Moving the U.S. Passport Renewal Experience Online
By Annie Nguyen
Applying for services through the government isn’t always easy, transparent, or — in the case of U.S. passports — available online. A U.S. passport can be your proof of identity as a U.S. citizen and the easiest way to travel nationally and internationally.
Currently, to apply for or renew a U.S. passport book or card, you must fill out a confusing paper form and mail it in or submit it in person at a passport office — and you’ll also need hard copies of your photo, plus payment.
We heard so many stories from applicants during our research about the stress of not knowing if they were qualified to renew their passport (versus getting a new one all over again) — or even more stressful — not knowing if they would get their passport in enough time to be able to take a big trip.
In 2016 the State Department announced that Americans would be able to renew their passport book and/or card online in the future. This would remove the inconvenience of having to mail in a passport. Passport users would also be able to upload their photo and pay online. With many millions of people renewing their passport each year, this would be an important and widely used online service.
When our team of six from the U.S. Digital Service joined the State Department to increase use of modern tools and methods, the online passport renewal pilot project was already well underway. In early 2017, with a product manager, three engineers, a bureaucracy hacker, and a UX designer, we listened to key stakeholders including product owners, lawyers, and contractors to understand the project goals. What we heard and saw was an opportunity to better understand the pain points from applicants trying to complete the process.
Design with users, not for them.
At USDS, we believe in designing with users, not for them. That’s why our team’s location was perfect — right above the Washington D.C. Passport Agency. Our proximity to applicants allowed us to talk to people waiting for their passports as needed. We observed people completing the renewal application and noted where it became unclear, confusing, and time-consuming. When we spoke with participants, we found that instead of comparing the passport renewal form to other government forms like student aid applications, they spoke about their experiences shopping online or buying tickets to a movie. Because of this, we used a card sorting exercise to rearrange and rename the sections with our users. This process allowed us to identify common patterns and opportunities to combine or remove sections.
The most important aspect of the USDS work style is our ability to iterate quickly. Once we had a rough outline from card sorting and user research, we then held usability sessions with printed paper “screens,” before we ever started coding. We were also able to expand on the multi-benefit enrollment for public assistant prototype I created for a previous USDS project by reusing components and design patterns. Using the U.S. Web Standards, our engineers worked fast to build the first prototype, which we used continuously for usability testing throughout the project.
Working in agile development cycles allowed us to make decisions quickly, test, and put the prototype in front of people. This ideal method helped us collaborate more often by making iterative changes based on research. Whenever we had a question about how something should work or if it was confusing, I immediately went back out to talk to people. We iterated interactions, content, usability, and overall flow.
Changes we made between the paper form and online version were based directly on user feedback including:
● Putting qualification information at the start. If you are renewing your U.S. passport and/or U.S. passport book or card, there are reasons why you may not qualify to apply online. For example, you may have immediate travel plans, your passport card is not eligible for renewal yet, or you may not be old enough. Knowing this kind of information upfront saves time and frustrations later. If a person did not qualify, we provided information for next steps and other ways to apply.
● Showing the fewest questions needed to complete the transaction. We only ask for what we need — and if we need more information from some users, additional fields surface.
“If it’s this simple, I want to do it.”
● Making instructions as simple as possible. One of the most challenging parts of do-it-yourself passport renewal is getting your photo to match the strict photo requirements from the State Department. We worked on condensing and summarizing the most common photo mistakes, as well as simplified instructions for uploading a photo online.
● Focusing on the information users want. It sounds pretty basic, but oftentimes, these types of processes ignore what users want to know because we’re more focused on telling users what we want them to know. Throughout our research, we found that people cared most about when they would get their passport. By taking advantage of dynamic online content, we can now reflect the estimated timeline to applicants using specific dates instead of time periods.
Upon seeing the online prototype, one participant stated, “My expectation now is of going from a 2–2 ½ hour end-to-end process to 20 minutes process, if it’s an online form.”
● Encouraging users to get through the process. Forms can often be bogged down by complex language leaving users feeling frustrated. Using simple, warm, and contextual language throughout the application helped people not only make progress, but also actually enjoy the experience.
“I love it — it’s so friendly unlike other forms.”
In the end we left the State Department with a working, open-source prototype in May 2017. Our hope is that the prototype and code will be useful to other government agencies and that the State Department will continue to design with users to make the online passport renewal process as user-friendly as possible.
Annie Nguyen is a lead designer & researcher at the United States Digital Service.
Author’s note: A heartfelt thank you to digital service team members: Benjamin Smithgall, Mike Ogren, Raphael Majma, Sabrina Williams, and Elliott Wilkes, who pushed through this project together. Extra thanks to our U.S. Digital Service colleagues Stephanie Nguyen, Amy Behrens, Gina Kim, and Lara Kohl for making additional time to give their design feedback along the way as well as Robbie Holmes and Dan Kozlowski for reviewing our code. This project could not have gotten this far without our partners at the Office of Passport Services and the Office of Consular Systems and Technology at the State Department, as well as staff at the Washington D.C. Passport Agency and the San Francisco Passport Agency. Finally, thank you to the broader U.S. Digital Service family for their time and contributions, especially participants and friends who volunteered to speak with me about their experience on this project between February to May 2017.
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