Experience & design
People should be able to use your digital services confidently, first time, every time. We help you get there - through research grounded in evidence, design built with intention, and testing with real users before anything goes live.
We help you design around people before pixels
Every interaction shapes perception and trust. We help you understand what communities genuinely need, and design customer experiences people trust, rely on, and recommend.
Great digital experiences don't happen by accident
Understand deeply
We help you discover what communities genuinely need through research that reveals truth, not assumptions. Quantitative patterns, qualitative insights and ethnographic context. We help you make strategic decisions grounded in evidence about real people.
Design intentionally
Strategic design ensures every touchpoint serves people well. Information architecture matches how communities think, journeys guide people to success, and user interface designs work seamlessly across devices. We help you create effortless experiences.
Validate thoroughly
Know your services work before communities depend on them. We enable user testing with real people, including those with disabilities and diverse needs, reveals what works and what doesn't. You can launch with confidence grounded in evidence, not hope.
Explore our experience & design services
Business analysis & consulting
Bridge vision and reality. Discover genuine community needs, map processes revealing opportunities, and define requirements that solve real problems. Our workshops and consulting approach get your stakeholders aligned and ready to act.
User experience
Create experiences that people use confidently. Structure content intuitively, map journeys that guide, design interfaces that work across every device and simplify complexity. Deliver more experiences your community trusts and recommends.
Web accessibility
Serve everyone in your community, not just some. Build products that genuinely work for people with disabilities, older users, and everyone in between. Our team are experts in WCAG compliance and inclusive digital experiences.
Visual design & user inferface
Show who you are and what you stand for. Visual design that reflects your values, builds credibility with communities, and guides people clearly to what they need next. Our in-house design agency supports tech and non-tech related projects.
Digital experience reviews
Get clarity about what's working and what needs improvement. Targeted or bundled assessments for accessibility, usability, and design. Clear priorities, actionable recommendations and practical roadmaps your team can implement confidently.
Training & capability development
Build capability within your team with our expert-led training in Agile methodology, accessibility, UX design, and development practices. Workshops for your context and skill levels. Choose from pre-built training packages or tailored sessions.
Department of Internal Affairs: Life Events Platform
Through the Life Events Platform, families can now find key information in one place: birth registration, midwife searches, and financial support. No more jumping between agencies. Within the first month, 15,000 families got what they needed when they needed it. With our support, DIA built a citizen-centric, award-winning platform that works for New Zealanders.
"Catalyst provides a professional, flexible and high-quality service. We'd work with them again."
- Manager, Life Events Services, DIA
Inspector General of Intelligence Services: Website
Delivered within 6 weeks
Culturally authentic design made complex government functions clear and accessible. We helped IGIS deliver a website within six weeks that serves communities with respect and clarity.
Web accessibility audits: Auckland University of Technology
Auckland University of Technology (AUT) gained actionable insights into improving web accessibility through targeted audits by Catalyst.
"I felt well-informed by Catalyst’s web accessibility team, and this helped me to be confident in the process, and in the information that I fed back to my Directors."
- Student Inclusion Manager, Disability at Auckland University of Technology
If you know your digital services could work harder for the people who rely on them, we'll help you design better.
Frequently asked questions
UX design focuses on how people interact with specific digital products: websites, apps, or interfaces. Customer experience encompasses every interaction people have with your organisation across all touchpoints: digital and physical, online and offline, before, during, and after service delivery.
Strategic customer experience includes UX design, but also business analysis to understand needs, user research revealing behaviours, service design improving complete journeys, and ensuring consistency across channels. UX design is one critical component of a comprehensive customer experience strategy.
We help you design both: intuitive user interfaces that work beautifully, and connected customer experiences that serve people well across every touchpoint. You achieve better outcomes when UX design aligns with broader customer experience strategy grounded in evidence.
Absolutely. Catalyst is a Tier 2 supplier on the Government Digital Marketplace and has three decades delivering secure, scalable platforms with ISO 27001 and NZISM compliance.
We contributed to Web Accessibility(external link) standards, are registered for web accessibility services on the Government Marketplace(external link), and maintain comprehensive Government Digital Marketplace registration across design, development, and infrastructure services.
Our locally NZ-owned and operated Catalyst Cloud(external link) holds ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, and All-of-Government Cloud Framework Agreement certifications: the only provider offering 100% New Zealand-located infrastructure.
Find us on the Government Digital Marketplace.(external link)
Most organisations know something isn't working: low completion rates, high support calls, community frustration or abandoned services, but aren't certain what needs fixing or how to prioritise improvements.
Our digital experience reviews provide exactly this clarity. Comprehensive assessment of your current digital services covers accessibility, usability, UX design, and how well experiences serve your specific communities. We evaluate what's working, what's causing problems, and why it matters.
You receive straightforward findings connecting problems to real impact on communities and actionable recommendations prioritised by value and effort. It's a practical roadmap your team can implement confidently with a follow-up session to ensure you have the support you need to act.
Digital experience reviews often reveal which additional services will create genuine impact: user research uncovering needs you hadn't considered, business analysis clarifying requirements, UX design solving specific journey problems, accessibility work ensuring you serve everyone.
Think of it as a strategic health check before committing resources. You gain clarity about what to fix first, what impact it'll have, and which services will help you get there. Evidence-based guidance for your specific situation.