Improving equitable health outcomes
ACC are committed to delivering more equitable outcomes and better claims experiences for Māori who are injured. They came to us to review their website and claims management product, MyACC. We partnered with Te Amokura and spoke with Māori across the country to hear about their experiences.
The brief
ACC’s research found that Māori are more likely than non Māori to sustain serious life-changing injuries but less likely to access ACC services.
As part of their Whāia Te Tika strategy, ACC wanted to explore ways to improve their digital products for Māori and identify barriers to engagement.
Partnership
It was important to us to partner with a Māori organisation for this mahi. Te Amokura are experts at providing te ao Māori advice on engagement and strategy.
Combined with our product development experience and user experience research skills, it was a great combo.
A Māori approach
We began with a kickoff workshop with ACC kaimahi to clearly define the target audience and research focus. Alongside Te Amokura, we developed a kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face) approach and ran five workshops throughout Aotearoa with healthcare providers and Māori individuals who had been injured. Each workshop began with karakia and mihimihi to set the scene and ensure our guests felt welcome. We co-designed the details of each workshop with participants to ensure all perspectives and experiences were heard.
The result
Working closely with Te Amokura, we analysed feedback from 45 people, identified quick wins for both products and created a three year roadmap with our recommendations for the digital team and wider ACC initiatives.
Co-design principles
Off the back of this mahi we developed our own co-design principles for future engagements with Māori. They draw on our experience and best practices.
Partnerships
Our best work happens when we partner with people with lived experience and co-create solutions. Sometimes this means holding space for others and witnessing. Other times it means bringing people together and taking the lead.
Relationships first
In kaupapa Māori engagements, the relationship needs to come first to build trust. We keep user testing methods that are often more ‘transactional’ up our sleeve but we focus on building relationships first.
Storytelling
Storytelling is an empowering way for Māori to share their experiences. Group discussions are effective and one facilitator should move between groups and engage with the quieter voices in each workshop.
Mana enhancing
We are mindful of the language we use. ‘Engagement’ speaks to two-way dialogue, whereas ‘user-testing’ may sound more transactional. Likewise we call participants ‘guests’ instead of ‘users’.
References
1. Hā Ora: Reflecting on a Kaupapa Māori Community-Engaged Co-design Approach to Lung Cancer Research, page 10: https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/ijih/article/view/33106/27365
2. Co-design in Aotearoa New Zealand: a snapshot of the literature, page 13: https://www.aucklandco-lab.nz/reports-summary/co-design-in-aotearoa-new-zealand-a-snapshot-of-the-literature
