SOS Domestic Violence
Designing a digital safe space that helps victims name what they couldn't say- SOS Domestic Violence
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About the project
Context
SOS Violence Conjugale is Quebec's primary 24/7 domestic violence helpline, operating since 1987. In 2020, the organization needed a new digital platform to reach victims earlier, support allies, and reduce the pressure on phone counselors. The challenge: design for users in distress, where a wrong interaction could mean someone closes the tab and never comes back.
My role
I led UX strategy alongside Sébastien Leblanc (Creative Director) and worked closely with Marie-Christine Dion (Art Director). My scope covered information architecture, persona-based user flows, the interactive self-assessment questionnaire, safety features (quick exit, browser history clearing), visual direction strategy, and content structure across the platform.
Release date
2020
Expertises
UX Design, Interaction Design, Information Architecture, Digital Strategy, Content Strategy
The challenge
Replicating the warmth of a phone call — without the phone
SOS Violence Conjugale's phone line was overwhelmed. Demand outpaced counselors.
What worked: a human voice that quickly routes, validates without judgment, reassures, and connects to resources. The brief was to replicate warmth, immediacy, and trust in a context where users may feel alone and unworthy of help.
The vision for the new user experience
Translate the phone experience into a digital platform that maintains its essence.
Architecture
Routing users by need, not by organizational structure
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User research revealed that the site would serve radically different people: victims in acute crisis, allies who suspect something is wrong, professionals looking for resources, and the general public.
We structured the homepage around a conversational entry question: "Welcome to SOS Violence Conjugale, how may I help you?" Four need states replace traditional categories, each surfacing tailored actions in two clicks or fewer. Content is personalized by persona: victims get rapid access to the phone line and the self-assessment tool; allies get resources and the questionnaire; professionals get intervention guides.
The information architecture was built to reduce cognitive load in high-stress situations, not to reflect the organization's internal logic. Callers who had already used the site tended to be more articulate and less likely to disconnect.
This project was the starting point for something bigger
Explore how we built a shared design model across all our domestic violence projects
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Visual direction
Breaking the visual codes of domestic violence to create a genuine safe zone
Most domestic violence resources rely on dark, heavy visual codes that signal danger. This creates a paradox: the visual language itself can deter the people most in need of help.
We made a deliberate decision to move away from these conventions and design something that felt like a safe, calm destination rather than a crisis hotline.
Animated gradients inspired by light therapy: slow, warm color shifts create a sense of movement, hope, and calm: replacing static imagery that could feel alarming.
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Each page has a unique color theme and emotional tone, fostering progression through the experience. The animated gradients offer warm color transitions that evoke hope and tranquility, replacing static visuals that may induce discomfort.
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App-like layout: a clean, familiar interface structure doesn't arouse suspicion from an external observer, and reduces cognitive load for a stressed user.
The visual language
Designed to not look like a domestic violence resource, because for someone being watched, looking like one is a risk.
Safety features
Trust-building through discretion, not just content
For a victim, the site itself can be a risk. A partner checking browsing history, a phone left unattended, a shared device. We treated digital safety as a first-class UX problem.
Clear Browser History provides contextual instructions for erasing your trail step by step, ensuring your safety beyond our content.
Quick Exit is a button that redirects to five neutral websites: Ricardo, Le Panier Bleu, IKEA, Météomédia. These sites are chosen to avoid suspicion and are plausible to have open. The button is on desktop but not on mobile for discretion.
Self-assessment
Questionnaires built to make violence visible, and accumulation undeniable
Static checklists existed, listing behaviors without feedback or context. We designed three interconnected tools for different moments in the victim's journey.
Self-assessment: 25 questions on 12 violence types with personalized results. Includes examples for victims to identify situations. 12 questions are danger "red flags" leading to three result levels. Users can email results without records kept.
Coercive control form: An assessment for identifying abuse patterns that may lead to violence.
QSL (Quebec Sign Language) widget: A year after launch, we added a Langue des signes québécoise feature. For Deaf users, navigating a sensitive tool about domestic violence in a second language is tough. The solution is a video widget with a sign language interpreter translating content.
Anonymous victim
"I used my results to talk to my doctor. I felt stronger because I had words to describe what I was living."
Impact
A platform that changed how people ask for help
Callers who had used the questionnaire were more grounded, more articulate, and less likely to hang up. The tool gave victims vocabulary, and they used it. Testimonials showed users bringing their results to doctors, lawyers, and allies to describe what they had been unable to say before.
The platform generated the largest annual increase in SOS's history:
+42.5% in annual requests, reaching 159 requests per day. The site recorded 219,000 visits and 216,000 new users.
Over 118,000 questionnaires were completed in the first 14 months across 118 countries.
A single Facebook post in December 2021 reached close to 213,000 people with no paid media.
+58,000 additional requests in a single year, a historic record for the organization.
The Idéa 2021 Gold Award confirmed industry recognition. The Purple Ribbon Award for Most Innovative Service validated the impact from the sector itself. The design thinking behind the platform was later presented publicly at WAQ 2022 and contributed to a shared model applied across subsequent domestic violence projects at Locomotive.
Want to go deeper on the design thinking?
Watch the conference talk on designing for sensitive contexts
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