Content note This post mentions examples of traumatic events but does not go into detailed descriptions of events. Understanding practitioner experiences of research and trauma Back in February 2023, I conducted a survey to find out more about practitioner experiences of trauma in research and design. Here’s a snippet from the survey about its purpose: “I have…

As designers and researchers, we want to do the right thing by our users and our teams. This includes working in an inclusive, ethical, and trauma-informed way. So why don’t we always implement these behaviours in practice? To end the workshop I ran at UX Scotland, we co-created a trauma-informed…

A few weeks ago I wrote about the importance of approaching research and design with a trauma-informed mindset. This work takes continual practice. It is not a step which you can add to the design thinking process, or slot into the double diamond. As with accessibility and inclusive design, we…

Thanks for these very practical tips for researching with users going through (or having been through) difficult experiences. I agree with you about the use of language, and working with experts (or users themselves!) to help shape your research. One thing I would add though - in my experience, I…

Content note: This post mentions definitions of trauma but does not go into detailed descriptions of events. The linked resources also discuss trauma. At the start of June, I had the opportunity to attend and speak at UX Scotland in Edinburgh. I came away fired up from conversations with practitioners…

I was recently out walking, thinking about user needs (I know, I’m cool) and I was getting a bit stuck on something. I find user needs statements to be a useful tool. They help us get to the root of a problem so we can solve the right thing for…

How do we convince decision-makers to make ethical design a priority? — Content warning: this article discusses suicide, please take care when reading. TL;DR: It is not enough to talk about designing ethically as the “right thing to do.” Large organisations, operating in complex systems, have many competing priorities. Ultimately they are accountable to their shareholders and their bottom line. …

I recently re-read Thomas Myddelton’s fantastic blog post Research heresies and it got me thinking. He talks about “unhelpful beliefs that get in the way of doing a great job” in user-centred design. One of the controversial opinions he calls out: User needs is a harmful concept for training user…

Update: 29/11/22 The ethical design resource list has been updated! To help with information overload in this space — this resource list has now been combined with the wonderful resource created by Lexi Namer (in collaboration with the Ethical Design Network). You can find it at https://www.ethicaldesignresources.com/ …