Designing a live chat service for women experiencing domestic violence

Session type:

Case Study

Presented by:

Emma Howell

cxpartners

Lisa Johnson

Women's Aid

Session duration:

60 minutes

About the session

Domestic violence affects over a million women a year in England and Wales. Crippling sector cuts and shifts in the way that women feel safe accessing support means that a phone line for help is not always appropriate. Women’s Aid responded to this by developing a live chat service.

We’ll share how we supported them through this journey - how we tested our ideas, managed research with survivors, prepared them for supporting the service and the data from the live pilot.

Conference Themes: Research, Chatbots

About the speaker(s)

Emma Howell

Emma is Research Director at cxpartners. She has 13 years of research experience, starting in academia before finding her way to crafting lovely services in the public and charity sector. She has a mixed bag of research experience. Her fave bits include:

- studying insect camouflage in British woodlands
- observing a troupe of baboons for 2 months
- depth interviews with vulnerable Bristol citizens to improve council services
- helping the Samaritans to improve their services for people in emotional distress
- redesigning a letter and leaflet to improve uptake for lung cancer screenings in London

Emma is particularly passionate about pushing awareness of inclusive design in all of her research projects and empowering the next generation of female designers.

Lisa Johnson

Lisa Johnson is Manager of Direct Services at Women’s Aid. Lisa joined Women’s Aid as a helpline volunteer in 1996 and is a child survivor of domestic violence. Her personal experience is her motivation to work with a domestic violence charity and to make a difference to women's and children's lives.

Lisa is responsible for managing support services, including the Survivors' Forum and the newly developed live chat service. She previously managed the delivery of the 24-hour Freephone National Domestic Violence Helpline, run in partnership with Refuge.

Lisa is a registered Domestic Abuse Prevention Advocate and has a diploma in preventing and tackling domestic and sexual abuse/violence.

She works closely with the Centre for Gender and Violence Research Department at Bristol University and has recently received an honorary doctorate (in law) from the university.

Lisa has worked internationally and provided support, training and advice to fellow NGOs in developing Direct Services abroad.