Volition's core mission centres on enabling disabled people to act as decision-makers in their lives. Through their newly launched app, this New Zealand-based social enterprise uses inclusive and accessible technology to foster greater independence. Erika Butters, Founder of Volition, emphasised the app's purpose as a "digital preference bank," allowing users to express and share their preferences with their supporters, including family, caregivers and agencies.
The app enables its core users – known as “Decision Makers” – to capture and store information about everything that's important to them and how they want to receive support. This ranges from food intolerances and preferences for how they like to spend their time, through to more significant decisions like advanced care planning. Decision Makers can then share information with the people and agencies that support them, enabling greater collaboration in care and personalised service delivery. Volition operates on the principle of "nothing about us, without us", with disabled advisors such as Neville Pugh, Chief Advisor for Volition and local area President for People First, guiding product development.
Recently featured in an episode of ClearPoint Unlock, Erika shared the developmental journey of their app, designed to give decision-making power back to disabled individuals using accessible technology.
Volition had already built the foundation for their solution – the database infrastructure and information architecture were in place and core workflows were being progressed. Whilst interface design had started, the designs had evolved over multiple iterations of volunteer designers generously contributing their time. Each designer brought their own vision, however, frequent rotations resulted in a fragmented design approach. At least three distinct design directions had emerged, providing an opportunity to unify these into a single clear source of truth for development activities.
With an accessibility audit highlighting specific requirements to address, Volition recognised the need for focused design expertise. The opportunity was to consolidate the existing work into a coherent design system that met accessibility standards and provided clear documentation for development and future scalability. ClearPoint was engaged to bring this clarity – consolidating the different design directions, addressing accessibility requirements, and preparing developer-ready design documentation.
Working within a defined budget and tight timeframe, ClearPoint’s focus was on delivering high-impact design leadership that respected the progress already made and built on the founder’s deep subject matter insight.
Volition’s primary objective was to refine the app’s design while addressing the requirements from the accessibility audit. “It’s super important to us to make sure that what we’re building is accessible and evidenced as being accessible” says Erika.
Working from the completed audit and reviewing the existing design files, ClearPoint addressed each requirement with careful attention to the diverse needs of Volition's users. The team optimised colour contrast ratios, considered cultural interpretations of visual elements, and ensured cognitive clarity throughout. Finding alternatives to standard patterns proved essential. For example, the word "favourite" didn't work for preferences about dislikes, so the team developed more suitable language and visual solutions.
Understanding Volition's startup constraints, the focus was on balancing intuitive, inclusive design with practical build requirements. ClearPoint developed an atomic design system from the existing Figma files, creating reusable components for immediate development and future product evolution. Rather than starting fresh, the team recognised the value in the work already completed and focused on bringing structure and consistency to enable the next phase.
The collaboration between ClearPoint and Volition was largely remote, leveraging digital communication tools including Figma, Slack, and video calls. When ClearPoint’s initial design review and sweep of the Figma file generated comments and questions from Erika, those comments became the foundation for productive refinement across the app’s screens and underlying variations. This collaborative approach ensured the founder's deep understanding of user needs informed every design decision.
Within a two-week timeframe, ClearPoint refined the existing designs and delivered a comprehensive atomic design system, enabling Volition to build and scale efficiently. The results supported Volition's successful launch and ongoing development.
“We launched our app this year. Our mission is to empower disabled people as the decision makers in their own life, and we are trying to use accessible technology to do that,” says Erika. “Working with ClearPoint, we now have an atomic design system implemented that I’d only heard about before. We continue to evolve and grow, but now have a really strong foundation to do that from.”
Unified atomic design system
The organised Figma file provides a foundation for continuous iteration. Reusable components support consistent user experiences and efficient development. The system has proven robust enough to accommodate user feedback and feature evolution.
Complete accessibility compliance
Audit requirements were resolved in the designs. The interface now serves users with diverse cognitive and visual needs through considered typography, spacing, colour choices, and interaction patterns.
Scalable design foundation
The component library and design patterns enable Volition to expand functionality while maintaining consistency. The flexible categorisation system accommodates diverse preference types. Clear documentation and reusable components ensure new features can be added without compromising the user experience or accessibility standards.
ClearPoint brought systematic organisation without starting over. As Erika noted, the project had reached "the widest point of the diamond," divergent ideas needed convergence into something buildable. The clean, well-structured Figma file ClearPoint handed over has provided the foundation for ongoing development.
ClearPoint's design team successfully helped Volition move from creative exploration to product launch, providing the professional rigour needed to transform collaborative groundwork into technology that serves real community needs.
“I am a very happy customer,” says Erika. “I was hungry for some specific outcomes and milestones being reached, and we absolutely did, and I inherited a file that was beautifully clean.”
The app successfully launched with approximately 250 active users and is growing. Volition continues to focus on engagement and retention metrics to ensure genuine value delivery. With ongoing feedback and commitment to iterative design, Volition remains poised to redefine expectations in the disability support sector, furthering its goal to enable truly accessible decision-making for all.
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