DESIGN STRATEGY, RESEARCH, REPORT DEVELOPMENT
Valuing the lived experience
I worked alongside a small team of researchers and trauma-informed professionals to review the work of the Victim Survivors’ Advisory Council (VSAC) within the context of major family violence reforms in Victoria, Australia. From research support through to final delivery, I helped shape how this work was understood, communicated, and ultimately shared.
This project was in collaboration with the School of Participatory Design, Family Safety Victoria, Victorian State Government, Australia.
Project roles
Art Direction
Co-Design
Design Thinking
Style Development
Information Design
Long-format Print Design
My contribution spanned the entire project lifecycle, including:
Leading design direction, developing a document to align stakeholders on tone, audience, and purpose
Participating in co-design workshops and stakeholder meetings
Applying design thinking to help make sense of layered, nuanced content
Creating visual tools and resources to support co-design participants
Prototyping different formats of how we could present this body of work
Mapping data and synthesising themes into accessible visual narratives
Designing the final 200+ page report to be clear, compelling, and digestible
The project’s aim was to:
Review the establishment and impact of VSAC (Recommendation #201 of 227 from the 2016 Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence)
Centre the voices and experiences of victim survivors in shaping reform
Explore how lived experience can inform government work more broadly
Support other departments in establishing lived-experience advisory groups
Key considerations included:
Navigating confidentiality and trauma sensitivity
Embedding intersectionality and acknowledging systemic context “I can’t have a conversation about Aboriginal family violence without also having a conversation about treaty and self-determination, the justice system, out-of-home care and child protection systems.”
Managing a significant volume of content while maintaining integrity of individual voices
Designing with—not just for—stakeholders through a genuine co-design process
