Probing into the security gaps of gated communities using myGate as a system

Team Panda [ Avani Sharma, MOHIT MOHAN, Ketaki Paranjape]

“Gated Communities” that have emerged in India in recent years are a type of neighborhood that has controlled access using one or more gates that residents or visitors must pass through.

With this rise, various apps/platform began to be developed to address the security concerns and other management issues of such communities. “myGate” being one of them — which claims to enhance the security at the gated community.

Gated communities in India and around the world

Understanding the MyGate application

To investigate what they claim to be, we began reading about what Gated Communities are, how they emerged and how they have shaped the lives of people living in them. Knowing more about the myGate platform and its functionality, gave us some understanding about the various factors involved in the whole system — such as stakeholders, data flow, power hierarchy, etc. To know further, we conducted a generic survey and asked the residents as well as the security guards about the app and their comfort level with its usage. Their response gave us certain insights and problems to look upon.

Mygate working and flow

MyGate working

Insights from Interviews-

Insights generated from Interviews of Residents and Security Guards

Pro’s & Cons of MyGate application

We wanted to look into the security gaps when migrating to myGate platform — be it physical security of the society and its residents or the security of data that such platforms collect.

Collecting the pain and gain points of the MyGate apps by looking into the insights of the survey

To probe into such a problem, we would like to investigate at the first touchpoint which is the security guards. As per our understanding from the initial interviews conducted, the security guards are not well trained or motivated enough to understand the working of the application properly as well as they are not aware of most of the features in the app. Also, the “centralized database” of myGate app holds a huge amount of data. The data is private to some extent, this gave rise to certain questions such as:

· Who all have access to this data?

· Why security guards are ineffective despite MyGate?

· How long they have been using the app?

· What knowledge/ qualification they have to be in that position?

· What amount of training they have garner or require to use MyGate?

A basic enquiry of After and Before use of MYGATE app in the complex

Expected Output

The expected output of this research query would be a research paper including tentative artifacts such as — Service Blueprint, Journey Maps, Empathy Maps, Actor map. Below is the expected schedule we would be following in these 4 weeks of the studio:

Feedback (as on 22nd Jan 2019) -

• Focus on the topic and prioritize the area of investigation.
• Should finalize the problem statement
• Do you want to have a “research through design” or “research for design” approach?
• Is your outcome application based or service based?