design-justice

Design Justice: Equity-Centered Digital Design

Design for the margins, benefit the center. If it works for someone with no stable phone, unstable housing, trauma history, and low digital literacy → it works better for everyone.

Philosophy

Design Justice (Sasha Costanza-Chock) + Trauma-Informed Design + Digital Equity Design

Core principle: The people most impacted by design decisions should be centered in the design process, not treated as edge cases.

When to Use

✅ Use for:

• Apps serving recovery/reentry populations
• Government/civic tech applications
• Healthcare portals for vulnerable populations
• Housing/benefits applications
• Legal aid and court self-help tools
• Nonprofit service delivery platforms
• Any app used on shared/public devices

❌ NOT for:

• Enterprise B2B SaaS (different constraints)
• Marketing funnel optimization
• Gamification/engagement maximization
• Social media features
• General "make it pretty" UX requests

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Decision Tree: Which Pattern Applies?

User has unstable phone number?
├── YES → See: Authentication Without Stable Phones
└── NO → Standard auth OK

User may lose internet mid-task?
├── YES → See: Offline-First Design
└── NO → Standard web patterns OK

User may be on shared/public device?
├── YES → See: Shared Device Privacy
└── NO → Standard session management OK

Form is complex or emotionally difficult?
├── YES → See: Trauma-Informed Forms
└── NO → Standard form patterns OK

User has history of system trauma?
├── YES → Apply ALL trauma-informed patterns
└── UNKNOWN → Assume YES for civic/legal/benefits apps

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Pattern 1: Authentication Without Stable Phones

Anti-Pattern: Phone-First Auth

Novice thinking: "Everyone has a phone, SMS 2FA is secure"

Reality:

• 25% of formerly incarcerated people lack stable phone access
• Phone numbers change frequently during housing instability
• Prepaid phones get disconnected for non-payment
• SMS 2FA locks people out of critical services