California DMV Visit Appointment Redesign
Tools: Figma
Type: Individual Project
Duration: 4 weeks
Role: User Research, Product Designer, Usability Testing
How Might We assist users in making a smooth office visit appointment through DMV.ca mobile web?
Overview
The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is the state agency that registers motor vehicles and boats and issues driver's licenses in the state of California. When I try to renew my Real ID using office appointment option at DMV.ca on my mobile phone, I am confused about the appointment process. Therefore, I redesigned DMV office appointment process with the primary goal of reduce the frictions and confusions of scheduling process and improve the DMV appointment user experience.
Final Design
Step 1:
Select the purpose of the appointment and provide an estimated time for completion and detailed instructions
Step 2-1:
Provides a list of nearby DMV offices based on distance and available appointment times.
Provides maps that can be interacted with.
Step 2-2:
Select the DMV office from the list or the map
Step 3:
Select date and time
Step 4 & 5:
Fill in customer information and review information
Book appointment, receive confirmation information
Design Process
Problem
Users get confused of word expression and appointment process during the scheduling of office visit at DMV.ca website. These frustrations could make users quit the online appointment process easily.
Current Design Analysis
In order to fully understand users’ pain points of current appointment system, I conducted 5 User Interviews; performed Heuristic Evaluation to analyze current appointment flow and did Competitive Analysis of some appointment scheduling system including: GRE Test Scheduling and Apple Support Reservation.
User Journey Map
Based on the analysis, I summarized the main tasks users perform during the scheduling process and the main information required by DMV.ca.
Current Design Problems
Insights of Preliminary Research
Based on the above analysis and research, here are the main pain points:
Design Goal
Through reducing the lengthy appointment process and reorganize scheduling steps to reduce the appointments drop-out rate and create a smooth scheduling experience.
Design & Iteration
Ideation
For each insight stated above, I purposed different solutions to address those issues. Throughout my design, I hope to achieve the following design objectives:
Clear user progress flow
Flexible office selection based on distance or available time slots
Reduce lengthy and heavy--text form and eliminate unclear wording/expressions
Better information display and visual hierarchy
Design Decisions
Based on the new user flow and design objectives, I designed different screens and performed usability testing.
Final Design
Purpose of visits
Select Office Location
Select Date & Time
Fill in Basic Information & Review
Confirmation
Design Outcome
Feedbacks
“The new design is more clear and flexible than the original design. I like the progress tracker which tells me my current step. Limited office selection reduces the cognitive overload for users. I can now select office by their distance and availability, these provide me more flexibility. The overall visual is very clear as well. I love “add to wallet” and “add to calendar” functions. Those details really improve the user experience.
— DMV office visiting appointment (mobile) user
“Your design seems to make the process of getting an appointment for Driving License renewal more "smooth (without any difficulty)". This will surely also meet the business goal of increasing success rate and reducing friction. I appreciate the estimation for the time left. I also think your scheduling solution was well thought out. Good job.”
— James Reffell, Instructor & Design Director at Clever