Connecting through Comics: Design and Evaluation of Cube, an Arts-Based Digital Platform for Trauma-Impacted Youth

This paper explores the design, development and evaluation of a digital platform that aims to assist young people who have experienced trauma in understanding and expressing their emotions and fostering social connections. Integrating principles from expressive arts and narrative-based therapies, we collaborate with lived experts to iteratively design a novel, user-centered digital tool for young people to create and share comics that represent their experiences. Specifically, we conduct a series of nine workshops with N=54 trauma-impacted youth and young adults to test and refine our tool, beginning with three workshops using low-fidelity prototypes, followed by six workshops with Cube, a web version of the tool. A qualitative analysis of workshop feedback and empathic relations analysis of artifacts provides valuable insights into the usability and potential impact of the tool, as well as the specific needs of young people who have experienced trauma. Our findings suggest that the integration of expressive and narrative therapy principles into Cube can offer a unique avenue for trauma-impacted young people to process their experiences, more easily communicate their emotions, and connect with supportive communities. We end by presenting implications for the design of social technologies that aim to support the emotional well-being and social integration of youth and young adults who have faced trauma.