Kotahitanga - Designing for Collective Well-being
Project Brief
A group project centred on expressing the Māori value Kotahitanga (unity and togetherness) through UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being. Our team explored how collective support and shared purpose can enhance both mental and physical wellness by combining cultural values with modern design thinking in a mobile experience.
Acknowledgement of Team Members
Our team worked collaboratively throughout the project, contributing equally to research, ideation, and design development. We met daily to brainstorm, share insights, and make collective decisions before progressing to each stage. Early on, we discussed our individual strengths and divided tasks accordingly, ensuring a balanced workflow. My main contributions were towards developing the interactive prototype, shaping the app’s features, and ensuring that all design decisions respected ethical considerations around information collection.
Design Overview
About Kotahitanga
Kotahitanga is a Māori value that represents unity, togetherness, and collective strength. It emphasises working collaboratively toward shared goals while respecting others' perspectives and contributions. In the context of this project, it guided the team to design not for individual performance but for shared well-being, encouraging mutual support and community connection.
About SDG Value 3 – Good Health & Well-being
Sustainable Development Goal 3 focuses on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for people of all ages. It addresses both physical and mental health, aiming to create environments that support balance, care, and access to resources. Our project connected this goal with the value of Kotahitanga, exploring how unity and collective well-being can lead to healthier communities.
Key Insights Driving the App
Understanding the Problem
- 1 in 5 adults in NZ report feeling lonely, directly affecting motivation and well-being.
- Revealed the need for a product that supports connection, not just activity tracking.
Behavioural Insights
- Only 46.6% of adults meet recommended physical activity guidelines.
- 13.6% engage in very low activity levels, pushing us toward simpler, supportive feature pathways.
The Social Gap
- People want to be active but often lack a supportive community to stay motivated.
- Shape interaction patterns around shared goals, encouragement, and presence.
Kotahitanga Value
- Kotahitanga (unity) informed a user experience centred on collective motivation.
- Every interaction encourages connection over isolated effort.
Aligned With SDG 3
- SDG 3 (Good Health & Well-being) offered a clear framework for wellness-driven features.
- Ensures the app makes a meaningful contribution to accessible community health outcomes.
Key Inspirations: Māori health models
Te Whare Tapa Whā
Viewing well-being as four interconnected pillars: taha tinana (physical), taha hinengaro (mental), taha whānau (social), and taha wairua (spiritual).
Te Pae Mahutonga
Emphasising leadership, community participation, and environmental harmony. These frameworks helped translate cultural concepts into meaningful design features and interactions.
Key Features: Concept Direction
Before moving into wireframes, the team focused on defining the app's core idea and the features that would best support connection, motivation, and shared well-being. The concept centred on creating a space where users could set personal health goals while staying connected to others through shared activities and encouragement.
- Interests & Goals: Connecting users with groups aligned to their well-being motivations.
- Group Discovery: Creating or joining interest-based groups using browsing filters.
- Encouragement: Group messaging supported by kudos and guided conversation prompts.
- Shared Progress: Participation in group goals is visualised through a growing personal forest, where each group plants a seed that grows into a tree as members contribute together.
Cultural values informed interaction design throughout
- Manaakitanga: Encouraging respectful and supportive interactions (including guides for how to interact).
- Toiora: Promoting healthy lifestyles and reducing isolation.
- Te Oranga: Supporting participation through shared goals and connection.
- Mauriora: Expressed through language, symbolism, and culturally meaningful visuals (trees native to Aotearoa and star constellations).
Early Explorations
These early wireframes were used to explore structure, navigation, and core interactions. The focus was on understanding user flow and content hierarchy rather than visual detail, allowing the team to iterate quickly before moving into high-fidelity design.
Low-Fidelity Exploration
The team moved quickly into low-fidelity to test user flow and the best practice to incorporate our main inspiration into our concept. This allowed us to consider the possibilities of the app and the overall friendliness of the structure of the onboarding process, as well as the best way to get people interested.
My role focused on mapping the user flow and designing interactions that felt intuitive and purposeful. Careful consideration was given to how users move through the app, ensuring each touchpoint supported clarity. Here are some of the Lo-fidelity test screens.
Design Decisions & Interaction Rationale
During low-fidelity exploration, key interaction decisions were refined to strengthen clarity, safety, and alignment with the app’s core values.
Authentication & Safe Entry
Secure sign-in via Google, Facebook, or email ensures verified participation within group spaces. Establishing authentication at entry supports accountability and respectful interaction, aligning with Manaakitanga while maintaining onboarding efficiency and user choice.
Onboarding Flow
The onboarding sequence introduces the app’s purpose before prompting users to select interests and goals. This progressive structure reduces cognitive load while enabling personalised group recommendations early in the journey.
Home Screen & Core Loop
The home interface centres around shared participation. The Whānau tab highlights groups aligned with personal interests, Hapori surfaces the collective goals users are actively part of, and Discover enables exploration of new communities. This structure reinforces a sense of belonging, visibility, and gentle motivation.
Forest Growth Metaphor
Participation in shared goals is visualised through a growing personal forest. Each group joined, plants a seed that evolves into a tree as collective contributions increase, reinforcing progress through collaboration rather than competition.
Messaging & Encouragement
Users can message individuals or communicate within group spaces. Conversational prompts were introduced to reduce social hesitation and encourage positive interaction, ensuring communication remains supportive rather than overwhelming.
High-Fidelity Prototype
Prototype Walkthrough
A short walkthrough demonstrating the complete user flow and key interactions, from onboarding to group participation and shared progress visualisation.
Embedded Figma Prototype
If the prototype below fails to load, please click on the Figma prototype button under it to view it in a separate window.
