LOC Persona Memo
Intro:We have decided to localize the official website of the Olympic Movement for the Spanish and Lebanese audience groups through primary and secondary research including online research as well as interviews. During our research we were able to find quite a bit of cultural information regarding both groups, including color schemes, page layouts, and navigational preferences. |
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To research the Lebanese culture we navigated through several Arabic news sites as well as Lebanon’s homepage and other Lebanese-based web pages. While searching through these sites we found several commonalities such as:
In addition to searching Arabic websites, we also spoke with Khalil Rahal, a Lebanon native who resides in Dearborn, Michigan. Our interview with Rahal gave us some insight on the Lebanese culture and their stance on the Olympics and what sports are valued in his culture. Khalil Rahal informed us that:
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Intro: Rami is a 24 year old senior at Grand Valley State University majoring in International Relations/Pre-law and is planning to graduate in the fall. In his 5 year run at GVSU Rami has celebrated two national championships on the Grand Valley football team and has made the Dean’s List every year except his freshman year. Background: Rami is originally from Lebanon but moved to the United States with his family at the age of 5. From there on he grew up in Dearborn, Michigan with his mother, father and 3 younger siblings. Rami’s family also housed several family members for various periods of time as they moved to the U.S. and got on their feet. As a result, family is extremely important to him and he cherishes his cousins as brothers and sisters. Although he has grown up in Michigan and has lived on the west side of the state for the last five years, Rami is still extremely connected to his culture. He travels home to Dearborn on an every-other-week basis and enjoys the fact that his family stays very true to their culture, watching Lebanese cable, cooking traditional Arabic food and solely speaking Arabic. Sports: Rami has a very competitive nature (hence wanting to be a lawyer), that he gets from his family and has a great appreciation for all sports. He eats, sleeps and breaths football, and also enjoys soccer, basketball and hockey (which is the only winter sport he’ll follow). TV: When the TV is on, which is whenever Rami is home, it is constantly switching back and forth from ESPN, ESPN2, and MSNBC. He likes to stay up to date on all sports, news and politics. Rami’s other love outside of football and politics is music. BET is always in the lineup of channels and he secretly lives to watch American Idol on FOX. Internet Usage: Rami is always online. He loves to sit in his room and download music, play chess and poker online and check Facebook. Rami also uses the internet on a daily basis to check BlackBoard, email friends, professors and family members and visits the Lebanon Daily Star website regularly. Internet Likes & Dislikes: Although Rami spends a lot of time online, he hates surfing the web. He doesn’t like to read through a lot of text and gets easily frustrated when he has to search for information on the web. He is familiar with the sites he visits regularly, but doesn’t venture off to new sites very often. When he does search for information online, Rami prefers websites that are well organized and structured and he is partial to websites that have clear headings and links that are easy to follow. Rami prefers sites that have greens and reds as the dominant colors and likes to have graphics that help you navigate through the site. When it comes to research, Rami would rather go to the library than stare at a computer screen all day. |
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Spanish Website Research:To research the Spain and the Spanish culture we navigated through a plethora of Spanish based sites, including some of their news and recreational sites, to get the overall look and feel of what their websites are about. We discovered that the sites are:
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Spanish Persona :Antonio Fidel Carrizales
Description: Antonio is 22 years old. He is 5’10 and has brown eyes and hair and has a somewhat athletic build. Background: Antonio grew up in Barcelona, Spain and is extremely proud of his Spanish heritage. He started his college education in Spain, but decided a year ago that he would like to study abroad in America. After making the necessary arrangements he was enrolled at Grand Valley State University in Michigan and was ready to begin the last two years of his college education. He is currently majoring in business and marketing, which he hopes will help him start his own business when he returns to Spain. Lifestyle: The first few months after Antonio’s arrival, he had some trouble adjusting to the different lifestyle of Americans. He found that most college students in the U.S. live a very fast paced life, balancing the stresses of school, work and personal relationships and leaving very little room for rest and relaxation. Of course, there was the exception of his roommate, Robert, who hardly ever did homework or went to class, and usually sat in front of the TV playing videogames. Antonio and Robert got along well despite their different upbringings. Robert was more like the people in Spain, he enjoyed rest and always seemed relaxed and stress-free. In Spain, people live a very laid back kind of lifestyle. They hardly ever rush. While talking to Robert about his life in Spain, Antonio told him about siesta, where everyone in Spain closes their businesses and shops down for a mid-afternoon lunch and nap break. Everyone goes home and takes a break from their work day, regardless of occupation. Antonio told Robert of his surprise at how many students in America do not do this at all. He noticed that many kids rush through fast food restaurants in between classes and work, instead of taking time to relax and eat lunch at their dorm or apartment. One other thing Antonio has trouble adjusting to is the weather in Michigan. Where he is from it is always very warm, even hot, on a daily basis. Here in Michigan, he finds the winters to be especially brutal, given that he is not used to cold weather of any kind. Even though he loves Michigan and the experiences he is having here, he misses his home country very much. Sports: Soccer and golf Internet use: Antonio greatly enjoys using the internet on campus. He checks his email every day and uses it to keep in touch with his friends and family in Spain. He usually spends about 2 to 3 hours online a day, doing school projects, checking Blackboard, and surfing the web for entertainment. Everyday he makes sure to visit the madridnews.com website, a popular newspaper that he used to read in Spain. |
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Design Suggestions for a Spanish-focused Website :When creating the Spanish site we will be incorporating many of the elements that are used in their own sites. We will be using many bright colors and lots of pictures since their websites are full of them. The graphics will be actual pictures, probably not clip art images since the sites I reviewed really didn’t seem to have any clip art or cartoon like images. The navigation bar will be on the left and possibly also along the top of the page, with the text of the site running from left to right. The page layout will also include an equal amount of texts and pictures, leaving no white space anywhere on the page. The tone of the page should be bright and cheery, given the color scheme we will be using. |
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References:Online Sources (Lebanon):http:// www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/le.html http:// www.lebanon.comhttp://www.raddadi.com Personal Interview:Rahal, Khalil, March 13, 2006.Online Sources (Spain): |
