A practical guide to trauma-informed research based on 4 years in the justice sector (prisons, family courts). Key lessons: prioritize safety over insight, simplify methods, watch power dynamics, protect both participants and researchers, and remember you're a researcher, not a therapist
Check in on your User Researchers
User researchers face real risks of compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma, even from seemingly mundane topics. The article offers practical advice for researchers (limit sessions, debrief, get good note-takers) and their managers (challenge ambitious plans, make research a team sport, just check in) — because researcher wellbeing isn't a "nice to have" but essential for ethical, sustainable work
Before a user clicks “buy,” they go through five emotional gates
Before buying, users pass through five emotional gates: Attention, Desire, Trust, Reality, and Post-purchase. Understanding these gates helps designers move from optimizing metrics to reducing doubt and building confidence, not just screens
AI: AI Can Find Patterns in Feelings. It Cannot Feel Them
AI excels at finding patterns and structuring qualitative data fast, but it cannot assess data quality, detect emotional nuance ("fine" vs resigned "fine"), or preserve critical outliers. The article offers practical guardrails: count people behind every insight, trace emotion labels to direct quotes, and always run an "outlier check" — because AI gives you patterns, not understanding
Basics: Why Would Anyone Make “Yes” Red and “No” Green?
A junior designer questions why a Yes/No field would ever use “Yes” (red) and “No” (green), breaking the usual color logic. The answer reveals a key UX lesson: sometimes what looks inconsistent serves a different user’s needs (here, report reviewers scanning for “desired” vs “undesired” answers), proving that context and user hierarchy matter more than rigid rules
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