This document summarizes a training module on applying trauma-informed design principles. It discusses establishing group norms for respectful discussion of difficult topics. Ten trauma-informed heuristics are presented to evaluate designs for their potential to cause re-traumatization, such as having clear exit options and trigger warnings. Participants are asked to use five heuristics to analyze real products and services, identify ways to reduce harm, and present their findings next session. The goal is to help designers understand trauma and apply trauma-informed approaches in their work.

1. Trauma Informed
Design: Module 3
Learning & Applying the Trauma Informed Heuristic
UXPA • FEBRUARY 26, 2021

2. Trigger Warning
This webinar and the following courses will have frank and open discussions around
various types of trauma including sexual assault, PTSD and its symptoms, emotional
abuse, racial abuse and others. The purpose of these discussions is to illuminate
taboo topics and show how re-traumatization occurs. These discussions may
overwhelm and trigger you, especially if you are a trauma survivor. I ask everyone to
create an atmosphere of mutual respect and sensitivity for everyone. And if at any
point, it becomes too much, feel free to take a break and re-join if you are able.

3. Group Norms
Stay Engaged
To stay engaged is a refusal to let your heart and mind
“check out” of the conversation while leaving your body in
place. It is a personal commitment each person makes,
regardless of the engagement of others. It means remaining
morally, emotionally, intellectually, and socially involved in
the dialogue
Patterns of Participation
Everyone’s voice is important and is a valuable contribution
to the conversation. This includes watching our air time,
“Stepping Up” if we tend to process silently in our heads,
and “Stepping Back” if we are verbal processors to allow
ourselves to do some internal reflection.
Speak Our Truths
Use actual examples and experiences you’ve had. Don’t try
to generalize for other people. We’re here to have real
conversations and having them also means being honest
and specific about our questions.
Embrace Impact
We’re going to talk about uncomfortable and taboo topics.
Many of us are not well versed in these and will inadvertently
say something harmful and insensitive. When that happens,
resist the urge to defend yourself and instead listen, learn,
and make amends to the people you’ve hurt.

4. We’re here because…
We want to learn more about trauma, trauma informed care, and how we as
designers can take it into account in our work. As a collective of designers in
the course, we want to reduce harm through re-traumatization.
Objective
By learning and applying frameworks and
principles to our work.
Goal
Give you a better understanding of trauma,
how it shows up, and the consequences of re-
traumatization

5. Course Outline
This course will be taught over the next 4 Fridays for 60-75 minutes. We will
use a lecture format mix with a studio based project*
Module 1: The History Trauma Study & Trauma
Informed Care
A frame work for evaluating trauma in design
Module 4: Trauma Informed Design in Action
Studio project share out and course rap up.
* Studio Project Note: You should spend no more than 1-2 hours outside of this course working on it. The goal is to apply the
thinking, not making anything perfect. So focus on applying the learning, not making a polished product.

6. Share selected products
and services

7. 1-2 minutes to explain what
you selected and what you’ve
found do far.

8. Quick Recap of Session 2

9. Measure transparency over
conversion
Lead with respect, not superiority
PRINCIPLE 1
Prioritize comfort over
technological trends
Make informed consent a
requirement, not a nice to have
Build partnerships, not user base
PRINCIPLE 2
PRINCIPLE 3
PRINCIPLE 4
PRINCIPLE 5
The Five Principles of Trauma
Informed Design

10. When someone comes to your product or service, they’re looking for
an experience sensitive to their needs as a person. Focus on putting
people at ease in your product first before introducing them to new
technological trends that might increase stress and anxiety.
Take the time to prepare people for any unforeseen consequences that
might negatively impact their experience. By preparing them ahead of
time, you are giving them an opportunity to enter into a space when
they are comfortable.
Prioritize comfort over
technological trends

11. People don’t like to be swindled. When they’re met with feature
explanations full of long technical jargon they don’t have time to read
through it before making a choice.
Make it clear what you’re asking of people and layout clear examples
and potential consequences of using a product, service, or new
feature. Resist the urge to assume consent when a person doesn’t
explicitly respond.
Make informed consent a
requirement, not a nice to have

12. People want a say in their experiences.They’re not looking to be their
own designers, but they do want the ability to help craft an experience
that is right for them. Ensure there are proper channels for people to
share their feedback and concerns, in addition to giving them a voice in
the product
Build partnerships, not user bases

13. No one wants to agree to something harmful, especially when it acts as
a gatekeeper to an experience. People appreciate honest and clear
communication when presented with options. Instead of forcing them
to say yes, which will make metrics great but people unhappy, use
direct and clear communication.
Give people the opportunity to fully understand the need and
consequences of a product, service, or new feature.
Measure transparency over
conversion

14. It’s difficult to come by respect these days. With a focus on
organizations knowing better than people, it’s hard for people to trust
they’re going to be treated thoughtfully. So if you want to gain the
confidence and respect of the people using your product, you have to
give it in return. Allow people to set their own boundaries without
punishment or reduction experience.
Lead with respect, not superiority

15. Reflections from last week?

16. Let’s Get Started

17. The Trauma Informed
Heuristic

18. What is a Heuristic Analysis?
A heuristic evaluation is used to help identify usability problems in the design.
It involves evaluators examining the interface and judging its compliance with
standard usability principles
Most Common
• Nielsen
• Gerhardt-Powals
• Weinschenk and Barker

19. The Trauma Informed Heuristic
Developed a series of heuristic principles to helps designers understand the
potential for re-traumatization in their product, service, or experience.
How to Use
• Select and align on a maximum of 5 heuristics
• Evaluate your analogues and inspirations
across these heuristics
• Evaluate your designs at every state against
the heuristics

20. Lack of Coercive and Oppressive
Language
Clear Trigger Warnings on Content
and Media
Accessible Resources for Mental
Health
Personalized Communication
Absence of Repetitive Questioning
10 Trauma Informed Heuristics
HEURISTIC 1
Visibility of an Emergency Exit
Quick Access to Feedback and
Help
Explicit Informed Consent
Persistent and Standard Settings
Transparent Consequences
Communication
HEURISTIC 2
HEURISTIC 3
HEURISTIC 6
HEURISTIC 7
HEURISTIC 4
HEURISTIC 5
HEURISTIC 8
HEURISTIC 9
HEURISTIC 10

21. The design should always contain a quick and obvious way to leave an
uncomfortable experience.
Visibility of an Emergency Exit
Heuristic 1
Tips
• Present a clear option to close out
• Communicate clearly it is okay to leave
• Notify people they can come back later if
they want

22. The design should have a clear and always present way to leave in the
moment feedback and to ask for help.
Quick Access to Feedback and Help
Heuristic 2
Tips
• Make options for feedback and help
accessible from any screen
• Allow freeform, qualitative feedback
• Avoid generic responses and present a
timeline for feedback

23. The design should contain communication in plain language with
supplementary information available within the experience.
Explicit Informed Consent
Heuristic 3
Tips
• Write communication lower than the national
average grade level
• Make it easy for people to find the definition of
terms without leaving the experience
• Always use examples to show how a term/
condition will come to life

24. The design should be consistent in settings language and should not
change any preferences without explicit action from a person.
Persistent and Standard Settings
Heuristic 4
Tips
• Reduce the number of times you change the
names and meanings of settings
• Default all settings to ‘off’
• Unless required by regulatory, never let the
system change a person’s settings without
their permission

25. The design should clearly communicate potential negative impacts of
an experience.
Transparent Consequences
Communication
Heuristic 5
Tips
• Make a publicly available pros and cons list
• Don’t assume people have a high opinion of your
product
• Balanced and objective communication when
talking through consequences

26. The design should not contain language to pressure a person into
accepting any terms, conditions, or integrations.
Lack of Coercive and Oppressive
Language
Heuristic 6
Tips
• Do not use words to frighten or intimidate
people into saying yes
• Do not use guilt or FOMO such as “you’ll miss
out” or “you’ll lose these people”
• Stay away from language implying isolation
such as “you’ll be alone”“you’re the only one”

27. The design should contain clear trigger warning in plain language on all
potentially harmful content and experiences
Clear Trigger Warnings on
Content and Media
Heuristic 7
Tips
• Assume everything will be triggering unless told
otherwise
• Make all media paused by default

28. The design should have a dedicated and quickly accessible section for
expert-led mental health content with crisis intervention.
Accessible Resources for
Mental Health
Heuristic 8
Tips
• Create a digital well-being section for your
product or service
• Vet all mental health content through external
experts

29. The design should contain content tailored to a specific person
or population in the experience.
Personalized Communication
Heuristic 9
Tips
• Remove the word user from all your
communication
• Allow people to opt in to having their name
used in communication

30. The design should only ask for permission once and highlight how the
person can change any settings if they change their mind.
Absence of Repetitive Questioning
Heuristic 10
Tips
• Only ask for permission once, even if the
experience is updated
• Do not require people to share the reason they’ve
made a decision

31. Lack of Coercive and Oppressive
Language
Clear Trigger Warnings on Content
and Media
Accessible Resources for Mental
Health
Personalized Communication
Absence of Repetitive Questioning
10 Trauma Informed Heuristics
HEURISTIC 1
Visibility of an Emergency Exit
Quick Access to Feedback and
Help
Explicit Informed Consent
Persistent and Standard Settings
Transparent Consequences
Communication
HEURISTIC 2
HEURISTIC 3
HEURISTIC 6
HEURISTIC 7
HEURISTIC 4
HEURISTIC 5
HEURISTIC 8
HEURISTIC 9
HEURISTIC 10

32. Using an Evaluation Rubric
For the principles you select, you should have a normalized scale
with an odd number of values.
0
Poorly
0-5: High Probability of Re-traumatization
This experience is likely to trigger a trauma
survivor. Major adjustments needed
15-20: Low Probability of Re-traumatization
This experience accounts for trauma daily well.
Minor adjustments may be needed
6-14: Potential of Re-traumatization
This experience accounts for trauma in some
portions, but not all. Need to examine closely to
make changes
1 2 3 4
Excellent
Evaluation Scale Rubric
Example scale to get started. It includes a 0 so
experiences that don’t account for trauma at all
can be documented appropriately.

33. Homework & Project Format

34. • Chose no more than 5 heuristics and perform an evaluation
• Come up with 2-3 ways to redesign your product or service to
account for trauma
• Be prepared to share your project with the group next week
• Feel free to email your project to me ahead of time
Homework

35. • Your information: Name, pronouns, current position
• Name and explanation of selected product or service
• Why you selected it (no need to share anything you’re
not comfortable with)
• How it re-traumatized people
• Heuristic report (final score or entire evaluation)
• Redesign plan
• Your reflections on going through this process of
applying your learning
Project Requirements

36. • We’ll spend the majority of the time reviewing and discussing
projects (yay, no more hearing just me talk)
• Decide how we want to share this work
• Be prepared for a course wrap up discussion
• Prepare feedback to share with me about this short course
Next Class

37. Open questions on anything
or general reflections?

38. Be prepared to share next
session. We won’t get through
everyone, but want a chance
for discussion.

39. Thanks. Please email me at
theresa@theresa.is or message
me on slack with any questions.