Design Approach for Building Technology with Indigenous Communities

An increase in demand for mobile platforms in the last decade has led to a widespread need for platform development methods. While these standards do work well for a majority of mobile developers, one audience that can be neglected is the urban Indigenous population of youth in Toronto. Through experience, relationships and an understanding of significant cultural practices and teachings, this study proposes a unique mobile development approach. This approach is tailored specifically towards urban Indigenous youth in Toronto, incorporating the Anishinaabe Medicine Wheel, 7 Grandparent Teachings, and Sharing Circles as main influencers. It also features an experience report of how the mobile development approach worked in practice. Two mobile platforms were built using this approach and achieved successful results, with both becoming popular applications within their respective target audiences. This approach places a focus on the users and essentially aims to have the target audience be the main deciding factor in how the developed platform looks and functions. The motivation behind this study is to make technology less exclusive, and more accessible to a diverse population.