Kooj at Metaceptive Media was commissioned by First Cut to design and build the website for the HLF-funded ‘Nana Bonsu Oral History Project‘, which began with a short training course he delivered in autumn 2013. Finally, the Nana Bonsu website has gone live and was officially launched at a vibrant event at Manchester’s Z-Arts on Saturday 21st June 2014. In addition to the amazing exhibition and the array of speakers, performances and the film showing, there was Kooj Chuhan who presented this website to the audience.
Nana Bonsu, also known as Beresford ‘Berry’ Edwards, was of huge importance to Britain’s African community, especially in Manchester which became his home. This oral history project highlights his role in initiatives such as the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination, trade unions, social justice and equal opportunities. Nana’s work, commitment and contribution is now nationally recognised by his inclusion in the list of 100 Great Black Britons. The website is live at www.nanabonsu.com.
Key points about the Nana Bonsu website:
- Design – using a style that looks professional and clear but does not look corporate, over technological or austere. I wanted it to reflect a sense of warmth and community, along with the Pan-African background colours reflecting perspectives that were so central to Nana’s beliefs and work.
- Home Page – this is a snapshot of the content that is on the website, as well as creating a portrait reflecting Nana’s life and work. It uses a graphic magazine-style format including an image slider so that there are 9 image-links directly from the home page to key parts of the website plus the link to the 100 Great Black Britons website.
- Functionality – the site has an easy to navigate menu system, and directly from the home page you can see the range of material that is available – the different kinds of informations as well as downloads and video.
Content – the website contains 18 web-pages describing different aspects of Nana’s life and work; 21 video interviews; various PDF downloads including the magazine; the keynote film “Celebrating Nana Bonsu”; a photographic archive; and a simple blog of news updates.- Social media – each page of the website has little icons at the bottom that can be clicked to immediately share that page via Facebook or Twitter. There are continually visible Facebook, Twitter and YouTube symbols at the top of the website which lead to First Cuts own pages that can be liked or followed for future updates and support.
- Comments – people who visit the website can add their comments to any page if they wish. This gives the website the opportunity for different views and perspectives on Nana Bonsu and the subject matter to be expressed.
- Fully optimised for search engines – so that Google and the rest can index and locate the website easily when anyone searches for information about Nana.
Please add your comments to any page of the website you might be interested in, or share any of the pages via Facebook or Twitter. Any comments about this website? Please add them at the bottom of this page, or get in touch with us using the contact page.
