Oregon DMV: Website Redesign

Crafting a frictionless Real ID appointment scheduling process of Oregon DMV

UX Design
Prototyping
Mobile Web
my role
UX/ UI Designer (Solo)
Responsible for research, ideating, prototyping, visual design, and usability testing
PROJECT TYPE
Academic Project
(UX Case Study)
TIMELINE
Fall 2022 (4 weeks)
TOOLS
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
BACKGROUND

The Real ID mandate

Starting May 7, 2025, U.S. residents must be REAL ID compliant to board domestic flights (without using a passport) and access certain federal facilities. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will stop accepting the standard driver license or ID card.

PROBLEM

Oregonian’s Real ID adoption is less than half the national average

Despite the impending May 7, 2025 deadline, Oregon lags significantly in adoption, with only 18% of residents having obtained a REAL ID — less than half the national average.

To apply for a REAL ID, Oregonians are required to visit a DMV office, with the appointment scheduling process taking place through the DMV2U Online Service Center. Unfortunately, this crucial step, meant to streamline the process, is plagued by user dissatisfaction due to the current website’s mobile experience. Common problems include complicated workflow, confusing navigation and interactions, and the lack of design.

how might we...

create a smooth and intuitive Real ID appointment scheduling experience that reduces user frustration and confusion and hence improves the users’ success rate of completing the application process?

PROPOSED DESIGN

A streamlined Real ID appointment process with intuitive navigation, concise step-by-step guidance, and enhanced functionalities for seamless scheduling, editing, and confirmation

step 1

Select Your Service

  • The homepage is organized into service-specific sections, displayed as expandable cards for intuitive navigation
  • Pop-up windows to display additional information, ensuring seamless access to relevant details  
  • A concise step-by-step to offer users a clear overview of the Real ID application process
step 2

Schedule Your Appointment

  • The existing 10-step booking process is restructured into 4 main steps, complemented by a progress bar for clarity
  • Location and time selection are revamped with advanced functionalities such as search, filters, and map views to facilitate quick and easy discovery of suitable options
step 3

Review Your Information

  • Form validation and clear error prompts to guide users in rectifying pinput errors efficiently
  • The "Review Information" section is reformatted into user-friendly sub-sections, allowing for easy edits if necessary
step 4

Your Appointment is Confirmed

  • Explicit booking acknowledgement is provided through a confirmation page
  • Options to add appointment to calendar, cancel appointment, and reschedule appointment directly from the confirmation page
  • A concise document checklist to help you prepare for the in-person appointment

Process

01

Discovery

usability inspection

Evaluating the existing Real ID appointment scheduling experience to uncover challenges and opportunities

To begin, I conducted a usability inspection of the existing Real ID appointment scheduling system to better understand the user flow. Major pain points of the current design are identified as follows:

user journey map

Summarizing main tasks and user sentiments

I also conducted 3 user interviews and asked them to schedule a Real ID appointment using the current website. I summarized the findings from the user interviews by creating a user journey map. It enabled me to better understand mood points of users and identify major pain points and corresponding design opportunities.

02

Opportunity

summarizing research insights

Major pain points of current scheduling experience

Based on the research and analysis, the major pain points of the current Real ID appointment scheduling system are summarized as follows:

Design objectives

To address the major pain points as stated above, the following design objectives were defined to guide the design of a more intuitive, accessible, and user-friendly mobile scheduling experience:

  • Reduce lengthy and text-heavy pages to improve readability and legibility

  • Clear and distinct information categorization to eliminate ambiguity

  • Clear user flow to reduce redundancy and repeated requests

  • Improve the ease of navigation through better interaction design

  • Enhance visual hierarchy and directionality, add visual elements

03

Ideate

user flow

Streamlining the complicated and fragmented appointment process

Based on the design objectives, I began to build the structure of the solution by mapping out the user flow. I streamlined the complicated and fragmented appointment process into 7 main parts. The number of questions and pages in each section were also reduced by eliminating repeated requests and redundant information.

LOW-FIDELITY WIREFRAME

Turning ideas into sketches

Based on the design objectives and user flows, I produced sketches for the main screens. Turning my brainstormed ideas into sketches enabled me to visualize and validate my ideas:

  • Preliminary layout of various design elements (e.g. text, illustrations, interactive elements)

  • Navigation and connection between different stages of the user flow

sketches

Turning ideas into sketches

Based on the design objectives and user flows, I produced sketches for the main screens. Turning my brainstormed ideas into sketches enabled me to visualize and validate my ideas:

  • Preliminary layout of various design elements (e.g. text, illustrations, interactive elements)
  • Navigation and connection between different stages of the user flow

04

Prototype & Test

mid-fidelity wireframe

Pushing forward all the key features explored in the low-fidelity sketches and developing a more complete user flow

usability testing

Validating and iterating the design through 3 usability tests

Following the mid-fi prototype, usability tests were conducted with the same 3 participants previously interviewed. Overall, participants expressed positivity and noted significant improvements in the redesign:

  • ✔️ Preliminary layout of various design elements (e.g. text, illustrations, interactive elements)
  • Navigation and connection between different stages of the user flow

05

Final Design

Navigate the Homepage and Real ID Section
Fill in Applicant Information
Appointment Location and Time Selection
Information Review and Appointment Confirmation
TAKEAWAYS

Embrace design constraints

Apart from the 4-week time constraint, I also learnt to work with the inherent complexity of the DMV system, to simplify and streamline the user flow and information architecture while preserving all the necessary content within the existing framework

Importance of user testing

Conducting formative user test during the initial development phase using paper prototypes and conducting summative test on high fidelity prototypes have enabled me to discover usability and design issues from the user’s perspectives