TRAUMA INFORMED DESIGN

In my Principal Designer role in the Digital Notifications team at Service NSW, I was responsible for helping government agencies communicate effectively and securely with the people of New South Wales — through email, SMS, push notifications and MyServiceNSW messages. While many of these messages are routine, others are delivered during moments of extreme stress — natural disasters, health emergencies or other life-changing events. In these moments, our words can either help or unintentionally cause harm.

Understanding the problem

Our journey into trauma-informed design began during the 2022 Northern Rivers floods. We were drafting messages about grant support when we realised that clarity alone wasn’t enough — we were speaking to people who had just lost homes, businesses, and stability. We needed to write with empathy, not just efficiency.

We reached out to frontline staff working in relief centres to understand what people were going through and how our messages might affect them. Those conversations revealed a sobering fact: around 75% of people have experienced some form of trauma. Our responsibility wasn’t just to inform, but to communicate in a way that supported emotional safety and dignity.

Applying trauma-informed design principles

Drawing on research from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the Mental Health Network and global trauma-informed frameworks, we developed practical guidance for our team. Five key principles shaped our approach:

• Safety – ensuring both physical and emotional safety for recipients.

• Transparency – being open and clear about what’s happening and what comes next.

• Choice – respecting autonomy by offering options and control.

• Collaboration – connecting people to real support via call centres or relief centres.

• Equity – recognising that trauma disproportionately affects vulnerable communities and designing inclusively for all.

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The impacT

By embedding these principles, our content became more compassionate, inclusive, and human. We re-examined not only the tone and structure of our notifications but the way we design them — from hierarchy and layout to accessibility and readability.

This work evolved into a broader cultural shift. With the Global Experience Language (GEL) team, we created trauma-informed content and design guidelines so all digital service teams could design with empathy and respect at scale.

Lessons and future direction

We learned that trauma-informed design isn’t a single project or checklist — it’s a mindset. Whether designing notifications, websites or apps, we must always consider the emotional and psychological impact of our work.

Going forward, our goal was to make trauma-informed design a standard part of every design process at Service NSW ensuring that empathy, accessibility, and understanding guide everything we create.