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 think it is a bit of a misconception that this only applies in sensitive areas like healthcare, social care, or with victims/survivors of crime. Trauma is so much more prevalent than we realise, and it is often difficult to know what might be a trigger for someone. So even in the examples of shoes or chocolate companies, we should take precautions as we don't know what someone is going through that day.

An example of this is related to incentives. Some people may be participating in user research because they are struggling with finances and are relying on the money gained from that research session for groceries or bills. I have a colleague who was confronted with this on a research session where a participant was reliant on that payment, and had no idea they would have to wait for several weeks for it to come through. This triggered a trauma reaction in the participant, even though it was a seemingly benign topic to research on.

I think the work you're doing to be trauma-informed within healthcare is really valuable. I also think we should start to expand these approaches outwards to other areas, even the unexpected ones :)