Services
Partners
First Alaskans Institute
Impact area
Cultural Identity
What we offer
Collaborative design
UX strategy and principles
Website design and development
UX and UI
The First Alaskans Institute is an organisation that represents a diverse community of over 200 Alaskan Native tribes. Our collaborative design process involved travelling to Dena’ina land in Anchorage, Alaska to work with the community to envisage a new digital space that looks and feels like a native home.
First Alaskans Institute wanted to create a new organisational website with a welcoming digital experience that:
- Reflects and serves the First Alaskans Institute community
- Celebrates Alaskan Native worldviews, values and cultural practices
- Feels like an Alaskan Native space, with organic and natural forms and textures
- Is accessible, intuitive and easy to navigate, particularly for elders
- Works with slow internet connections
We used a collaborative design approach to work alongside First Alaskan Institute staff to create a space that feels authentically Alaskan Native.
We facilitated a series of five in-person and online workshops with a dedicated group of FAI staff to create the website vision and strategy, wireframes and the look and feel of the website.
Volunteering at the state-wide Elders and Youth conference in Anchorage provided an opportunity to experience the important Native value of service and engage in further conversations with the community.
Working with an existing brand identity, our designers and developers embraced the challenge of building a website that offered a media-rich visual storytelling experience that would still be compatible with slow internet connections.
“Redesigning a website is a complicated process, this one was in the making for several years but we struggled with finding a designer that could translate our vision into a digital space. The willingness of your team to work with us through that process, keep us on track and provide a site that speaks to our vision is what I enjoyed in the process.” - Melissa Silugngataanit'sqaq Marton (Sugpiaq). Indigenous Operations & Innovations Director
“By working collaboratively with FAI staff and spending time with people in the wider community we were able to create a more authentic space that reflects a sense of identity, belonging and pride”. - Project Lead, Zenaida Beatson
Partner website: www.firstalaskans.org
