Mātāpono Māori

Statement: 
The Ministry of Education advocates for integrating Māori pathways into subjects to support Māori success. During exams, students can choose between established usability heuristics and less familiar Māori principles ("mātāpono Māori"), with one lesson dedicated to exploring these concepts and offering support regardless of their choice.

However please note that the Ministry does not provide any support or exemplars for students following this pathway.

The Three Concepts:

Like usability heuristics in which there are 10, Mātāpono Māori has 3 principles they have listed as being relevant:

1.) Accurate use of te reo Māori
2.) Support for te reo Māori in tools such as spell checking
3.) Support for expression of tikanga and mātauranga Māori

We will be using plunkett.co.nz as an example of this.

Accurate use of te reo Māori

To some the Māori language is seen as something sacred/tapu.

Getting the language right is very important as a social cultural norm in New Zealand.

One way that you can tell that a website has used accurate te reo is through the use of Macron's.
ā vs a

To be able to see if a website is using the language accurately you will need a basic understanding of te reo.

Support for te reo Māori in tools such as spell checking

Plunkett's chatbot allows has support for Māori language.

If I say Kia ora it will respond and know that it is a greeting.

If I ask "Where is the nearest Plunket centre?" (Kei hea te pito matua o te tari Plunket) in Te Reo, it will respond to the question.

It does recognize the question but 

Support for expression of tikanga and mātāuranga Māori

This one is a little bit tricky and even language experts that have been consulted have found it difficult.

The standard breaks it into 3 different categories:
  • The facilitation of kanohi ki te kanohi interaction
    Face to face interaction, allowing you to contact them or the use of chatbots or getting into contact with someone.
  • whanaungatanga (such as how the interface supports functionality to connect by waka, maunga, awa, iwi, and hapū as in a pepeha).In website usability, "whanaungatanga" involves features supporting connections through cultural identifiers like waka, maunga, awa, iwi, and hapū, akin to a pepeha.
  • wairuatanga (such as how aspects of atua matua are given due recognition within the interface).
    NCEA offers no support as to what this actually means, and language experts have not helped. They are equally confused.
    Chat GPT states it as this: "In the context of website usability, "wairuatanga" refers to the acknowledgment and incorporation of spiritual or cultural aspects, including the recognition of important spiritual entities like "atua matua," within the interface design. It suggests designing the website in a way that respects and reflects the spiritual or cultural beliefs of the target audience, ensuring that these elements are appropriately represented and honored within the interface."
Notice the Māori artwork in the interface design.