Gated communities and Social collaboration
Pitching in home-based business in gated community applications to build an encouraging atmosphere
Why is the research necessary?
With increase in urbanization, tier 1 and tier 2 cities has gone under huge developmental changes and one of the biggest change is the changing lifestyle of people. There was a time people used to live in independent houses, soon came the flat systems and now there is a wide growth in the gated community model.
This new residential system provides a luxurious and comfortable lifestyle. A small gated society gives accommodation to at least 100–150 families. Since these community premises are quite wide spread and people are busy with their day to day activities, they hardly interact with each other and though they all share the same space, there is hardly any communication between them.
Also a large amount of housewives, elderly who stay at home are interested to work at home for various reasons. Few of the reasons could be
1. Flexible work environment
2. Flexible working hours
3. Less stress and financial risks
4. Decrease of commute time
5. Test out various business ideas
6. Hobby into business scenarios
and many more. Since these communities/townships include a large number of residents, there is a higher probability of home-based business succeeding.
Therefore, a common platform where people can interact with each other and also make the best of their spare time can turn out to be of great help.
The Problem Statement
Most of the gated community apps look into security of the residents and focus on making their lives safe and comfortable. We look forward to not only make the app better but also promote more of a neighbors-not-strangers behavior through this research. From few of the people with whom we discussed the idea, we got different inputs on how such businesses and having an encouragement feature in the existing gated community apps can help in people who do not prefer working outside home to participate in the economic progress. Looking more into social context, the research helps in building an entrepreneurial mind-set among people and a support from other residents of the society. Instead of going to every home, sending out flyers about the new business, people can easily upload their business ideas on an online forum. This feature will be designed keeping in mind views of people from all age groups. The feature would also give an opportunity for people who would like to contribute to similar businesses that they are interested in.
An organised way of sending out a business idea on the app rules out the possibility of having a group on whatsapp for the same. Getting information is not very difficult in this world, having a lot of information is creating issues. Hence, the research provides a relevant platform to send out business relevant information.
Since we are looking into Apna Complex application, if a home based business feature is added in the existing application, it will be beneficial not only for the residents but also for the company as a whole since it will be an add-on and will serve needs of all community members, making their life much more easier.
All the above research has led us and investigate further on the below question:
Will household business inside a gated community help bring fellow residents closer?
How will further research be conducted?
As an initial part of the research, we would look into some of the case studies on the interaction of residents in the gated communities. With the knowledge from this research we would study some more articles on home-based businesses and how it can be used in socio-economical context of the gated community. It is also important to look into a method outside the frame of just introducing a feature in the app so that mobile-friendly world can incline more towards people-friendly world.
Qualitative methods:
We would follow qualitative research methods like Interviews and participatory sessions. Opinion polls from various sessions could help in understanding the trend. User personas will be built after decent amount of opinions are obtained. Creating a storyboard and asking for opinions from the user is kept as a tentative study.
Quantitative methods:
We would conduct surveys as a part of quantitative research methods and also would like to observe closely the qualitative sessions to bring out some data about interactions in community and the trends of home-based businesses.
Competitor analysis and scanning media would run parallely throughout the research.
Proposed Project Plan along with Timeline
Final Output
· Service Blueprint
· Clear Journey map
· Storyboards
· System map
The Outcome
A medium to increase communication with neighbors and other residents in the community thereby forming a healthy and supportive atmosphere.
An opportunity for people at home to participate in the economic progress of the family.
Questions in mind
Contributors
Human Centered Design — Radhika Belkhede, Meghana R Upadhyaya
