NEXT PROJECT — CONNECTED VOICES
WHAI MĀTAURANGA
SERVICE AND MOBILE DESIGN
How do you design for a culture without designing over it? This case study reframes the question from what to build to what gives a team permission to build anything at all.
ROLE
Service Design,
Mobile Design, Research,
UX Strategy
DELIVERABLES
Systems map, principles, impact framework
TEAM
Collaborative project
FOCUS
Cultural responsibility, place, stewardship
THE WICKED PROBLEM
Whai Mātauranga challenged the assumption that heritage knowledge can simply be transferred: read a sign, learn a fact, move on. Knowledge belongs to communities and is shared through conversation, lived experience, and trust. The design challenge was not an app — it was a system that respected how knowledge is created, shared, and maintained without reducing culture into consumable content.
THE QUESTION THAT CHANGED THE PROJECT
What gives us permission to build anything at all?
RESEARCH / SYSTEMS MAP
The biggest insight was not that audio performs better than text. It was understanding why: stories, waiata, and oral histories are ways knowledge has been passed between generations. We were no longer designing information architecture. We were designing the conditions for meaningful encounters with knowledge.
IWI
Cultural authority
COMMUNITIES
Stories & stewardship
PHYSICAL PLACE
The primary experience
DOC / COUNCILS
Public infrastructure
MOBILE EXPERIENCE
A connector, not the centre
VISITORS
Future visits & conservation
Product principles
01 — Knowledge belongs to communities.
The platform facilitates storytelling rather than owning it.
02 — Physical place comes first.
Technology should encourage visitors to look away from their phones.
03 — Learning is relational.
People connect more deeply with stories than isolated facts.
04 — Participation creates stewardship.
People care more about places they understand.
PRODUCT MOMENT
The interface works in service of the place: a small invitation to listen, orient, and look back up.
IMPACT FRAMEWORK
A product scorecard for relationship, not just reach.
OUTCOME 01
Increase cultural engagement
% of visitors who play at least one story
Curiosity beyond navigation
OUTCOME 02
Encourage exploration
Average heritage locations visited
Behavioural change in place
OUTCOME 03
Build stewardship
Repeat park visits
Longer-term relationship
OUTCOME 04
Strengthen participation
Active iwi contributors
Sustainable governance
OUTCOME 05
Improve accessibility
Audio completion rate
Engagement with oral storytelling
OUTCOME 06
Reduce operational costs
Signage update time
Organisational impact
REFLECTION
This project changed how I define design. Responsible systems thinking is less about connecting services and more about understanding how people, institutions, cultures, and environments continually shape one another. I now begin by asking not “What should we build?” but “What relationships are we trying to strengthen?”
Next project — Connected Voices