Summary
The last two years of crises demonstrate why researchers and designers must anticipate and plan for trauma as it emerges in our work (and our lives). But how do you move your practice and your organization in a trauma-informed direction? This panel will draw upon our experiences researching sensitive topics and working with marginalized communities to discuss implementing trauma-informed practices in research and design engagements. We will explore the different ways we’ve used trauma-informed concepts to work with, and protect the mental and emotional safety of, the communities we serve. Panelists will also discuss self and team care and ways we’ve advocated for trauma-informed approaches in organizations like Code for America and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Key Insights
-
•
Trauma is stored in the body as sensations, pain, numbness, or dissociation, making it essential to consider physical as well as psychological impacts in research.
-
•
Research language can retraumatize participants; forcing binary gender choices in surveys excludes and harms non-binary and culturally diverse identities.
-
•
Safety and choice are foundational trauma-informed principles that require rethinking question formats and allowing participants to skip sensitive questions.
-
•
Participants are often over-researched, causing psychological harm; researchers must critically assess whether their research is necessary or redundant.
-
•
Participatory research methods empower communities by leveraging insider trust and allowing participants to control how stories are told and shared.
-
•
Consent forms often prioritize organizational legal protection over participant understanding and true consent.
-
•
Trauma affects researchers differently based on identity and positionality; organizations must create supports recognizing intersectional burdens.
-
•
Self-care is not enough; trauma-informed organizations require systemic changes to work environments, power structures, and policies.
-
•
Performative supports like mental health days or therapy stipends without removing bureaucratic barriers fall short of trauma-informed care.
-
•
Effective trauma-informed research integrates pre-, during-, and post-research practices including warm handoffs and clear resource connections.
Notable Quotes
"There are 1.9 billion Google search results for trauma - an exponential increase showing its growing awareness."
"Questions can be weapons; language in research, especially demographic questions, can exclude and retraumatize participants."
"Even offering an 'other' category in gender questions implies the participant deviates from a presumed norm."
"Harm is inevitably caused by research; the question is how do we reduce that harm as much as possible."
"Compensation should be culturally competent and consider all supports participants might need to show up fully."
"True consent means forms and processes designed for human understanding, not just organizational legal protection."
"Over-researching vulnerable populations repeats colonial patterns of extracting trauma without care."
"Research participants doing research in their own communities can create safer, richer research conversations."
"Sharing power and allowing researchers to choose projects creates less traumatic and more equitable workplaces."
"The self-care industry is commodified; true healing requires organizational change, not just personal coping tactics."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"During roadmapping time, let's bring our roadmaps together and discover synergies."
Brad Peters Anne MamaghaniShort Take #1: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
December 6, 2022
"You don’t have to be a designer to participate; over 90% of our community are not design professionals."
Lona MooreScaling Design Beyond Designers
June 11, 2021
"AI is a design material, not just a tool or function you add to an experience."
Josh Clark Veronika KindredSentient Design, AI, and the Radically Adaptive Experience (1st of 3 seminars)
January 15, 2025
"If we can’t provide research as a service at scale, we need to make sure the teams are equipped to do it on their own."
Erin May Roberta Dombrowski Laura Oxenfeld Brooke HintonDistributed, Democratized, Decentralized: Finding a Research Model to Support Your Org
March 10, 2022
"AI moderation did not make the research easier. It made it possible under real world constraints."
Tara TresselInvestigating qualitative depth of AI-moderated interviews
March 10, 2026
"If you can't get buy-in for collaboration between engineers and designers, start from the bottom and talk more early and often."
Charles Lee Jennie YipBuilding a New Home for the Atlassian Design System
October 22, 2020
"When we tailor education to individual needs, everyone benefits."
Kristin SkinnerFive Years of DesignOps
September 29, 2021
"Establish yourself as a trusted expert advisor whose work drives meaningful positive change."
Megan BlockerGetting to the “So What?”: How Management Consulting Practices Can Transform Your Approach to Research
March 26, 2024
"Shared mental models serve as organizing frameworks that all players in the system can understand and make decisions within."
Shanti Mathew Natalie Sims Natalia RadywylCivic Design at Scale: Introducing the Public Policy Layer Cake
December 9, 2021
