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SAFE SPACE
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A concept to address the safety issues of students residing in Yelahanka, Bengaluru
Safe Space is a solution to the overgrowing safety issues faced by the students residing in Yelahanka, Bengaluru. The solution consists of a poster that can be put up at the wall of houses designated as safe spaces and a customized google map having a list of those spaces marked by the families(who volunteer for the concept) and students.
What is Safe Space?
This project was a part of the college workshop "Thinking through technology". The brief was to observe and identify problems existing in and around Yelahanka, Bengaluru(the place, where the college is situated) and find a solution to it. The only limitation to the brief was to use the existing technology/app to find a solution to the problem and refrain from coming up with something new.
Background
How can we solve the problem(safety) faced by students using existing technology?
Design Process
The project followed the process of Discover, define, design, and deliver where the context was given and we had to explore the problem area and follow the below process further to define the problem and find a relevant solution to it.
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User Research
Defining the problem
Prototype
Ideation
Problem Identification
Exploring the possible problems faced by students and narrowing down to one area.
Problem sharing and unearthing the reasons behind it.
Problem sharing and unearthing the reasons behind it.
Coming up with possible interventions/solutions
Making a workable prototype
Problem Identification
Mapping was done to categorize the problems(given below) after listening to the fellow students and recalling our share of incidents. After assessing the problems, we decided to look into the safety of students, as almost everyone had issues regarding safety.
Safety
Facilities
Language
Food
Transportation
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Theft
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Eve-Teasing
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Object snatching
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Traffic
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Expensive
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Non-availability of vehicles
Unable to communicate with the locals most of time
Power Cut
Non operable Street light
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Expensive
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Deciding what to prepare
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Eating unhealthy
Problems
Mapping the problem area - Safety
The students feel unsafe when they venture out in the SFS area(Yelahanka). Below are the possible activities/fears /reasons behind it.
Mode of Commute
Getting Mugged
Fears
Factors(Unsafe)
Reasons for commute
Independent Bungalows around
Getting beaten up
Eve-Teasing
Travelling to or from supermarket
Uncontrolled growth of trees
No company while travelling
Desolated streets and park
Poor street light
Few Security Guards
Walking
Attending a Social Gathering
Project work
Returning from city
Going to mess for eating
Scooter/ Bike
Cycling
Challenge
How do we create a safe environment for students?
Ideation
Solution 01:
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The initial concept was to provide for the emergency situation in the form of a panic/emergency button in front of the house. So, when a student is walking in the area and is faced with perpetrators, he/she can run to the nearest house with the panic button and alert the people inside the house by pressing the button.
Panic button to alert everyone
Panic button installed outside the house for easy reach
During the attack by the perpetrators, the students can run to a nearby house can press the button to alert the people
Short term intervention
Long term intervention
After critical feedback, the idea was dropped, as it seemed like short term intervention. Next iteration was mostly brainstorming for intervention which would provide a long term solution to the problem.
This time attention was drawn towards different players in the solution i.e. residents and perpetrators and came up with a hypothesis that due to the lack of communication between two different communities i.e Families residing in SFS Colony and PG students, the students are feeling unsafe in the SFS area.
Ways to make students safe and comfortable
Fostering conversations between students and families
Making the neighborhood area safe
Providing support to the students
Final Concept
Solution 02:
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The approach to the solution was inspired by the framework of Ticket to talk, developed by researchers from Newcastle University.
What exactly is Ticket to Talk?
Ticket to Talk was developed to bridge the generation gap and foster meaningful conversation between younger people and grandparents, friends or people they care for, who are experiencing dementia.
The solution consisted of two parts: Custom Google map and poster showing designated safe spaces
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Custom Google maps
Custom Google maps with a curated list of designated safe places list in Google maps which can be shared with others through many platforms. These safe spaces are the units where both students and families can volunteer to be a safe space. This list is shared with students on their orientation day/ in social media groups/ by directly sharing by other students.
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Poster showing safe spaces
The poster/ signage outside these houses which can make the students or others aware that it is a safe space and you can walk in for some tea and discuss emergency strategies and sharing of contact numbers
How do we know the solution has worked?
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To do Direct participant observation to observe whether the number of students stepping out of the house after 8 pm has increased in the SFS Area(Yelahanka)
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Survey to figure out whether the confidence of students has increased in terms of being able to step out of the house in the dark.
Storyboarding
Storyboarding to show the concept of safe space and how it will be used by the students to tackle the issue of safety in Yelahanka.
Sonia is walking alone from the college in the isolated SFS area. She is in constant fear that someone will attack her
She gets the notification about the safe space concept in the college WhatsApp group.
She opens the safe space list and looks for a nearby safe building
On returning back from the college, she comes across the poster on the house wall.
Being curious, she went inside and was welcomed by a friendly aunty who gave her tea and they both discussed ways of surviving in Yelahanka.
One fine day, Sonia went out to get some notebook for the college tomorrow, when she notices that someone has been following her.
Sonia got scared and walked straight to the aunty's place.
Aunty on seeing Sonia in trouble shouts for help, and the guy ran away
Sonia shared her story with her fellow students and also shared her list of safe spaces with others.
Reflection
I have learned two important lessons in this workshop:
One, while solving a design problem, we tend to look for solutions which is short-termed and might solve the issues at the moment but will fail to provide for the future scope.
Two, Many times we get obsessed with creating a new app/technology, that we fail to see that the existing platforms might as well solve the problem with minimal effort.