Project
Design of Get Vocal in Your Local, an engagement tool to give Kiwis a voice to help shape the future of local government.
Department of Internal Affairs
Interactive web survey
User Experience Designer
6 months
Product Manager, Designers (3) Lead Developer, Software Engineer
Wireframing, Userflows, Prototyping, UI Design
Challenge: Design a digital engagement tool to capture youth voices (ages 10-25) in New Zealand’s once-in-a-generation local government review
Achieved 75% completion rate with 45% youth participation, delivering critical data that informed 30-year policy planning
The Review into the Future for Local Government, led by New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), was a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Kiwis to shape what local democracy could look like over the next 30 years. To ensure the voices of rangatahi (youth) were meaningfully included, Effect partnered with Toi Āria: Design for Public Good at Massey University to design and build a digital tool that would engage young people in this national conversation.
Unlike a typical web build, this project involved designing both the content and the experience of the survey. Working closely with Toi Āria, we took a content-first approach—crafting the right questions before building the interface. We co-designed the survey with rangatahi through iterative testing, refining both the language and flow based on their feedback. The final product combined thoughtful, inclusive content with a simple, engaging user interface that featured a variety of question types and input styles to keep the experience fun and accessible.
The result was a 75% survey completion rate, with 45% of respondents aged between 10 and 25. The tool delivered valuable qualitative and quantitative data that helped the DIA better understand youth perspectives and informed long-term thinking about the future of local governance in Aotearoa.