How volunteering for a crisis hotline makes me a better designer
By: Katherine Fairbanks
Tags: UI Design, Ux Design Process, UX Design, User Experience, User Interface

I’ve been a crisis online hotline volunteer for over a year, and not once has the queue been empty. During a typical three hour shift, I chat online with people in crisis from all over the United States. These are often intense cases of domestic violence or abuse. About half of my conversations are with children. As a volunteer, I’m there to help in any way I can, whether it’s providing resources or just providing a listening ear.

I’m also a UX Designer. I spend my days listening to clients, developers, and users in order to design and improve digital products. The stakes are not nearly as high when designing a mobile app as they can be when talking to a child in crisis. However, my training for the hotline has given me a professional edge I never expected.

Similar to queue of the crisis hotline, improvements to a mobile app design or similar projects are never done. Apps are constantly in need of updates and improvements as users’ needs grow and change, and technology evolves.

A person building using bricks.

Building Trust

To talk to a visitor to the hotline in crisis requires speaking to them with compassion and that will build trust over a very limited amount of time. As volunteers, we are taught to mirror a visitor’s language – if they call their mother “mommy,” I’ll refer to them the same way. I can often pick up on roughly how old they are, and simplify my language enough so that they can understand me clearly and won’t get confused when they’re already overwhelmed. These steps help me get a grasp on the urgency of their individual situation, and how to best keep them safe.

Similarly, at work, building trust with users over a short amount of time helps me understand what the most frustrating elements of a given digital experience are. After hearing about a particular pain point within a mobile application, it is helpful to repeat back (“mirror”) what the user explained in order to verify the information. This helps me indicate to that user that I am making an effort to view the application through their eyes.

Two people having a conversation.

Listening Before Offering Solutions

For my first few months on the online crisis hotline, I had to fight back the urge to immediately offer solutions every time I opened a new chat. It can be difficult to hear that a visitor is in pain or an unsafe situation, and not want to immediately scream, “GET OUT NOW! CALL 911, NOW!”

But, impulsively reacting to a visitor’s crisis situation can yield similar results to trying to fix a broken arm with a band-aid. How am I supposed to even begin to understand the situation the visitor is in, if I’m already trying to fix everything? This approach also can feel dismissive and condescending to the visitor – they know their situation much better than I do. They’re living through it.

Much like a user that utilizes the mobile app I am redesigning every day, a visitor to a crisis hotline is the expert on the situation at hand. In both instances, I listen first. This involves asking questions in order to deepen my understanding. I use active listening skills to validate their feelings, whether that be feelings of overwhelm, anxiety, or anger. In delicate situations like many crisis hotline conversations, I also give the visitor the power to share as much or as little as they are comfortable with in order to give the visitor a sense of control over the conversation. With the mobile app user and the crisis hotline visitor, I want to be led through the story of their experiences, rather than making assumptions.

A person choosing between two doors

Conclusion: The True Decision-Makers

In the case of both the crisis hotline visitor and the mobile app users, developers, and stakeholders, the decisions are ultimately theirs.

Rather than providing a crisis hotline visitor with what I deem to be the best course of action, I often instead approach the chat with a brainstorming mindset. I am there to help them formulate a plan that feels the most comfortable and reasonable to them, and supporting them in whatever path forward they choose. I won’t lie – I feel relieved and joy when a visitor decides to take action that is clearly their best chance for safety, whether that’s calling 911 or telling a trusted adult what’s happening to them. But I also know every crisis situation is different. Not every visitor will be ready or able to take dramatic action. Sometimes, just offering an empathetic ear or strategies for self-care are the most I can do, and those conversations are equally as important.

Similarly, not every design decision I make will be exactly what I want. Who am I to say the app should be blue, when every stakeholder and user wants the app to be green? I’m not designing for myself – I’m designing for business, technical feasibility, and people. A good design should reflect the desires of these groups, rather than my own.

While I can provide resources and well-informed suggestions to both the crisis hotline visitor and the mobile app user, I want to be the one to open many doors of possibility for these groups, rather than shoving them into whatever one I think looks the best. Ultimately, this provides the most rewarding experience.

For Help

While I am not comfortable revealing the specific hotline I am referring to out of an abundance of caution for visitors of the hotline, I do realize the content of this article can be triggering, and I want to provide the following resources if you are in need of support:

Suicide/Self Harm: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

Domestic Violence: https://www.thehotline.org/

Rape, Abuse, or Incest: https://www.rainn.org/about-national-sexual-assault-telephone-hotline

Child Abuse: https://www.childhelp.org/