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VICO 4188/6188
SPIRITUALITY IN ATHENS
CREATED BY Max Catalano Jenna Hyman Kathryn Maynard Sarah Melaragno Zul Tinarbuko Evann Figueroa
SOUL OF ATHENS 2020
ABOUT THE PROJECT
THE IDEA This story originated as a concept: Athens, Ohio is a progressive community, thanks in part to Ohio University. Its people are openminded and welcoming. It has several religious establishments throughout the city, essentially making it a "bubble" or "microcosm" of diversity, seeing as the surrounding area is predominantly rural, white and Christian. Our group decided to take that idea and pose a question: What makes Athens so religiously diverse? How many religions make a home in the city? How do townsfolk participate in these groups and how does the city affect their worship? In recent years, religion has come to have an underhanded, negative connotation. It's been associated with several negative stories in the media and around the globe. We originally wanted to showcase underrepresented people within their religions or underrepresented religions within Athens, and show how these religions help people. We wanted to show how positive and uplifting religion could be. As time passed, our story changed and grew. In Athens, we discovered different religious communities don't all have the same access to resources (such as practice locations), but have each adapted in their own ways. We decided to feature four different people from four separate faith groups within Athens, Ohio and tell their stories: about them, how they started practicing their faith, about their religion or spirituality, and what practicing in Athens is like.
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MEET THE TEAM PEOPLE BEHIND THE PROJECT
MAX CATALANO
JENNA HYMAN
SENIOR,
SOPHOMORE,
PHOTOJOURNALISM
PHOTOJOURNALISM
MEDIA PRODUCER, VIDEO EDITOR
MEDIA PRODUCER, PHOTO EDITOR
KATHRYN MAYNARD
SARAH MELARAGNO
SENIOR,
SENIOR,
INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA
INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA
ILLUSTRATOR, UX DESIGNER
INFOGRAPHIC CREATOR, UX DESIGNER
EVANN FIGUEROA
ZUL TINARBUKO
FIRST-YEAR GRADUATE,
SECOND-YEAR GRADUATE,
INFORMATION GRAPHICS & INTERACTIVE DESIGN
ANIMATION & INTERACTIVE MEDIA
PROJECT MANAGER, DEVELOPER
SOUL OF ATHENS 2020
ANIMATION, DEVELOPER
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OUR SCOPE At first, our team wanted to develop and design an interactive and responsive website focused on showcasing some of the voices and experiences of underrepresented individuals within religious communities in Athens, Ohio. The phrase “underrepresented individuals” as it would have been used in our project referred to individuals with an aspect of their identity (race, sexuality, political views, etc.) that placed them in a minority within their religion. This idea changed to simply show the impact of religion in the Athens community by focusing on individual stories in different religious groups.
Upon selecting a profile, the user would be taken to a separate page containing more information about the individual as well as relevant supporting historical and geographic context of the religion’s demographics and related information. Through the juxtaposition of objective demographic data with the voices and firsthand experiences of local individuals, our team intended to visualize why practicing a religion or spirituality in Athens is so unique through a more intimate and personal lens.
We wanted the landing page of the website to feature profiles of local individuals that the user could choose to explore.
OUR OBJECTIVES Share the voices and experiences of various local individuals in separate religious/spiritual communities within Athens city limits. Visualize the issue of unequal access to resources that makes practice possible on a more personal level. Explain why religion in Athens in unique.
SOUL OF ATHENS 2020
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INSPIRATION
THE HIDDEN WORLDS OF THE NATIONAL PARKS BY GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE
BREAD
BY THE NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA
TO SUCH A PLACE
BY SOUL OF ATHENS 2018
SOUL OF ATHENS 2020
GETTING STARTED
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FIRSTÂ IDEAS BRAINSTORMING AND PLANNING
SKETCHES
STORYBOARDING Our group decided the general story structure of each profile on our website should be the following: Introduce the individual Introduce the spirituality they practice (Emphasis on their individual practice, but mention general principles of the spirituality) Show the location(s) where they practice their spirituality (Discuss how these locations are unique to Athens) Discuss the spiritual community they are involved in locally (Shared beliefs or practices, demographics, access to support systems, public opinion, etc.)
FINDING SUBJECTS We reached out to many people over Facebook, email, phone, and we visited places in person. It took until February for us to receive responses back but after that, volunteers began to respond more quickly to our messages.
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EARLY RESEARCH Early research into our project yielded little results. Many sites had little information to offer on the topic of religion, seemingly because it was a case-bycase basis for recording the information we needed. Some establishments did have what we needed, some didn't. Even a trip to Alden Library on Ohio University's campus to ask for a librarian's help didn't result in any answers. We then had to take research into our own hands. We made sure to site our sources.
ORIGINAL SITE MAP
Our team found the following websites with information regarding our different religions: Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalists (http://uuathensoh.org) The Buddha’s Four Noble Truths (https://thebuddhistcentre.com/text/fournoble-truths) The Five Pillars of Islam (https://www.metmuseum.org/learn/educators/curriculum-resources/art-ofthe-islamic-world/unit-one/the-five-pillars-of-islam)
We wanted our project to work on a variety of systems. We made the site responsive to fit both tablet and mobile, and we were careful about testing on a variety of screen sizes: iPhone 6s, iPhone X, iPad Pro, PC, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and a Mac desktop. We mainly tested on Google Chrome browser. We utilized programs and tools such as Figma, Adobe InDesign, Premiere Pro, Lightroom, Photoshop, GitHub, Visual Studio Code, Slack, Zoom, Google Drive, OneDrive, Mapbox, Chart.js and FileZilla.
SOUL OF ATHENS 2020
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OUR TIMELINE WEEK 1
Sketch website layout, research infographics
WEEK 2
Find contacts, code basic website structure
WEEK 3
Storyboard, content collection, sketch infographic
WEEK 4
Prototype infographic, create style guide
WEEK 5
Continue content collection, prep Status Presentation 1
WEEK 6
User testing
WEEK 7
Status Presentation 1
WEEK 8
Finalize content, continue coding
WEEK 9
SPRING BREAK
WEEK 10
Content collected, edited, exported, and stored
WEEK 11
Status Presentation 2
WEEK 12
Finalize infographics, user testing
WEEK 13
Finalize code, start Master Process Document
WEEK 14
SOFT LAUNCH
WEEK 15
HARD LAUNCH
WEEK 16
Master Process Document and Post Mortem due
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COVID-19 & ITS IMPACT ON OUR PROJECT Near the end of spring break, Ohio University sent out a message to students alerting them that spring break had been extended a week and that all classes would convert to an online format. This meant a lot would change for Soul of Athens. After a few days of reworking our approach to this project, our group came up with a few easy solutions.
WHAT WE DID TO COMBAT THE CHANGES Utilized Zoom conference calling Scheduled three weekly video calls to keep communication open Continued to use Google Drive Began to use OneDrive as well to organize final content and share files online Decided to only focus on three stories instead of four Utilized what content we had to craft a new story structure
SOUL OF ATHENS 2020
BUILDING THE SITE
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PERSONAS
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PERSONAS CONTINUED
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PERSONAS CONTINUED
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PERSONAS CONTINUED
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STYLE GUIDE VERSION 1
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STYLE GUIDE CONTINUED VERSION 2
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USER TESTING & OTHER USEFUL FEEDBACK Points of feedback we worked on included: THE STORY Confusing quotes Tricky phrasing Narrative structure Exclusive title Thought the term “religion” wasn’t inclusive enough. Changed to “spirituality” to encompass religion, spirituality, faith, belief systems, etc.
STYLE GUIDE Color palette Colors chosen conflicted with naturally associated colors of different religions Font choice Same as Ohio University's official fonts
UX DESIGN Logo recognition Landing page background Story navigation Menu accessibility Our solution: remove dropdown navigation Progress bar Made thicker/more noticeable Responsiveness
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ILLUSTRATIONS The illustrations help add visual interest to the stories beyond the photos and videos (of which we had a limited amount as collecting was cut short due to COVID-19 safety concerns). Two of the illustrations were interactive, which helped keep visitors engaged as they scrolled through the stories.
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INFOGRAPHICS The introductory map provides the locations of every public spiritual center within Athens city limits. This map serves as a visual overlook of each center’s location relative to each other, the city’s geography, as well as a general resource for residents and visitors of Athens. Our team found the following websites for help collecting and confirming our infographic data: https://athensohio.com/category/community/religious-centers/ https://www.ohio.edu/student-affairs/students/places-worship https://www.churchfinder.com/churches/oh/athens The chart provides a visualization of the number of centers for each spirituality that has one. The maps within the profile pages function as informational resources as well as a visualization of the specific person’s access to public locations to practice their spirituality, relative to the total amount of spiritual centers in the city.
SOUL OF ATHENS 2020
FINAL PRODUCT
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DEVELOPMENT START
CONTINUED NEXT PAGE
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DEVELOPMENT CONTINUED
END
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OUR SITE You can find our website by visiting: http://2020.soulofathens.com/spirituality-in-athens/index.html#10.23/39.3132/-82.0697 This project is ©2020 Soul of Athens.
SOUL OF ATHENS 2020