Workshop: How to implement trauma-informed design principles for service design
Over 70% of people have experienced a traumatic event, and 6% of the world’s population struggle with PTSD. If you’re a service designer, ensuring your work is following trauma-informed design principles is critical to creating a positive experience for your clients, users, and community.
At Chayn, our trauma-informed design principles are foundational to everything, from our HR processes to content writing to user research to product and service design. We’ve used them to create award-winning services for survivors of gender-based violence, as well as cross-cultural content that is survivor-led.
In this hands-on workshop, you’ll learn how to implement trauma-informed principles across three areas: research, design and impact. The principles ensure your practices are centred around the experiences of survivors of trauma and puts them first.
In this workshop, you will:
Learn about Chayn’s trauma-informed design principles and participatory practices, using real-life examples from our work, along with examples from our clients and partners.
Discuss ways to create a culture of experimentation and honesty in teams.
Learn how to use effective feedback loops to assess a product/service as well as the process to get there; and how to respond to feedback from users.
Work in small groups to review your work from a trauma-informed lens, finding three ways to it more trauma–informed and participatory.
Connect with other organisations and individuals who are working toward more trauma-informed design and learn about how they already use these principles.
Quotes from our previous workshops:
“The Chayn workshop had a lasting impression on me personally, as it gave me some key principles to bear in mind both when thinking about service design, but also when working with people generally and in my private life. I’ve fed these back internally, and they’re starting to percolate a bit and change some mindsets – particularly around how we approach change processes.”
”I found the session very useful especially because of the examples you provided on how each principle could be applied in design and research. Those examples made me reflect on what some the things we have been already doing are trauma informed and how we can do more of this in future.” Designer
About Chayn:
Chayn is a global nonprofit with deep expertise in creating survivor-centred, trauma-informed digital resources and services for people experiencing gender-based violence. Drawing on more than a decade of experience across technology, user research, multilingual content, and online safety, Chayn combines lived-experience with intentional design to build tools that meet survivors where they are. The organisation also shares its learning with partners across the sector, helping strengthen how technology and digital services are designed for safety, dignity, and agency.