TrAUMA-InFoRMED DESIGN PROJECT

Every 68 seconds in the United States, a person is sexually assaulted. the incidence is highest among females under age 30.

– Data from the U.S. Department of Justice and RAINN, 2024

When seeking help after a traumatic experience, people should experience digital technology as a support toward healing, not a barrier to overcome.

Applying a trauma-informed approach to digital design is an emerging trend among designers. I first began considering this concept in 2015, and I have previously written about my trauma-informed design project in 2017. In theory, the concept of applying trauma-informed principles to technology makes sense. We have evidence that trauma-informed practices improve people’s experiences when applied in other settings places such as mental health clinics and schools. However, there is little verified research related to digital design and trauma. Are what we can call “trauma-informed design patterns” important to survivors of trauma? What distinguishes trauma-informed design from just good design?

Role

Researcher

DESIGNER

Actions on this project

  • LITERATURE REVIEW

  • Research Design and Planning

  • Research Operations

  • Focus Group Research

  • Discrete Choice Experiment

  • Documentation of research in a 3 Paper DIssertatoin

Now, as I pursue a graduate degree, I’m proposing a mixed-methods research study to answer these questions. The purpose of this exploratory sequential design will be first to qualitatively explore the ideas, importance, and preferences of trauma-informed design patterns. From this initial exploration, the qualitative findings will be used to develop an instrument that can be administered to a larger sample of survivors. Small focus groups will be used in the qualitative phase and a discrete choice experiment will be used in the quantitative phase.

The population of interest is college women ages 18 - 24 who are survivors of sexual assault and the stimuli used in this research study will be mental health websites.

Related Peer-Reviewed Publications

Eggleston, M., & Noel, L.A. (2024). Trauma-Informed Design: Leveraging Usability Heuristics on a Social Services Website. Journal of Usability Studies, 24, 123–138.

Eggleston, M., & Noel, L.A. (2024). Repairing the Harm of Digital Design Using a Trauma-informed Approach. Diseña, (24), Article 7.

EXPECTED Results

  • Values and preferences for design patterns by survivors of sexual assault

  • Design direction for those who manage or design websites for survivors of sexual assault

  • Original contribution to knowledge about the needs of survivors of the trauma of sexual assault