Sexual abuse is a common and intens problem; in 2022 the number of Dutch victims was 1.8 million. This means that 1.8 million people have to experience and survive the aftermath of sexual abuse every year. This incredibly large group of people almost never share their experience; out of fear for the repercussions or because they don't know (yet) how to tell their story.
My immersive experience "Trauma land" is based on the landscape of emotions a victim travels through to proces their abuse and aims at making a two-way impact: provide a sense of security for victims by telling and showing the stories and emotions of other victims, but also raise awareness among others about the emotional aftermath of sexual abuse.
Project
Minor Impact - Social change through creativity at Hogeschool Utrecht
Roles
Researcher
Storyteller
Concepter
Visual designer
Prototyper
Design methods used
Benchmark creation
Literature study
Interview
Co-creation
Usability test
5E Method
I concluded that
The concept has to tell the stories in a gentle and non-literal way.
The concept has to not be triggering to my target audience and others.
The concept has to keep the target audience who are in it visible to keep it personal, but not recognizable.
Immersive experience development and ethics.
Setting up the experience entailed keeping a close line and eye on my target audience with whom I co-created the stories to ensure their participation and safety during the proces.
I arranged meetings between us every two weeks to test every small prototype and ensure their boundaries weren't being crossed to keep this project ethical and safe.
To keep the stories gentle and non-literal metaphors are used in the landscape based on the personal journeys and stories from the target audience.
Visual design based on the target audience's personal stories.
Combining concept art and animations in order to create prototypes.
In order to create an immersive experience I aimed on using multiple layered visuals based on earlier research. This ensured the user had to use their full attention during the experience. In addition I wanted to recreate a feeling of sensual overwhelming (something my target audience experiences daily) and as an experiment based on which landscape users are drawn to first when their senses are overwhelmed.
Evaluating the experience
In order to evaluate the experience I designed a 'question wall' next to the entrance on which the two most important questions for me as a designer were placed:
- "To which landscape did you go first and why?"
- "Which story has stayed with you the most and why?"
Users could hang their answers on the wall to encourage other users to answer as well, or could place their answer in a box to ensure their anonymity since it is a sensible subject matter. In total thirteen answers were gathered at the end of the day which were used to formulate an advice for the future steps of the experience.
