TrustVault – Domestic abuse: Hidden in plain sight

Domestic abuse causes often irreversible and life-long mental, psychological, and emotional damage on its victims, even decades after the abuse has stopped. However, the biggest travesty of domestic abuse is that it is hidden in plain sight.

TrustVault – Domestic abuse: Hidden in plain sight

Domestic abuse causes often irreversible and life-long mental, psychological, and emotional damage on its victims, even decades after the abuse has stopped. However, the biggest travesty of domestic abuse is that it is hidden in plain sight.

What we did

Using the interview data, we mapped out the victim’s journey from the start of the abusive relationship, through to when they decided to leave, and then into the months and years after the relationship had ended. Using this prototype, we then tested the wireframe’s design, functionality, navigation, and user journeys in multiple user testing sprints with domestic abuse victims. The feedback from domestic abuse victims uncovered valuable insight that we applied to iteratively refine the wireframes so that it aligns with the victim’s needs.

Challenge

For the victim survivor interviews, the greatest challenge we faced was to find the right balance of giving victim survivors the space to discuss their experiences while not re-traumatising them.

We did this by sense checking the discussion guide with victim survivors to ensure that the language of the discussion guide was victim-led and ensured that we gave interviewees time and space to respond in their own words. We also had a rigorous consent process in place that ensured the victim survivors felt safe to do the interview.

Approach

Setting to work in December 2023, ExperienceLab conducted discovery research in-depth interviews with eight victim survivors to understand their experiences of domestic abuse, of services, and what they think of an app.

Outcome

The research revealed multiple pain points that victims experience when navigating support services which we transformed into set of user requirements that were used to create the first user-centred iteration of the low fidelity prototype.

Chantal Sainter, trustee of The Tanya Vlok Foundation commented:

“The Foundation has provided support to hundreds of victim survivors, directly or via police forces or other charities. A huge number of victim survivors, and individuals from support organisations kindly volunteered to give their time and share their lived experiences. The result has been the most detailed and comprehensive set of information from discovery interviews which enabled us to create a genuinely user-centred first iteration of TrustVault.”

Mike Dunn, trustee of the foundation, noted:

“TrustVault will revolutionise the domestic abuse sector, providing a holistic solution to victim survivors whilst ensuring rich and accurate data for CPS prosecutions. The first step to turning the vision into reality was ExperienceLab and we could not be happier with their dedication, care, and professionalism throughout the journey.”

TrustVault is set for launch in 2024. If you want to know any more about ExperienceLab, please get in touch here. For anyone wanting to know more about TrustVault, please reach out to Chantal (chantal@thetanyavlokfoundation.org). or Mike (mike@thetanyavlokfoundation.org)

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