Creating a digital whakapapa that honours people and place

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Youth Horizons came to us with more than just a website brief. They wanted to transform their entire digital presence to embody their new Kia Puāwai brand and Waka Hourua strategy, bringing together te ao Māori and te ao Tauiwi knowledge to help young people and their whānau flourish.

01 The Challenge

Youth Horizons had a digital presence problem that went deeper than aesthetics. Their existing website was drowning visitors in information about what the organisation offered, rather than focusing on what young people, whānau, caregivers, and Oranga Tamariki actually needed.

The site was service-heavy rather than user-focused. When someone landed on the page looking for help, they had to wade through organisational speak to find what they were actually seeking. For an organisation dedicated to helping young people thrive, their digital presence wasn't reflecting the mana and hope they wanted to restore.

02 How We Approached It

We started by listening. Really listening.

We led a series of co-creation workshops and stakeholder interviews to understand the journeys that young people, their whānau, caregivers, and Oranga Tamariki actually go through. We mapped out what information they needed and when they needed it, not when the organisation wanted to tell them about it.

The approach was about more than content architecture. We needed to understand how to weave the Waka Hourua strategy into every digital interaction \- integrating te ao Māori and te ao Tauiwi knowledge with clinical methodologies in a way that felt authentic and accessible.

03 What Made It Special

This wasn't your typical website rebuild. We completely flipped the content strategy from organisation-centric to user-centric. Instead of "here's what we do," the site became "here's how we can help with what you're going through right now."

The real innovation was in how we expressed the Waka Hourua strategy digitally - creating a space that genuinely integrated cultural knowledge with clinical expertise, rather than just paying lip service to bicultural principles.

04 The Reality

We created a digital presence that truly embodies the Kia Puāwai brand and its mission to help young people grow, flourish, and prosper.

• User-focused architecture that guides visitors to the right information at the right time in their journey

• Culturally integrated design that authentically weaves te ao Māori and te ao Tauiwi knowledge throughout the experience

• Hope-restoring interface designed to restore mana and self-authority to young people and their whānau

The result is a website that's simple to access and understand, expresses love of people and place, and honours everyone who visits it.