Te Ao Mārama group gathered inside a wharenui

// Te Ao Mārama / Website rebuild

A CLEARER HOME.A STRONGERCONNECTION.

A clearer home for the Aotearoa Māori Dental Association—its story, its people and its membership.

Te Ao Mārama website showing the association identity, membership navigation and a photograph of its community gathered in a wharenui

Te Ao Mārama — a clearer home for the association’s story, people and membership. Screenshot of the live client website.

Client / LocationTe Ao Mārama — Aotearoa Māori Dental Association
Aotearoa New Zealand

Platform / Project yearWordPress to Wix
2026

My roleWebsite design, information architecture and Wix rebuild
Dan Smith, Daniel James

// The brief

THE JOB
BEHIND
THE WEBSITE.

An association’s website needs to explain who it serves, what it stands for and how people can take part. Te Ao Mārama’s existing information was spread across separate About content and multiple similar membership pages. That made the structure harder to follow than it needed to be.

The brief was to bring that information together in a rebuilt website. Working with the client team, I focused on a coherent digital home for the association’s story, leadership and membership options. The purpose was clarity without flattening the identity or language that makes Te Ao Mārama distinct.

// The thinking

WHAT I CHANGED.
AND WHY.

Give the association's story a proper home.

The rebuilt About section brings whakapapa, leadership, life members, goals and mission together. These are not interchangeable pieces of promotional copy. In one connected account, they help visitors understand the association and the people and history behind its work.

Make membership easier to understand.

I consolidated overlapping membership information into a clearer page covering clinician, non-clinician and student options. The page explains benefits and provides routes to sign up. The design task was to help people identify the relevant path before asking them to take action.

Rebuild the structure, not just the surface.

The project moved the website from WordPress to Wix, alongside the content reorganisation. Platform migration and information design were treated as related work: the new site needed a clear structure the client could work with, not simply the old collection of pages in a different visual style.

// The delivered work

For a membership organisation, clarity starts with belonging: who you are, who you serve and how people can take part.

A rebuilt Wix website

A new implementation on the association’s existing domain, with client collaborator access.

Consolidated association content

Whakapapa, leadership, life members, goals and mission brought into a more connected About experience.

A clearer membership information journey

Membership categories, benefits and signup routes gathered into one place, replacing repeated information across similar pages.

// The result

A BETTER
PLACE
TO START.

The current website gives Te Ao Mārama a clearer public-facing account of the association and its membership offer. Visitors can understand its background, see its leadership and compare membership options without piecing the story together from multiple overlapping pages.

The association’s story has a connected home, membership options are gathered in one place, and the client can manage the rebuilt Wix website. Its public information now works together to explain who Te Ao Mārama serves and how people can take part.

// Project questions

THE USEFUL
DETAIL.

Which Te Ao Mārama organisation is this website for?

This project is for Te Ao Mārama — the Aotearoa Māori Dental Association. The site presents the association’s whakapapa, people, purpose and membership information.

What changed in the membership section?

Multiple similar information pages were consolidated into a clearer membership page. It distinguishes clinician, non-clinician and student options, explains benefits and provides signup routes. People can start with the option relevant to their role rather than compare pages with overlapping information.

Was this a WordPress redesign or a Wix rebuild?

I rebuilt the existing WordPress website in Wix and reorganised the About and membership content at the same time. The result gives the association a connected account of its story and clearer membership information within a site the client can manage.

// First-hand project account

Written by Dan Smith, the designer and builder behind Daniel James. A first-hand account of the website strategy, design decisions and completed work.

YOUR BUSINESS.
A BETTER
FIRST IMPRESSION.

Does your website reflect the quality of the business behind it? Tell me what needs to change. We’ll find the useful starting point.