Te Matatini Website
Role
UX/UI Designer
Collaborators
8 weeks
Client
Te Matatini
Industry
Māori Performing Arts and Crafts
Year
2024
Led the UX/UI direction of the Te Matatini Website redesign ahead of their biggest event in my hometown Taranaki - Te Matatini. The biggest Kapa Haka festival in the world.
Problem :
Te Matatini is renowned for hosting the world’s largest Kapa Haka event. Beyond the stage, their enduring contributions to communities across Aotearoa were often unseen. They wanted to revitalise their website to authentically share their rich history, celebrate all of their events, and spotlight their enduring commitment to uplifting Aotearoa through the power of Kapa Haka.
Solution :
In collaboration with Indigenous Design and Innovation Aotearoa (IDIA) and Deviate, we partnered closely with the Te Matatini team to reimagine their digital platform. Our goal was to improve access to essential information, create a seamless experience for audiences engaging with event content, and support the structured collection and sharing of knowledge.
The website was designed to evolve across three distinct phases — pre-event, live event, and post-event — ensuring the platform responded dynamically to the needs of performers, attendees, and the wider community at each stage.
Our senior designer guided the transition into UX and UI, establishing a clear design strategy and aligning the client through moodboards, industry references, stylescapes, and early structural thinking. As the UX/UI designer, I led the wireframing process, developing comprehensive low- to mid-fidelity wireframes to define the platform’s layout, hierarchy, and content flow. Through ongoing collaboration with the project team and developers, we refined navigation patterns and page structures to ensure clarity, usability, and technical feasibility.
Challenge :
Following wireframing, the visual design phase explored creative directions to shape the site’s look and feel. Our UI designer led the first round, drawing from Te Matatini’s brand guidelines and grounding the concepts in pūrākau, te taiao, and taonga — extending the brand into a rich, culturally resonant digital expression.
Project feedback highlighted a desire to remain closely aligned with the existing visual identity. In response, I collaborated with our director, Johnson Witehira, to develop refined design directions that more intentionally integrated Te Matatini’s established branding. Central to this exploration was the incorporation of their tāniko pattern, which we reimagined across multiple stylistic approaches while maintaining cultural integrity and cohesion. We presented three different directions to the team and they all loved the green direction utilising their very own tāniko.
Tāniko: Tradition Woven into Identity
More than decorative pattern, tāniko carries whakapapa, identity, and intergenerational storytelling. Commonly seen in the kākahu of kapa haka performers, it represents pride, unity, and connection. By embedding tāniko into the digital experience, the design honours the deep cultural foundations of kapa haka while reinforcing Te Matatini’s role as a living, evolving platform for celebration and legacy.
Summary :
Together, we developed a bilingual website that enables the Te Matatini team to confidently create and manage content in both te reo Māori and English. The platform was designed to celebrate their rich legacy while providing a dynamic space to promote their many events, initiatives, and organisations they support. With a focus on accessibility and storytelling, the website allows them to share timely updates, highlight community impact, and reflect the evolving nature of their mahi through engaging news, multimedia, and event coverage. This digital presence not only strengthens their voice online but also reaffirms their role as a cultural leader and advocate for kapa haka in Aotearoa.
