me think, Hops Libri, Tecniche Nuove, Milano 45.      

[5] J. NIELSEN-H. LORANGER, Web usability…, 45.

Caterina Cangià fma
Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione
Università LUMSA - Roma
sisternet@thesisternet.it