Rachel Knight, Ngāi Tahu, Project Lead at Innovation Unit
Rachel is a Project Lead at Innovation Unit, an international social enterprise focused on developing new solutions for complex social issues and creating impact at scale. With 5 years’ experience in design research and service design spanning across Aotearoa and Australia, Rachel loves making sense of complex challenges and working alongside communities to design a better world. Follow Rachel on twitter at @RachelKnight92.
In our country, Māori face huge inequalities across health, education, and financial outcomes. As UX designers we hold a key role in shaping the products, services, and experiences offered in Aotearoa New Zealand, so we need to get better at working with, and learning from, Māori if we are to create positive social change in our communities.
Over the past 7+ years, Innovation Unit has been on a journey to develop our cultural competency as a team of social innovation practitioners. In their talk, Kataraina and Rachel will share a recent design research project where they were able to fully dive into Te Ao Māori, and what they - and their project partners - learnt through this experience.
Their talk will challenge and inspire you, giving you practical takeaways to start - or advance - your own journey towards using culturally sound practices in your research work.
