Website Review

For this assignment, I will be critiquing the website of Andøyposten (Andoy News) the newspaper written for the small island community of Andøya in northern Norway. The website of Andøyposten is provided in addition to the standard paper available for purchase on the island. In addition the paper is available in pdf format, which can be purchased by subscription.

Starting with the basics, the page takes around 8 seconds to load fully, however the textual & design elements of the page load in about 2 seconds, with the remaining time being used to load the images used to illustrate the stories displayed.

In a practical sense, the page displays everything the reader needs in a concise, easy to follow format, with most of the pertinent information being displayed "above the fold". More importantly, it follows a number of good website design and accessibility principles; all images are sized appropriately (rather than scaled down via html code), all images contain a "Title" tag and those tags are descriptive and relevant, and almost without exception, all text is displayed in textual format (rather than the often overused headings in image format).

The first speeds up the overall loading time of the page as reducing the dimensions of the images also reduces their file size, the latter two provide the best means of accessibility to those using screen readers. The use of text only to display textual elements also provides the added side effect, and what is probably more important from my own point of view, the ability for Google Translate to translate almost all of the page from Norwegian to English (as someone with only a basic grasp of the Norwegian Language this is essential for me).

The page is divided into 5 sections, the header, left column, main body, right column and footer. Section is clearly defined through the use of borders and background colours.

I will look at each of these sections in turn.

The Header contains the newspapers masthead (which links to the main page), a small banner link to "Se sommerbildene" (See Summer Pictures), and a small banner ad for a popular Norwegian comic book.

The Left Column is used for navigation, with clearly defined section headings; Nyheter (News), Bilder og Video (Photos & Videos), Tjenester (Services) and Kontakt OSS (Contact Us) each with a set of related subheadings. Unlike a national newspaper who's main focus is providing up to date information on all breaking news, it is clear that this site is focused on providing information and content pertinent to the local community, with subheadings leading to galleries of user uploaded images & videos and shipping information (the major township of Andenes is the centre of the regions extensive fishing industry).

The Main Body of the page contains a selection of headlines, (each accompanied by a relevant photo, a small snippet from the story, and a link to the full text of that story) - the latest story occupies a prominent position, and spans 2 columns. This is followed by 4 older stories, each 1 column in width, and then a 2 column width banner image that links to a book review in pdf format, and finally 4 further stories, and a link to another page with older stories still.

The Right Column is used to clearly display the contact details for the paper along with a small image of the papers current front page which links to a subscription site allowing you to purchase the current copy.

The Footer is used to display the name and contact details of the editor (although the contact details are identical to those displayed in the Right Column, so it makes this section redundant.

While the site is definitely not "flashy" and forsakes the now seemingly commonplace use of flash, I believe it does achieve its purpose, which is to provide content that is both, useful and of interest to the local community that it serves.

In a mostly unrelated note, it was interesting to critique a non-English language website, as I found it was easier to concentrate more on the design and practical side of the website, and less on the content it contained.

An Introduction

Before I begin using this blog for documenting my studies for ITC216, I wanted to say a quick hello.

My name is Rebecca; I'm an Australian currently living in Trondheim, Norway. I moved here about 4.5 years ago with my Norwegian husband.

Let me tell you a little about Trondheim, and Norway in general.

Trondheim is the 3rd largest city in the Kingdom of Norway, and has a population of approximately 175,000 people (Norway itself only has a population of 5 million). It is a city that dates back over 1000 years, having been founded in 997 in the Viking age, by the then King Olav Tryggvason.

Initially a market town, Trondheim is now home to the Norwegian University of Technology - NTNU, and a growing technology industry, as well as the world famous Nidros Cathederal,

When people think of Norway, they are likely to think of Vikings, Skiing, the Northern Lights (the image to the left is copyright Tony Gulla) and tragically, most recently of the events in Oslo and Ultøya on 22nd July 2011, there is a lot more to the country than this. Having what is rated (by the United Nations), as one of the highest standards of living in the world; the Norwegian people like to spend a lot of time enjoying the great outdoors, with hiking, skiing and trips to the mountains being national pursuits.

Having grown up in the Northern Territory, (although I most recently lived in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney), Norway is a very different change from what I was used to. Aside from needing to learn a new language (Norway has 2 official written language and numerous spoken languages as each region has its own often quite distinct dialect), the biggest change would have to be getting used to the weather.

While summer here provides similar temperatures to those found in places like Sydney (without the scorching summer days that occur in Sydney a few times a year), the biggest difference is the length of the days; As Trondheim is situated outside the Arctic Circle (which is about 400km north of here), we don’t experience the true “midnight” sun effect of the sun never setting, however for all practical purposes by the summer solstice (21st June) the days are 24 hours long (the time between the sun setting and rising again is not dark, but consists of a post sunset/pre sunrise twilight that is light enough to be for all intents and purposes daylight).

Winter is the real eye opener – once summer fades away in August/early September, the seasons rapidly sprint towards winter, and it’s not unheard of to see the first snowfall in Trondheim in late October, early November. Temperatures rapidly drop, and the phenomenon of it being “too cold to snow” takes hold. In the middle of winter, it is not unheard of for the temperature to not go above zero for weeks at a time, indeed here we usually have at least one week each year when the maximum temperatures dip below minus fifteen (-15 C) and minimum temperatures are below minus twenty (-20 C) with the windchill factor making it feel like minus thirty (-30 C) or below (the coldest I’ve experienced is -32 with a comfort level of -38). While it would be nice to be able to remain indoors in weather like this (Norwegian houses are designed to retain heat), the practicalities of life here doesn’t allow that to happen and daily life continues no matter the weather.

Even the extreme cold is bearable; it just takes some planning (and suitable clothing), my biggest issue with the winter is ice. With a large amount of the winter being for all intents and purposes too cold to snow, the well worn roads & paths of Trondheim quickly turn into sheets of ice, as snow is trampled into slush (particularly when the temperature hovers around zero), which then freezes into slippery patches of smooth clear ice just waiting to slip up the inexperienced pedestrian (namely me). It took a while to learn that there is a certain way of walking on ice, which is completely different to walking on normal surfaces, it’s something the Norwegian people do instinctively, but a lesson I’m still trying to learn.

In addition to the dangers of slipping on ice on the pavement, as the weather warms and snow softens, there is also the added danger of ice falling from above (large chunks falling from atop a 2 story building can do quite a lot of damage), this is another thing that Norwegians don’t think to mention to newcomers – it’s probably something they learnt as children, and don’t even think about anymore.

All negatives aside, living here is an adventure I wouldn’t want to miss, and the harsh weather does give way to incredible scenery that more than makes up for it, and a warm and inviting people who are incredibly proud of their heritage and lifestyle.

Anyways, that’s it for now what was going to be a “quick hello” has turned into an epic tale, far longer than I was intending.