J1 Driver

Simplifying the J1 VISA Application Process

The Basics:

Duration: 3 months

Client: J1 VISA applicants, US Consulates, Companies that hire interns each year

My Role: UX Researcher, Product Designer

What I did: Developed a software solution to simplify a complex user process by creating user flows, prototyping and iterating the journey based on UI requirements.

Software: Sketch, Marvel

Target User: Millennials or Generation Z, in graduate school, and fairly ambitious. In Silicon Valley, he or she is likely to be a computer scientist, data scientist, or engineer.

The Challenge

A J1 Visa allows foreign nationals to visit the U.S. for a time in order to participate in work programs, often internships. Unfortunately, attaining a J1 Visa is a long and convoluted process. It’s full of large amounts of paperwork, bureaucracy, long waiting periods, communication with several parties, and in some instances, unpleasant surprises. This was a very complex task, with many variables. My job was expedite this process by streamlining communication and consolidating all of the application components into a single platform.

In doing this, I needed to remove the biggest obstacles, streamline communication, and highlight the biggest variables. The wait time for a consulate appointment, for example, is a big variable and can slow down the process significantly.

Because I designed this project with no original software, the hardest part was finding the right structure to guide my process. I pivoted several times and grappled with many information architecture and user flow questions.

User Research

In order to learn about the problems related to this process, I:

• interviewed five interns, who had both been through the application process twice, drawing out as many details as I could.
• audio recorded their experiences in the interviews, and then clarified and summarized the recordings in my own words.

One applicant I talked to name Aleks found out, after weeks of working on his application, that he would have to wait five weeks for his consulate interview. Over the course of his application process, he sent over 100 emails and eventually missed his internship start date. Aleks is an engineer who has completed two internships for NASA, but after this experience, he told me he would not be applying for a J1 Visa again.

Interpret and Define

Based on my research I came up with this persona:

To discover this I:

• Validated my research with other students in my design cohort who had experience with the J1 Visa application process. They answered questions, added details, and most importantly validated that this is a real problem.
• Mapped out each step again, paying special attention to patterns and commonalities in their stories.
• Created a customer journey map visual, illustrating the level of user satisfaction at different points in the process. In the bottom of this deliverable, I identified missed opportunities — potential solutions that could exist at each pain point.

Ideation

Through flows and UI requirements, I made the vast and abstract goals of my users into simple, concrete stepping stones they could utilize to progress. I then built a friendly onboarding experience that does two things:

1. gives applicants an overview of the process ahead of them and how to navigate it and
2. connects them with the people that they need to communicate with in order to complete the process.

Via user feedback in a half dozen tests, I gathered patterns and insights about which navigation and features worked and what didn’t in my prototype. Even in observing J1 VISA applicants who did not speak English very well, their time spent completing tasks, as well as facial expressions and behavior conveyed a clear understanding or confusion.

In this iteration, I focused on giving users the whole picture of the process ahead of them. But in my testing, I found that I didn’t give this nearly enough weight or attention. The ‘Process Checklist’ and ‘Timeline Dates’ buttons were only two of the five tabs I had put on the top of my prototype, and they are at least 80% of where users need to look and interact. Users didn’t need my other tabs anywhere near as much as they needed to interact with the ‘Process Checklist’ and ‘Timeline dates’. The unnecessary tabs undermined the urgency and main substance of the task ahead. My information architecture and visual hierarchy could lead users to believe that this process tab was a small part of the software, when in reality, the software existed solely to expedite the components within these two tabs. I needed to create an emphasis on and clearer picture of the whole process.

Creating the Structure: IA, UX, AND UI

My next iteration was to create the user flow, starting with users entering their closest consulate where they could interview.

In my user flow, I moved the consulate location selection to the very beginning. In the existing process, applicants are frequently unaware of the wait time for their closest consulate. Additionally, applicants often don’t know that various consulates have different staffing and wait times. In Rome, for example, you might be able to walk into an interview tomorrow, but in another city with an understaffed consulate, you might need to wait five weeks. In the latter case, if you have not submitted your forms five weeks ahead of your interview, you will miss your internship start date. Alternately, if there is another consulate with a shorter wait time, you could opt to travel there to have your interview.

To make the applicant aware of this, I started with a question about the closest consulate within the onboarding of my next prototype, so that my users would be thinking about it from the very beginning. I have this listed as question number 2 in my onboarding.

I also addressed another potential threat to applicants — getting behind on their paperwork. To address this, I created a ‘Future Spective’ — the opposite of a retrospective. This feature included their upcoming timeline of suggested due dates to act as check points for applicants, so they can pace themselves, receive their paperwork and book their flights with time to spare.

Based on the interview date and wait time to work backwards from, J1 driver software comes up with suggested due dates to artificially impose on users. This timeline adds a sense of urgency and pacing to help users start early and maintain their workflow.

These checkpoints also ensure that users understand the consequences of receiving their recommendations or transcripts late in the process. The stakes are high, and every checkpoint counts.

Test and Refine

In testing my second prototype with another Subject Matter Expert (a J1 visa recipient), I realized that my original user goals and needs offer the user awareness of the things they need to understand, but only inform the creation of the rudimentary structure of the software. They are not very specific. Using feedback from this round of research, I was able to hone in on more specific user needs to re-orchestrate information architecture and user interface features.

One of the first things I learned is that the sponsorship company will likely be putting in all of the information that I had in the first input screen for applicants in my prototype. I got rid of my entire set of on-boarding questions.

Information Consolidation: A Dashboard

In my second prototype, I consolidated the forms users needed to apply on a screen, in keeping with user need #2, but in testing this prototype, my user told me that he needed a consolidation of more information. As he embarked on his application, he needed to feel grounded in its structure. We discussed a dashboard, what it could include, and what valuable pieces I was missing. As a result of this conversation, in my dashboard, I consolidated information including: internship dates, contact information for the internship company and sponsorship agency, consulate wait times, and consulate booking options. I also decided to offer the applicant a high level timeline on the dashboard, with a clear action required for each mini-deadline. My user told me that he wanted to know exactly where he was in this process: what he had completed, what he currently needed to do, and how much work was ahead of him. On the top of my dashboard I color coded the timeline to communicate this progress to the user.

Perhaps most importantly, my dashboard needed to direct attention towards the applicant’s next step. I created a box on the top right quartile to highlight what the user should work on at this point in the process. There is so much to do in this application; a next step feature acts as a vehicle and brings the applicant from the high level view of an enormous amount of information down to the next, small, actionable step that the user should be executing.

The navigation guides the user to the forms overview tab where the deeper details of the process are. I illustrated the applicant’s progress on the forms overview page as well.

The user also needs to be able to see what forms can be completed concurrently and what steps can only be completed in a sequence, after the previous steps and documents are finished and approved.

After studying the application process more, I put the application forms into three separate phases. The phases must be completed in a sequence; they’re locked until the previous phase is complete.

With this setup, applicants can still see and understand the work involved in Phases 2 and 3, but it’s clear that they cannot access those action items until their previous steps are completed and approved.

When the user opens the portal, they have access to all of the steps they can complete concurrently.

Checkboxes offer users feedback on what they have completed; the bottom section items are dependent on the sponsorship agency.

My timeline includes mini-deadlines and their significance. The actions on the right are clickable, and the space between due dates is proportional to the amount of time the applicant has to complete that step.

In keeping with my earlier prototype, I moved the consulate interview selection screens to the first screen of the process. Users select where they would like to have their interview from a dropdown menu. This selection informs the bottom right corner input on the landing page dashboard.

The Result

“A streamlined experience like this would have reduced my stress a lot.” — J1 VISA recipient

This tool can save users from missed consulate interview appointments, dozens of unnecessary emails, as well as hours of time searching for forms and information. With J1 Driver in place, countries all over the world can attract international talent with a simple, enjoyable, and effective application process. I would love to see a sponsorship agency build this platform to simplify their process.