Jeffrey Veen

Interesting design opportunity. First off, the signs. Aren't those always a ridiculous post-hoc attempt to change behavior, and suggesting that it's probably already too late, that the behavior that is desired isn't occurring because it isn't natural or easy (or worse, as you describe)?

Second, the redesign of the doorway. What's a doorway design that wouldn't turn the place into a fortress but that would help social-reengineer the interaction.

Chevron has turnstiles and revolving doors between buildings that only allow one person at a time, but I agree that the holding-the-door interaction is an important one, but what would be a mechanism (physical or otherwise) that wouldn't require you to be a security agent but would enable both you and the rushing-to-catch-up person to be validated and acknowledge to each other that the entry is okay.

Maybe I'm over-reacting and the signs will work, if Google's culture can evolve to establish some new rituals and norms for this interaction. Maybe the mechanism to be designed is in fact this ritual.

Very interesting. I find that that quote on Kevin Mitnick amazing. I would feel soooo bad and also so vulnerable. Isn't crazy how modern thieves work these days. It's all about the weakest link...

What about the Seinfeld apartment situation, when you don't let someone in and they in fact live in your building, security can backfire too I guess. Don't think this is an easy nut to crack.

Let the truth be spoken.. as steve said a good design opportunity..

One idea is to have RFID based tags which set off an alarm if someone without a valid ID tries to enter through, kinda like EZpass stations in NJ.

This removes your responsibility and system shouts instead of you, and this might just eliminate the need for doors whch means free-er access across office which would be nice..

Thoughts?

Alok Jain

I think the problem with 'no piggybacking' is that you only get half of the solution. This seems really common - you get told 'don't let someone in' but you don't get told how to stop them. Is it your job anyway? You're not employed as a security guard. You're not trained to handle things should the situation turn ugly.

By the time the signs go up, I wonder sometimes if it's nothing more than the company protecting its insurance premiums :)

Or you could take it to the extreme by carrying around a stun-gun and zapping everybody that fails to show credentials.

Or you carry around notes to give to people that tell them they have entered without a pass and they should go see the principal to be reprimanded.

Come up with something outrageous, take it as far as you can and see how quickly do the signs stay up.