RETHINKING THE DRIVER’S LICENSE & REAL ID APPLICATION PROCESSES

In compliance with NDAs, some confidential information has been generalized or omitted.
All info below is my own, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the company.

OVERVIEW

With state residents visiting the DMV’s website more than 6 million times a month, and the impending deadline for the federal REAL ID application process, a complete audit of the current functionality, and a new, proposed application was needed.

The key priorities were to:

• Increase awareness about REAL ID and how to either convert a current driver’s license or apply for a new ID
• Help residents easily prepare their applications and supporting documentation online
• Create a smooth transition from driver’s license (DL) renewal/application to REAL ID application/document upload
• Reduce demand on field offices by setting up readily prepared applications for the last step of the process: an in-person review and approval

THE PROBLEM

The application process for a REAL ID needed to be tied to a new or existing driver’s license (DL). To initiate the application, users needed to first apply for, or renew, their DL. While the two processes were separate and needed different back-end capabilities, the transition on the users’ end should look and happen seamlessly.

Unmoderated user testing and weekly surveys proved that the current REAL ID application process was confusing, did not lead the user through it in a clear way, and timed out too quickly without saving any uploaded documents.

DESIRED OUTCOME

After a successful DL application, we needed users to be informed about the REAL ID application process, have their necessary documents ready to proceed and be able to complete the application to expedite their in-person appointment. The appointment would be scheduled after finishing their application. We wanted the whole process to be clear, fast and seamless.

PROJECT SCOPE & CONSTRAINTS

Regardless of a successful application, all users must go to a DMV location to have their REAL ID application reviewed and their supporting documents approved by a DMV employee (as per national law requirement). Due to the lengthy process and hard copy documents needed, users were frustrated that after the lengthy process they then found out that they needed to go into a DMV location.

LEARNINGS ALONG THE WAY

During the discovery we ran across a lot of
different content that users would be interacting
with, such as email confirmations (as part of the
Save & Exit flow), branched contingencies based
on the identity or residence documents chosen,
error messages, and how appointments
were scheduled at the end of the process.

While the preceding driver’s license process was long and contained many steps, for the most part users were able to complete it relatively quickly. Unfortunately the next steps for a REAL ID took the user out of the flow (or ground them to a halt altogether).

We also needed to maintain the new visual design for the brand for the new proposed process.

PROCESS

EASING TRANSITION BETWEEN APPLICATIONS:

First we wanted to ease the transition from one application to the other. As far as the user was concerned there should not really “appear” to be one. The driver’s license application was long, but users who were renewing, correcting or replacing were getting through it pretty quickly. Even users who were applying for a new license were finding scanning the new design and updated content easy and fast to complete.

However, once they finished with their driver’s license and needed to apply for their REAL ID, we were seeing a considerable drop-off.

LEARNINGS ALONG THE WAY

Upload of all documents at one time was
proposed, but discouraged by the client. 

Since the upload process was lengthy (even after
the updates, and because a third-party AI software
was doing the first assessment for eligibility, we needed
to continue with individual document upload and appraisal.

AUDITING CURRENT FLOW:

The lion’s share of the work was a full audit and complete understanding of both processes, including the back-end capabilities, which databases were involved and state laws deemed certain information’s presentation.

Once the audit (see selected screenshots above and below) was completed, it was reviewed with the engineering team, and then shown informally to the DMV stakeholders, mostly to get answeres to questions that arose, before the final recommendations were presented in the new design language.

DETERMINING THE ISSUES TO RESOLVE:

Bulleted list of issues from current process and overview of how to solve, what we were able to do, what was not possible, etc.

OUTCOME

After many presentations that led to iterations (both in process/architecture and visual design) we had the final REAL ID application process, along with the ability to schedule an in-person DMV appointment online, approved and roadmapped for development.