Design research can help us understand, dismantle, and transform unjust systems and the material realities that they create, while guiding us towards transformative, radical futures yet to be designed. However, design research can also be a site of harm and trauma. We argue that a “do no harm” guiding principle to ethics in design research is insufficient. Rather, design researchers need to reckon with and prepare for the likelihood that they will cause harm to the people and communities they engage in their design processes. We draw from the ethics of care and accountability theorized and explored by feminist thought in order to delineate a trauma-responsive design research model. This model can help design researchers take accountability as they work to minimize, acknowledge, and repair harm. Moreover, establishing a praxis of trauma responsiveness as an ethical imperative in design work can help design researchers amplify the liberatory potential of their practice.
