Beyond safety

Trauma-Informed Design Reflections #18

The highlight of my last week was attending pause and effect’s training on decolonizing trauma-informed practices. It was incredible and I left filled with great insights.

One of them was related to safety. Once again, I was reminded that safety isn’t always possible for trauma survivors. Especially, when they are living in violent systems.

Despite that, trauma-informed design is deeply connected with creating safe services and experiences. So, how do we bridge the two?

What does trauma-informed design look like when safety is not possible?

Joy

This is the second (and last) insight I’ll share from that training: Joy has a place in trauma-informed practices. I see this idea as both powerful and radical.

Powerful because even if the reclamation of safety isn’t accessible, a moment of joy can be. And it can create a positive emotional experience.

Radical because we are surrounded by systems that place profit, productivity, and output over people. Doing something with the sole intention of having fun directly opposes them.

And yet, we have stripped design of joy. Nowadays, design is usually seen as a way to solve problems. But, looking at the world through a problem-solving lens can often (not always) leave little space to joy.

After all,

when was the last time you experienced joy while using software?

This isn’t a software-only problem, but software is a good example. We spend much of our lives in the digital world and it is becoming less and less fun. Software is becoming simpler, smarter, faster, and easier to use because we optimize for those things. After all, that’s what the market values. But software isn’t becoming more joyful.

The market will not value joy. Because, joy is radical. But, as trauma-informed designers, we can advocate for it.

Rest

In my experience, rest is inextricably connected with safety. We can rest when we feel safe. But also, feeling safe is more accessible to us when we are rested. The two create an upward spiral; one enables the other.

I recently started reading Tricia Hersey’s book Rest is resistance. And even though I’m still very early into it, the premise is very powerful: “Rest is a form of resistance because it disrupts and pushes back against capitalism and white supremacy.”

Modern design often allies with those systems. Productivity tools result in us working more. Addictive patterns are engineered to capture our time and attention. We are working more, scrolling more, and resting less.

Contrary to these, I believe that for a design to be trauma-informed it needs to prioritize rest and enable it, whenever possible.

How can we create services that make rest available? How can we create experiences that support rest?

Pockets of safety

Sometimes, when safety isn’t accessible, pockets of safety (or relative safety) are. This means that someone, for small amounts of time, might be able to feel safe.

For survivors living in a violent system this could be all we can do. And it is very important. Think of the victim of domestic abuse who feels unsafe at home, but experiences a moment of safety when entering our website. Think of the transgender child who is bullied at school but feels included in the online community we created. Or think of the disabled parent who is able to find a job using the service we designed.

In my experience pockets of safety can really help us keep going when our everyday environment cannot be safe. They matter and if our design can help bring them into the world, that’s a win. And it’s definitely trauma-informed.

Who might feel safer when using our design?

What else

Let me share a quote with you:

Safety is, I believe, an inherently classed, raced, and gendered experience that frequently runs the risk of being used for regressive ends — ironically, for restricting freedoms of the vulnerable, those who are never really safe.
— Kai Cheng Thom

I still see tremendous value in safety. I’ve seen people’s lives change once they’re able to experience it again. But I also see a need to explore beyond that when working with trauma.

I’m sure that the ideas above are not the only ones. And I’d love to hear where you think this exploration could take us.