PROBING INTO THE MANAGEMENT OF MEDICAL EMERGENCIES IN GATED COMMUNITIES
This is a reflection on 5-week long studio, on Probing into Service, Systems and Infrastructures where in my team was probing into the management of system and services in gated communities that use community management platforms like MyGate or ApnaComplex.
Research:
We started our secondary research with Mind Mapping layer by layer the features and services offered by My Gate platform and issues dealt in a gated community, brainstormed on possible gaps that existed in these platforms and learning in-depth the case studies on past emergency events. As part of our primary research, we came up with questionnaires for conducting surveys through online forms and Interviews in structured and semi-structured form with residents, security guards and society admins. With feedback from the interviews, online survey responses, our team narrowed down the area of focus to ‘Medical Emergencies in Gated Communities’.
Most people felt that the ‘emergency’ as such is not properly looked on to by the mobile platform nor the community management. People said they would reach out for their neighbors in prior, to calling the security or the ambulance directly, for help during an emergency situation.
They were positively willing to accept new features and methods, dealing with ‘Medical Emergencies’, if implemented in the platform and the community respectively. Some of this information was obtained from second lot of interviews, and later-on we came up with a persona having the worst case scenario.
Important Observations:
Using alternate infrastructure for communication is important
Most of the communities had to rely on the traditional intercom service and walkie-talkies, if the resident did not inform the security guards about the incoming visitor or does not reply to the notification sent by the security guards.
Multiple emergencies arising at the same time
Since, the security guards have one smartphone in common, which acts as a hub where all the information from residents converge to a single device making it venerable to crash/lag and fail to deliver service in real-time. The solution could be using multiple devices each assigned a separate category of work. E.g. A separate smartphone for emergencies.
Another aspect was to address multiple emergencies with more efficient algorithm. Meaning, instead of using simple algorithm of ‘first come and first serve’, algorithms shaped depending on different situations and conditions that people live with. E.g., a person living alone might need immediate attention than the one living with family members.
Another problem arises is when multiple people calling the ambulance for the same emergency. A possible solution could be using an ‘Emergency Code’ that can be informed to the Ambulance’s service side to avoid confusion.
Some users want their products and services to operate beyond their current functionality
This is an insight obtained from UX evaluation which makes me think of an obvious possibility where a person is far away from the smartphone and cannot reach it to raise an emergency. E.g. A person inside the bathroom where he/she does not carry smartphone, slips and fall to the floor fracturing hands or back, and the worst case is that nobody is at home.
Currently our system and service does not have a facility/extension to address this situation. One way to solve these real world problems is by employing multiple redundant systems that can communicate with the users.
UX Evaluation — Organizing Data
Through the insights and observations from the research along with the feedback, we mapped out data into more precise categories with the help of different UX research methods. This led us to look into two different scenarios (inside and outside the house) that can arise in a gated community. In the first scenario, which is a person falling sick inside his house, we have developed (One Touch Emergency Button) an extension to the existing MyGate platform.
This scenario is illustrated with a ‘customer journey map’ and ‘pain point chart’. The second scenario deals with a person falling sick outside the house within the gated community. To map out problems, we used ‘body storming’ method to simulate real world situations in this scenario. We have also performed UX evaluation and studied UX requirements to understand the impact of system before and after the modifications.
We have development mock-up screens for residents and security guards wherein the residents can raise an emergency just by sliding the emergency button. The security guards are immediately notified and can promptly take action on it. For the second scenario, common area button triggers the local computer to intern send a notification to admin and guards.
Concluding Note:
If the above extensions are incorporated in the system, the community platforms can build trust in the users by providing them with help in Medical Emergency. A resident will feel more secured and aware of how to react to a medical condition.
