New website – check it out!

Check out my portfolio website –http://www.veronikalesnakova.co.uk/

If you like what you see and you have a project in mind then I’m happy to hear from you.

Colour pallet

I used AdobeColour CC to help me to pick the right colours for my project.

I downloaded picture of old paper with writing from Google –

Inserted it into AdobeColour CC and it generated me the right colours from this picture –

 

Theory of colour

I have chosen to use different shades of brown colour for this project as while doing research, I found this picture –

and it gave me an idea of how the screen might look like. It has everything that I want to evoke in visitors but also photos of the house/rooms that I managed to get are in these colors. At the same time, it will be more suitable for old house as everything in there is in darker colors.

Meaning of brown colour – the color of earth, wood, elegance, security, healing, home, grounding, foundations, stability, warmth, and honesty, is a natural, neutral color.

(For more information about meaning of the colour brown, please click here)

XMind mind mapping tool

I came across to XMind tool which is there to help people do mind mapping.
It is easy to install and it helps you to clearly display your ideas.

This is what working screen looks like –

I used it to help me make clear what I need to do for this project –

Target audience

The target audience for this project are people interested in history, William Wilberforce and everything related to him. I am focusing on people from Yorkshire area as the William Wilberforce was born and grew up in Hull. But this does not mean that visitors will be mainly from Yorkshire area as he lived and died in London and he is well known person all around the world.
There is no age limit as everyone can be interested in William Wilberforce.

Discovery phase

Whatever you design, it is very important to design it right first time! This is the reason why we always need to do discovery phase to find out what users want/need and design product exactly the way they want so it is easy for them to use and they like design.

Step 1 – persona

Persona is a real or a fictional person who represents users for project – giving clear idea what they would like to see on the site, what they are their expectations and needs.
Information are collected by individual interviews, user testing, contextual interviews.

Here you can view persona for my project (they are real people) –

Persona – Leanne

Persona – Peter

Step 2 – Descriptive words

I asked my persona about three words that automatically come to their minds when  they hear  word ‘William Wilberforce’ to find out descriptive words from which I will later create slogan for my project.

This is what they answered –

Step 3 – Color

Color scheme will be grey/black/dark brown/white as photos of the house/rooms that I managed to get are in these colors. Also, it will be more suitable for old house as everything in there is in darker colors.

Step 4 – Style approach

Step 5 – Mood board

Mood boards are created to show what kind of emotions we want to create in users.
This is my mood board created for this project (pictures used are downloaded from Google!) –

 

Changes to the idea

I decided to make changes to the original idea for this project. If you wish to read more about it, please click here. I wasn’t able to track down any images of what rooms could look like when William Wilberforce lived in the house, but I managed to get pictures of a few rooms in the house after year 1884.
The change for this project will be that I am not going to display rooms from William Wilberforce time as there are no images available but I will display rooms from year 1884 where the house was used for business purposes.

Hull History Centre visit

My last museum that I can visit and get information I need for this project is Hull History Centre.

I went there and all they could find about William Wilberforce house (what I needed) was pictures of the house mostly from outside, some interior photos, from no earlier than 1884 which is not what I need.

However, I still chose 6 photos that I could use in my project and photocopied them.
Here they are –

Staircase, 1939

Staircase, 1888

High street, 1884

The room in which William Wilberforce was born, 1888

Wilberforce house, 1888

The room in which William Wilberforce was born

While I was waiting for the pictures, I had a look at books called Hull Then and Now, Hull Then and Now 2: Another Look at Hull’s Heritage, Hull Then and Now 3, Hull Then and Now: Volume 4 in a hope I will find some photos or basically anything to do with William Wilberforce house but there was nothing. However, I recommend reading these books as they have amazing information and photos of Hull in them.

 

The Victoria and Albert Museum, London

I had a look at The Victoria and Albert Museum’s website to see if I can find out information/pictures of furniture from William Wilberforce house.

When I tried to search for things that should be lent to this museum such as series of Chippendale, Hepplewhite and Sheraton design, an inlaid satinwood oval table and mahogany drop-leaf table with ball and claw feet; the silver tea urn dates to 1760 and bears the Wilberforce crest; clock made by Pridgin of Hull, c.1780; fireside chair and the reading chair (formerly belonging to Lord Carrington who was associated with the Wilberforce in banking); the Sheraton writing table, Chelsea floral centrepiece and two Queen Anne chairs in the adjoining room. (‘Wilberforce house’ history and collections (eleventh edition) written by John Bartlett, M.A., F.M.A., Director in 1968; page 5) – I got some results mostly of chairs but information said nothing about belonging to William Wilberforce.

However, when I typed his name into search, I got some results for example his portrait (click here), amulet and dish that was previously lent to William Wilberforce Museum in 1983.

Overall, I didn’t find anything important.

2nd visit of the William Wilberforce museum

I decided to visit the museum again and get photos, more information and talk to people working in the museum about what it looked like before, find out if they have any material that would help me with this project.

First I had a walk around again, took photos and got some more information about the house itself and William Wilberforce life. I found out that he didn’t spend a lot of years living there. He was born on the 24th August 1759 as thirds child (4 children all together) but first son. He lived very wealthy life as a child in Hull and when he was 7, he went to Hull Grammar School (1766) with traditional classical education, studying Ancient Greek and latin. After death of his father in 1768, he was sent to live with uncle and aunty in London. He spent there three years of his life and was brought back to Hull by his mother. However, he missed his uncle and aunty and life in London. He didn’t spend many years in Hull anyway as he left to boarding school (St.John’s College at Cambridge University) when he was 17. This is all from his life in this house. He spent rest of his life in London but visited his mother often after his dad’s death.

I asked people who work there if they know more information and maybe have pictures, photos…basically anything that could help me more. They said that most of furniture is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The only thing that they had was little brochure called ‘Wilberforce house’ history and collections (eleventh edition) written by John Bartlett, M.A., F.M.A., Director in 1968.

I couldn’t take it with me as it is the only copy they have so I at least took photos of each page so I can read it later.

There are 5 pictures of the rooms with furniture and quite detailed descriptions of rooms –
Room 1

Room 2 – kitchen

Room 3

Staircase