Repairing the Harm of Digital Design Using a Trauma-informed Approach

Article Sidebar

Cover
PDF PDF (Español (España))
Published: Jan 31, 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.24.Article.7
Keywords:
trauma-informed design, user experience design, user experience, digital design, website design diseño informado por el trauma, diseño de experiencia de persona usuaria, experiencia de persona usuaria, diseño digital, diseño web

Main Article Content

Melissa Eggleston
North Carolina State University
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4206-2085
Lesley-Ann Noel
North Carolina State University
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5890-0824

Abstract

With increased awareness and mindful decisions, digital designers can repair the harm caused by digital design and improve the online experience of individuals who have been previously marginalized. This repair of poor design decisions, well-intentioned or out of ignorance, is necessary in a world where technology, exclusion, and trauma are pervasive. This article provides examples of digital harm that designers must acknowledge, understand, and avoid recreating. The concept of trauma-informed design is explained along with two practical approaches for designers to use to become more trauma-informed, and repair harm when creating websites, apps, and other digital experiences.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
Eggleston, M., & Noel, L.-A. (2024). Repairing the Harm of Digital Design Using a Trauma-informed Approach. Diseña, (24), Article.7. https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.24.Article.7
Issue
No. 24 (2024): Repairing Design: Damage, Care, and Fragilities (2nd Issue)
Section
Original Articles (part 1)
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Licencia de Creative Commons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

All contents of this electronic edition are distributed under the Creative Commons license of "Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Internacional" (CC-BY-SA). Any total or partial reproduction of the material must mention its origin.

The rights of the published images belong to their authors, who grant to Diseña the license for its use. The management of the permits and the authorization of the publication of the images (or of any material) that contains copyright and its consequent rights of reproduction in this publication is the sole responsibility of the authors of the articles.

Author Biographies

Melissa Eggleston, North Carolina State University

Adjunct Professor of Design, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds a Master’s degree in Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is pursuing her doctoral studies at the College of Design at North Carolina State University, studying the intersection of trauma and technology. She is a user experience designer and researcher with 15 years of experience in the technology industry, currently working for the Digital Service at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the United States. She won the 2017 Aquent Design for Good grant to apply trauma-informed principles to a domestic violence agency website. Since then, she has designed for people who have experienced interpersonal violence, human trafficking, substance use, post-traumatic stress disorder, and serious mental illness.

Lesley-Ann Noel, North Carolina State University

Assistant Professor of the College of Design at North Carolina State University. After being trained as an Industrial Designer at the Universidade Federal do Paraná, she earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of the West Indies and a PhD in Design from North Carolina State University. She is co-chair of the Pluriversal Design Special Interest Group from the Design Research Society, and served as guest editor of Diseña (with F. M.C. van Amstel and R. F. Gonzatto; Issues 21 and 22: ‘Design, Oppression, and Liberation’). Author of Design Social Change (Ten Speed Press, 2023) and one of the co-editors of The Black Experience in Design (with A. H. Berry, K. Walters, J. Rittner, P. Laker, and K. Collie; Allworth, 2022), she has created several design tools for critical reflection, such as ‘The Designer’s Critical Alphabet’ and the ‘Positionality Wheel’. Some of her latest publications include ‘An Emancipatory Research Primer for Designers’ (in The Routledge Companion to Design Research; Routledge, 2023) and ‘Pluriversal Futures for Design Education’ (co-authored with A. Ruiz, F. M.C. van Amstel, V. Udoewa, N. Verma, N. Kommey Botchway, A. Lodaya, and S. Agrawal; She Ji, Vol. 9, Issue 2).

References

Andermahr, S. (2015). “Decolonizing Trauma Studies: Trauma and Postcolonialism”—Introduction. Humanities, 4(4), Article 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/h4040500

Bassuk, E. L., Latta, R. E., Sember, R., Raja, S., & Richard, M. (2017). Universal Design for Underserved Populations: Person-Centered, Recovery-Oriented and Trauma Informed. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 28(3), 896–914. https://doi.org/10.1353/hpu.2017.0087

Bernius, M., & Dietkus, R. (2022). Cultivating Resiliencies for All: The Necessity of Trauma Responsive Research Practices. Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings, 2022(1), 9–34. https://doi.org/10.1111/epic.12098

Bloom, S. L. (2000). Creating Sanctuary: Healing from Systematic Abuses of Power. Therapeutic Communities: The International Journal for Therapeutic and Supportive Organizations, 21(2), 67–91.

Bloom, S. L. (2013). Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies (Rev. ed.). Routledge.

Bollo, C., & Donofrio, A. (2022). Trauma-informed Design for Permanent Supportive Housing: Four Case Studies from Seattle and Denver. Housing and Society, 49(3), 229–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/08882746.2021.1989570

Britannica Dictionary. (2023a). Harm Definition & Meaning. https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/harm

Britannica Dictionary. (2023b). Repair Definition & Meaning. https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/repair

Buolamwini, J., & Gebru, T. (2018). Gender Shades: Intersectional Accuracy Disparities in Commercial Gender Classification. Proceedings of the 1st Conference on Fairness, Accountability and Transparency, 77–91. https://proceedings.mlr.press/v81/buolamwini18a.html

Chen, J. X., McDonald, A., Zou, Y., Tseng, E., Roundy, K. A., Tamersoy, A., Schaub, F., Ristenpart, T., & Dell, N. (2022). Trauma-Informed Computing: Towards Safer Technology Experiences for All. Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1145/3491102.3517475

Collins, P. H. (1986). Learning from the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought*. Social Problems, 33(6), s14–s32. https://doi.org/10.2307/800672

Cook-Cottone, C., LaVigne, M., Guyker, W., Travers, L., Lemish, E., & Elenson, P. (2017). Trauma-Informed Yoga: An Embodied, Cognitive-Relational Framework. International Journal of Complementary & Alternative Medicine. https://doi.org/10.15406/ijcam.2017.09.00284

Costanza-Chock, S. (2020). Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need. MIT Press.

Craps, S. (2013). Postcolonial Witnessing: Trauma Out of Bounds. Palgrave Macmillan.

Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039

Dietkus, R. (2021). The Call for Trauma‐Informed Design Research and Practice. Design Management Review, 33(2), 26–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/drev.12295

Eggleston. (2017, April 27). Is Your Website Trauma-Informed? https://www.melissaegg.com/blog/is-your-website-trauma-informed

Fallot, R. D., & Harris, M. (2009). Creating Cultures of Trauma-Informed Care (CCTIC): A Self-Assessment and Planning Protocol. Trauma Informed Oregon. https://traumainformedoregon.org/tic-resources/creating-cultures-trauma-informed-care-cctic-self-assessment-planning-protocol/

Farrell, J., & Committee on Temporary Shelter. (2018). Trauma-informed Design: How the Physical Environment Supports Recovery from Homelessness.

Fathallah, S. (2022, September 9). Trauma Responsiveness in Participatory Research. https://www.thinkofus.org/news/trauma-responsiveness-in-participatory-research

Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., Koss, M. P., & Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(98)00017-8

Ferreira, A. (2016). Universal UX Design: Building Multicultural User Experience. Morgan Kaufmann.

Fleischer, D., & Zames, F. (2012). The Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation. Temple University Press.

Florida Health Justice. (2021, December). Miami Free and Low-Cost Health Care. https://www.floridahealthjustice.org/miami-dade-county-free-and-low-cost-health-care.html

Ford, J. D., & Courtois, C. A. (2020). Defining and Understanding Complex Trauma and Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders. In C. A. Courtois & J. D. Ford (Eds.), Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders in Adults: Scientific Foundations and Therapeutic Models (2nd ed., pp. 3-34). The Guilford Press.

Garland‐Thomson, R. (2005). Feminist Disability Studies. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 30(2), 1557–1587. https://doi.org/10.1086/423352

Gill, N. (2019, December 9). The Importance Of Trauma-Informed Design. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesnonprofitcouncil/2019/12/09/the-importance-of-trauma-informed-design/

Girma, H. (2019). Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law. Grand Central.

Hall, E. (2013). Just Enough Research. A Book Apart.

Harris, M., & Fallot, R. (2001). Using Trauma Theory to Design Service Systems. New Directions for Mental Health Services, (103). https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2001-00826-000.pdf

Hayes, J., VanElzakker, M., & Shin, L. (2012). Emotion and Cognition Interactions in PTSD: A Review of Neurocognitive and Neuroimaging Studies. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2012.00089

Herman, J. L. (2023). Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice. Hachette.

Heumann, J., & Joiner, K. (2021). Being Heumann: The Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist. Beacon Press.

Hirsch, T. (2020). Practicing Without a License: Design Research as Psychotherapy. Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376750

Holmes, K. (2020). Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design. MIT Press.

hooks, bell. (2015). Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Institute on Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care. (2015). What is Trauma-Informed Care? University of Buffalo Center for Social Research. https://socialwork.buffalo.edu/social-research/institutes-centers/institute-on-trauma-and-trauma-informed-care/what-is-trauma-informed-care.html

Institute on Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care. (2021). Trauma-Informed Organizational Change Manual. University at Buffalo School of Social Work. https://socialwork.buffalo.edu/social-research/institutes-centers/institute-on-trauma-and-trauma-informed-care/Trauma-Informed-Organizational-Change-Manual0.html

Institute on Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care. (2023, February 10). The Institute on Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care. University of Buffalo Center for Social Research. https://socialwork.buffalo.edu/social-research/institutes-centers/institute-on-trauma-and-trauma-informed-care.html

International Organization for Standardization. (2018). Ergonomics of Human-system Interaction—Part 11: Usability: Definitions and concepts (ISO 9241-11:2018, 3.2.3). https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso:9241:-11:ed-2:v1:en

Jewkes, Y., Jordan, M., Wright, S., & Bendelow, G. (2019). Designing ‘Healthy’ Prisons for Women: Incorporating Trauma-Informed Care and Practice (TICP) into Prison Planning and Design. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(20), Article 20. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16203818

Kassam-Adams, N., Rzucidlo, S., Campbell, M., Good, G., Bonifacio, E., Slouf, K., Schneider, S., McKenna, C., Hanson, C. A., & Grather, D. (2015). Nurses’ Views and Current Practice of Trauma-Informed Pediatric Nursing Care. Journal of Pediatric Nursing: Nursing Care of Children and Families, 30(3), 478–484. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedn.2014.11.008

Kelly, S., Lauren, B., & Nguyen, K. (2021). Trauma-informed Web Heuristics for Communication Designers. Proceedings of the 39th ACM International Conference on Design of Communication, 172–176. https://doi.org/10.1145/3472714.3473638

Krug, S. (2013). Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (3rd ed.). Pearson.

Meyer, E. A., & Wachter-Boettcher, S. (2016). Design for Real Life. A Book Apart.

Missouri Department of Mental Health and Partners. (2014). The Missouri Model: A Developmental Framework for Trauma-Informed Approaches. https://dmh.mo.gov/media/pdf/missouri-model-developmental-framework-trauma-informed-approaches

Nielsen, J. (1994). Enhancing the Explanatory Power of Usability Heuristics. Conference Companion on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 210. https://doi.org/10.1145/259963.260333

Nijenhuis, E. R. S., Van der Hart, O., & Kruger, K. (2002). The Psychometric Characteristics of the Traumatic Experiences Checklist (TEC): First Findings among Psychiatric Outpatients. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 9(3), 200–210. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.332

Noel, L.-A., & Paiva, M. (2021). Learning to Recognize Exclusion. Journal of Usability Studies, 16(2), 63–72. https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/3532753.3532754

Norman, D. A. (2005). Human-centered Design Considered Harmful. Interactions, 12(4), 14–19. https://doi.org/10.1145/1070960.1070976

North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. (2023). Low Income Energy Assistance. https://www.ncdhhs.gov/divisions/social-services/energy-assistance/low-income-energy-assistance-lieap

Owen, C., & Crane, J. (2022). Trauma-Informed Design of Supported Housing: A Scoping Review through the Lens of Neuroscience. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(21), Article 21. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192114279

Parks, C. D., & Tasca, G. A. (Eds.). (2021). The Psychology of Groups: The Intersection of Social Psychology and Psychotherapy Research. American Psychological Association.

PenzeyMoog, E. (2021). Design for Safety. Book Apart.

Redish, J. (2007). Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works. Morgan Kaufmann.

Ringel, S., & Brandell, J. (Eds.). (2019). Trauma: Contemporary Directions in Theory, Practice, and Research (2nd ed.). Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452230597

Roy, R. (2021). Need of the Hour: Inculcating Trauma-Informed Design Principles for our Workers, Work, Workplace, and the World. Performance Improvement, 60(3), 27–29. https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.21962

Sambasivan, N., Checkley, G., Ahmed, N., & Batool, A. (2017). Gender Equity in Technologies: Considerations for Design in the Global South. Interactions, 25(1), 58–61. https://doi.org/10.1145/3155050

Scott, C. F., Marcu, G., Anderson, R. E., Newman, M. W., & Schoenebeck, S. (2023). Trauma-Informed Social Media: Towards Solutions for Reducing and Healing Online Harm. Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581512

Slate, T. (n.d.). Trauma Informed Design. User Experience Professionals Association. https://uxpa.org/product/trauma-informed-design/

Stickdorn, M., & Schneider, J. (2011). This is Service Design Thinking: Basics, Tools, Cases. Wiley.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2014). SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach. SAMHSA.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2023). Practical Guide for Implementing a Trauma-Informed Approach. SAMHSA.

Taylor, S. S. (2021). Trauma-Informed Care in Schools: A Necessity in the Time of COVID-19. Beyond Behavior, 30(3), 124–134. https://doi.org/10.1177/10742956211020841

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. (2023). Resources. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. https://www.nctsn.org/resources

Titchkosky, T. (2011). The Question of Access: Disability, Space, Meaning. University of Toronto Press.

Tunstall, E. (2023). Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook. MIT Press.

van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Penguin.

Visser, I. (2015). Decolonizing Trauma Theory: Retrospect and Prospects. Humanities, 4(2), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.3390/h4020250

WebAIM. (2022). The WebAIM Million—The 2023 Report on the Accessibility of the Top 1,000,000 Home Pages. https://webaim.org/projects/million/

Wechsler, J. (2021, August 9). Trauma-informed Design Research. Medium. https://uxdesign.cc/trauma-informed-design-research-69b9ba5f8b08

Weinschenk, S. (2011). 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People. Pearson.

Wiest-Stevenson, C., & Lee, C. (2016). Trauma-Informed Schools. Journal of Evidence-Informed Social Work, 13(5), 498–503. https://doi.org/10.1080/23761407.2016.1166855

Winfield, J. H. (2022, August 8). Keeping Survivors Safe during UX Research. Chayn. https://blog.chayn.co/keeping-survivors-safe-during-ux-research-eb20c1ee1f04

Most read articles by the same author(s)