Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Lessening the Research Burden on Vulnerable Communities
Gold
Monday, March 30, 2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Share the love for this talk
Lessening the Research Burden on Vulnerable Communities
Speakers: Sarah Fathallah
Link:

Summary

This talk covers specific approaches to employ when working with vulnerable populations, starting with a definition of vulnerability, then discussing how to ensure that researchers remain safe, respectful, fair, and culturally appropriate. This includes: choosing the right research methods for the participants, topic, and context at hand; recruiting and compensating research participants; ensuring research participants are aware of their rights and potential risks for participating in the research; conducting research in a trauma-informed way; managing participant data by ensuring collected information doesn’t put them at risk; communicating design research findings in a respectful manner.

Key Insights

  • Long, in-depth interviews may be inappropriate or harmful when working with vulnerable populations.

  • Vulnerability is multidimensional and often invisible; appearances can be deceiving.

  • Recruitment through cultural brokers and local leaders fosters trust and fairness.

  • Offering collective or in-kind compensation can be more culturally appropriate than individual cash payments.

  • Using local proverbs can improve participant understanding of informed consent in low literacy contexts.

  • Researchers must establish referral pathways to address trauma or crises uncovered during studies.

  • Minimizing collected data and avoiding identifiable photos reduces privacy risks.

  • Giving participants control over their data and imagery enhances ethical research partnerships.

  • Community advisory boards can validate research findings and ensure accurate representation.

  • Embedding research within community-led processes reduces the extractive nature of typical methods.

Notable Quotes

"Naming is an exercise in power when what is being named has been historically erased."

"Vulnerable communities aren't always carrying signs with the word vulnerability spelled out on their forehead."

"You cannot force a dog to run — illustrating that participants have the liberty to stop or skip uncomfortable questions."

"We structured the research around helping them fill out their housing application at the same time, so we were mindful of their time and they would also get something out of it."

"Compensation in cash or something as close to cash as possible is the best way to go, but sometimes collective donations work better."

"Researchers are not trained mental health professionals, so having referral paths is essential when issues arise."

"It's unwise for us to intervene when we're not equipped to close the doors that would be opened in doing so."

"We allowed participants to look at all the photos taken and decide which ones to keep or delete."

"Community advisory boards were elected by their peers to review findings and ensure accuracy."

"Ways to reduce extraction in research is by embedding community-led practices rather than holding the keys to knowledge ourselves."

Ask the Rosenbot
Ana Ferreira
Designing Distributed: Leading Doist’s Fully Remote Design Team in Six Countries
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Sara Logel
Your Colleagues are Your Users Too
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Trisha Causley
[Demo] Complexity in disguise: Crafting experiences for generative AI features
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Emilia Åström
Unlock Your Team’s Intelligence with Collaboration Design
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Peter Van Dijck
Building impactful AI products for design and product leaders, Part 3: Understand AI architectures: RAG, Agents, Oh My!
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Robin Beers
Research as a Catalyst for Organizational Transformation
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Jess Greco
Claiming your power: Practical tools for amplifying your unique voice
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Billy Carlson
Principles of Team Wireframing
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Angelos Arnis
Navigating the Rapid Shifts in Tech's Turbulent Terrain
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Angelos Arnis
State of DesignOps: Learnings from the 2021 Global Report
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Jackie Ho
Lead Effectively While Preserving Team Autonomy with Growth Boards
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Chris Geison
Theme Two Intro
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Peter Van Dijck
Building impactful AI products for design and product leaders, Part 2: Evals are your moat
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Lisa Welchman
Cleaning Up Our Mess: Digital Governance for Designers
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Megan Blocker
Theme 2 Intro
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Erika Flowers
The Handoff is Dead: Design-Led Engineering with AI Agents
2026 • Rosenfeld Community

More Videos

Shahrzad Samadzadeh

"The size of your role doesn't determine your impact; it's how your role fits into the bigger picture."

Shahrzad Samadzadeh

What Is My Value? Two Takes and Some Mistakes

January 8, 2024

Brenna Fallon

"Design your processes around learning. Celebrate especially when you fail—you often learn the most then."

Brenna Fallon

Learning Over Outcomes

October 24, 2019

Ruzanna Rozman

"To get into flow, I need a strong belief in the purpose and the work we’re doing."

Ruzanna Rozman

Getting in Flow with Your Team

January 8, 2024

Sheryl Cababa

"You don’t need a giant system map; even two or three causal loops can reveal root causes and align stakeholders."

Sheryl Cababa

Expanding your Design Lens with Systems Thinking

March 28, 2023

Melissa Schmidt

"The secret ingredient to making this work and scale has been identifying and empowering track leads."

Melissa Schmidt Adam Menter

How UX Research Hit It Big in Las Vegas

June 4, 2019

Nathan Curtis

"We get accessibility baked in, so if you use the design system properly, you pretty much guarantee compliance."

Nathan Curtis Nalini P. Kotamraju Jack Moffett Dawn Ressel

Discussion

June 9, 2016

Jake Burghardt

"Activating insights multiple times can be necessary before teams truly internalize and act on them."

Jake Burghardt

Stop wasting research: Create new value with insight summaries

July 9, 2025

Kate Towsey

"Research is democratized: if you’re not democratizing, you probably don’t even realize everyone in your company is talking to users in different ways."

Kate Towsey Basel Fakhoury Oren Friedman Graham Gardner

Participant Recruitment and Management Tools

March 12, 2026

Bria Alexander

"Cohorts are consistently one of the highest rated parts of the conference — they’re a fantastic way to learn together."

Bria Alexander

Opening Remarks

September 9, 2022