As Canadian passport holders often apply for visas to travel abroad, many people find it increasingly difficult and troublesome to undergo the lengthy visa application process. myVisa aims to help those people by guiding users through the application process while maintaining transparency, trust, and accessibility. The key features of myVisa include the ability to apply for a visa without missing key steps or documents. The mobile application offers guidance for every type of visa, in any country.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
The Problem
Travellers rate visa applications as a medium-high travel stress trigger at 5.5 on a 10 point scale.
43% of travellers are confused or afraid of making a mistake when applying for their visas.
Existing systems don't make it easier
myVisa is a product that makes visa applications easy. The mobile application offers guidance for every type of visa, in any country. It allows users to create profiles (for themselves individually and for family members) and view their application process, passports information, and other related documents.
Competitive Research
We began our initial research with a Benchmark Analysis. This allowed us assess what other companies are doing successfully and unsuccessfully and take advantage of any opportunities in our industry. We found other products in the travel industry lacked user retention where users can get the same information on online websites, and lacked value in the travel application process, where progress indicators were not present, creating a non-transparent experience for users.
Revisiting the Problem
We conducted a brief PACT Analysis which where we analyzed the contexts of each category: People, Activities, Context, and Technology to help the development of the app, and make it credible. For example, we discussed the different types of travellers within our user base and how we aim to appeal to their distinctive needs. We also considered user security and authentication and addressed how we plan to store sensitive information on the app in a way that is safe and secure. Furthermore, in the contexts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to discuss the different COVID-19 forms and test requirements that needed to be addressed and included in the app.
Understanding the Audience
We generated a User Interview Plan where we planned to address the visa applicant’s needs and values through semi-structured conversations with potential users. Our main goal was to understand their challenges when applying for a visa and gathering and organizing documents, and address any concerns with security when sharing personal information with a third-party app. Users expressed great concerns over the lack of UX Accessibility and Transparency with existing websites and systems, and expressed their value in document organization, privacy, and guidance in the application process.
Based on the User Interview Plan and Results, we were able to synthesize this information to generate our user personas and identify our focal pain points that we will work with and develop solutions for.
Pain Points
Ideation
Using our insights from the interviews, we were able to develop a MoSCoW Analysis System Requirements Chart, which helped us determine what features to prioritize and complete first, and which features to cut entirely.
Based off this, I was able to develop a System Map, which displayed all the important features, along with the relationships between them. As the entire visa process has so many steps, we focused our attention by starting off with the basic features such as applying for a new visa and adding a new document, before adding secondary features including auto-populate and scanning options, adding secondary profiles, etc.
We further broke down every interaction in context with User Scenarios–helping us understand the practical needs and behaviours of users and apply it to our app.
Mid Fidelity Wireframes
We began developing mid-fidelity wireframes based on initial sketches of our core features. This stage helped us focus more on the content and functionality of the app, as opposed to its visual design.
We found that breaking down the visa application steps in multiple screens rather than continuous scrolls offered a better experience with more opportunities to guide users during the process. We made sure to keep each screen minimal as possible to get the best results.
User Testing
After developing high-fidelity wireframes, we prepared a User Testing Plan with aims to learn if participants are able to complete specified tasks successfully and identify any changes required to improve user performance and satisfaction.
The User Testing Plan and Results
User Testing Feedback #1
Making My Profile more accessible
My Profile has important features such accessing personal information and adding and switching between profiles. With its own handful of user flows, we felt it was best to add My Profile from the navigation bar for more accessibility. The icon was also altered to a simplistic icon instead of user’s initials to avoid confusion.
User Testing Feedback #2
Enhancing UI card components for clarity
In the user testing, half of the participants had issues with clicking “Complete Visa Application”. Many were not aware that the “Complete Visa Application” card component was a button, while others navigated required documents, thinking that was how they would complete the visa application.
To separate the two features “Visa Application Form” and “Required Documents”, we separated them into two visible buttons to alleviate confusion.
User Testing Feedback #3
Offering user flexibility in revisiting a visa application
When asking users to complete the ‘About You’ step in the visa application process and save their progress to review for later, all participants had issues locating the ‘save for later’ button. Based on this feedback, we removed the button completely, and instead, displayed which steps are complete and incomplete to ease the process of revisiting and continuing a visa application.
Set up your own personalized account to help speed up future applications.
Not sure what type of visa to apply for? myVisa makes it easy to find the visa you need for travel entry.
Visa application forms broken down into simple steps. Don’t want to fill out the application in one go? myVisa allows you to fill out the steps in any order, on your own time.
myVisa also enables you to upload all the required documents as part of your final visa application submission, so you don’t miss a thing.
When your Visa Application Form and Required Documents are completed, submit your digital application for processing.
myVisa provides you with a Visa Application tracker, so you always know its status.
Travelling just got easier. From boarding passes, passports, to vaccination records, all travel documents can be uploaded, stored and secured in myVisa, ready to be shown at airport security and customs.
myVisa allows users to create profiles (for themselves individually and for family members) and view their application process, passports information, and other related documents.
Look for the nearest embassy or consulates with myVisa. Need to make an appointment for in-person services? Book it through the app in easy steps.
Working with my team members taught me a lot about everyone’s different design process, and I actually found myself adopting a lot of new UI/UX techniques by being a part of this collaborative project. I also realized that we were able to create a successful, concise product because in our process, our ideas were constantly being discussed, debated, and critiqued with one another. Working with team members who are all open-minded and are always willing to learn was definitely an environment we all thrived in.
