Understanding the interior design of selected SAPS stations in Durban with specific reference to User Centred Design

Abstract

This study investigated and sought to understand the extent and role of user-centred interior design of South African Police Service (SAPS) stations in Durban. The assumption of this study was that the design of a SAPS station that considers the most vulnerable would benefit the other users of the SAPS station. Therefore, the persona of User Centred Design would be the client who had reported a crime. This study aimed to understand the clients’ perspective on the SAPS police station, as the proposed outcome would be to make User Centred Design decisions based on the clients’ perspectives and experiences, because the client persona of the SAPS station would be traumatised. The objective of this study was to review literature on User Centred Design, Sensory Processing, Post Traumatic Stress, Acute Stress Disorder and literature on South African police stations. As well as conduct field work by interviewing clients that have reported crimes to the SAPS station and to also to conduct interviews with South African Police Service officers. Hermeneutic phenomenology was utilised to understand the perspective and experience of the SAPS client. The notion of the double hermeneutic was the main tool and basis of understanding. The first half of the double hermeneutic was the context of the SAPS station. The context of the SAPS station was understood by the hermeneutic circle, in which the whole of the context was understood by its parts, which gave a greater understanding of the whole. The parts of the context were SAPS literature, six interviews of SAPS officers and observing three Durban SAPS stations. The second half of the double hermeneutic was understanding the client persona. This was done again with the use of the hermeneutic circle, where the parts of the client persona were the nine interviews of participants who had been to report crimes to the SAPS station, the literature on trauma and a brief background description of the participant. The two halves of the double hermeneutic were reflexively brought together using User Centred Design themes. These themes informed the User Centred Design needs of the SAPS client. It was found that the current SAPS stations do not meet the User Centred Design needs of the client; that this resulted in the client projecting their trauma onto the station and allowed for the client to judge the SAPS officer negatively before the client engaged with the officer. The main needs of the client are to feel safe and secure, to have privacy, to have a welcoming and friendly SAPS station atmosphere and to have clear directions. A disconnect between SAPS officer and SAPS client, which reinforced the notion of unmet expectations, was the result of these unmet basic needs. Therefore, the recommendation of this study is that the interior of SAPS stations should be considered in terms of user centred design in order to fully grapple with the needs of the SAPS client