Summary
Research holds great potential to both heal and harm—both ourselves and the communities we engage with. This session will help you to understand these impacts, and learn best practices to reduce harm and foster healing ethically and responsibly.
Key Insights
-
•
Research is never neutral; it is embedded within power structures and influences who is seen and heard.
-
•
Design research lacks formal ethical guardrails, unlike professions like social work or medicine, creating vulnerabilities.
-
•
The culture of urgency and speed in research often leads to extractive, performative practices that minimize harm.
-
•
Moral injury in research arises from systemic ethical failure, creating profound conflicts between values and work demands.
-
•
Minimizing or sanitizing harm enables institutions to avoid accountability while perpetuating cycles of ethical breaches.
-
•
Researchers can reclaim agency by setting personal ethical boundaries, advocating for care, and building supportive communities.
-
•
The RK Institute’s two loops model illustrates how old unethical research systems decline while trauma-informed approaches emerge.
-
•
Trauma-responsive research centers five principles: safety, transparency, co-creation, empowerment, and hope.
-
•
Slowing down research is a radical form of resistance prioritizing dignity, trust, and sustainability over speed.
-
•
Accountability and ethical frameworks must be integrated into organizational cultures, not left to individual researchers.
Notable Quotes
"You can't be neutral on a moving train."
"In design, it's the BYOE model—bring your own ethics."
"Moral injury is not just about witnessing harm; it's the inner knowing that you might also be complicit in producing it."
"Minimizing harm protects institutions, not people."
"Slowing down is not inefficiency; it is a commitment to dignity and trust."
"Moving fast isn’t just breaking things, it’s actually breaking people."
"The pressure to produce insights quickly defines many organizations shaped by 'move fast and break things' culture."
"Discomfort should not be dismissed; it’s a signpost for necessary change."
"Research should prioritize participant and researcher well-being over institutional convenience."
"The power of a bold idea uttered publicly in defiance of dominant opinion cannot be easily measured."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Findings are observations with a short shelf life, whereas insights get deep into the why and the consequences."
Sara LogelYour Colleagues are Your Users Too
March 29, 2023
"A typical enterprise customer has like five analysts who need a login, not millions of users."
Dan WillisEnterprise Storytelling Sessions
May 13, 2015
"UX designers have the power to design interactions that encourage environmentally friendly behaviors."
Aiyana Bodi James Christie Marc O'Brien Louis RosenfeldThree Key Climate Initiatives and How You Can Help
September 11, 2024
"Soft skills often are a multiplier on your hard skills—they’re just as valuable, if not more so."
Liam ThurstonWhy Your Design Team Is Quitting, And How To Fix It
June 10, 2022
"We built an app to let reviewers asynchronously capture design audit findings, significantly reducing scheduling friction."
Chris MosesStretching the Definition of DesignOps with Product Development
November 7, 2018
"There is still so much work to be done: from dealing with climate change, protecting wildlife, rebuilding infrastructure, feeding the world, ending disease."
Janaki KumarInnovate with Purpose
June 14, 2018
"How do we dance at a distance? That is the real tricky part of remote teamwork."
Smitha Papolu Nova Wehman-Brown Melissa Schmidt Adam MenterTheme 3 Discussion
January 8, 2024
"AI tools generate convincing yet potentially misleading content at scale, eroding public trust."
Noah BondRedefining truth and inclusivity: Navigating data ownership and ethical research in the age of disinformation
March 11, 2025
"Our team was the only thing you could describe as an actual team—because we deliberately built onboarding and culture."
Tanya SnookDesigning the team experience: Building culture through onboarding
November 4, 2021
