An Efficient All-in-One Digital Visa Advisory Tool
An Efficient All-in-One Visa Advisory Tool
Applying for a visitor, study, work, or immigration visa is cumbersome and often involves many challenges, uncertainties, and an innumerable amount of documents, and a lack of clear guidance in this process results in thousands of applications being denied.
As a part of a team of two UX designers and one UX researcher, I led the product design process and built an efficient digital tool to help foreign nationals get the right information about the visa requirements and seek professional help from immigration lawyers when they go through the visa application process.
Role: Led the product design cycle, IA, UX/UI design
Duration: 4-Week Cycle
Lack of clear guidance in the visa application process results in thousands of applications being denied.
Going through a visa application process, specially for work, student, and immigration visa types, can be cumbersome and lack of clear and credible guidance results in thousands of applications being denied. Unclarity around the time span of the process between steps also frustrates visa applicants as they often describe their visa application journey as:
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“Complex & overwhelming” - because it involves an innumerable amount of docs
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“Risky” - because of the complexity and lack of clarity, it is potentially prone to error
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“Time-consuming” - some immigration forms include over 300 questions
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“Confusing” - because of the legal jargon
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“Frustrating” - because of a lack of clarity about the time span of the process between steps.
The Product Promise - A seamless visa application journey with an all-in-one app
AdVisary is a San Francisco based start-up whose goal was to be the first digital visa advisor and create a native app to help foreign nationals get information about the visa requirements for countries they wish to visit or immigrate to. AdVisary also acts as a two-sided business connecting visa seekers to immigration lawyers.
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The Challenge - How Might We...?
My team was given an existing prototype for the MVP version of the app, and we were responsible to continue building upon that version and improve its user experience. AdVisary’s stakeholders also suggested adding a “Ask in a forum” feature to allow users ask their visa-related questions from other users, but everyone was skeptical about this feature. We started the design process by asking the following question:
Is the company’s current MVP requirements accurate and good enough to be used as the starting point?
Is a forum the best communication mode to get accurate legal information? If so, what is the best format and integration of this feature in the app?
How to evaluate AdVisary’s decision on features and come up with a solution that can solve multiple problems and caters to different needs of different pesonas?
We used Lean UX in our 3-week design cycle
We used lean UX method to design and test rapidly and finish the project on time. We also used System Usability Scale score as metric to measure success.
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Reshaped product objectives
(Conducted stakeholder interviews, competitive analysis, & feature evaluation)
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Identified user needs
(Conducted survey, interviews, & a usability test based on AdVisary’s existing design)
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Defined the problem & solution hypothesis
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Revised & re-created the app's information architecture
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Created a conceptual model based on product vision
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Designed UI components
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Designed interactions and used UX motion to enhance the app’s usability
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Validated design decisions
(Conducted several rounds of usability tests each round with 5 users
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Iterated based on user feedback
(Gathered user feedback & eliminated frictions to improve the experience)
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Used SUS score as metric to measure success
First things first: Is the existing concept usable, and delightful?
In the first usability test we evaluated the existing design and discovered the initial design didn't make sense to our target users. One participant stated that “the app looks like an E-commerce app; As if we’re shopping the visa”. The below image summarizes the user feedback:
Visualizing the solution...
Three integrated flows to address users’ needs and fulfill business objectives.
Quick onboarding to walk users through AdVisary's features & services
It was a simple yet crucial step because AdVisary offers multiple services. In the existing design, users were confused about what AdVisary does and couldn't complete their tasks as a result of being exposed to different services without a proper service introduction and poor information architecture.
Getting updated visa info & clear checklist was the primary need (Scenario 1)
AdVisary is an information-driven product, and per our initial user research, seeking information is one of the main reasons our target users are interested in such a product. To appeal to most users, we decided to focus on giving our users credible information clearly and efficiently, providing step-by-step guides, and giving them control and freedom to access that information on their time.
Issues
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"Government-looking" UI with general questions that couldn't generate the most curated information
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The static design didn't allow asking relevant questions based on user's input
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Users got confused about the duration question and didn’t know how the first and the last day of the trip would be considered as “travel duration”.
Solutions
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“Progressive disclosure” pattern: users take one step at a time. Not only this did solution decreased the perceived time on task, but it also enabled the app to show relevant questions based on users’ answers
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Functional & structural motion to improve usability (screen transitions) and micro-interactions.​
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Added help text and progress bar
The forum feature helps initiate & strengthen the connection between users & lawyers (Scenario 2)
To resolve the credibility and timeliness concerns that prevented users from asking questions in forums, we decided that only lawyers should answer the questions. It was a strategic product decision that also helps promote the lawyers, Additionally, some users stated that forums are usually messy, and they do not have the time to look for the needed information even if such information exists in the forum. So, the other goal was to design a simple and efficient forum.
Connecting with immigration lawyers was another need & an ultimate business objective (Scenario 3)
Clear value proposition
A clearer value proposition & establishing trust through branding was one of the design goals. AdVisary is a 2-sided business so promoting AdVisary’s legal service was crucial to the business
The Positive Outcome
In the design process, our top priorities were to know the target user to create value based on their needs, and to evaluate AdVisary’s planned features for the first development. Also, given the early stage of the product, we focused on user acquisition by streamlining the user flows and making them efficient and friction-free. We improved the clarity and efficiency of finding visa requirement information and seeking professional assistance by focusing on the ease of use and creating a meaningful content hierarchy. In contrast to the initial prototype, using the proposed design prototype, all usability test participants were able to complete the two tasks that were given to them. The SUS score also improved from 65 to 83. Our client was thrilled with the result and decided to move forward with the proposed design.
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Next Steps...
Considering that AdVisary is a two-sided business, the next step would be streamlining the lawyers' path to make the user-lawyers connection even more efficient. We also decided that the following features would be the next steps:
E-visa Eligibility and Application: Adding the E-visa application for nationalities that are eligible to get an E-visa is the next step priority.
Multiple Destination Option: Providing multiple destination options for those who are willing to travel to multiple destinations that require different visa types. In the 01 version, if a user wants to travel to different countries with varying requirements of the visa, they have to search for the visa requirements separately. Even though we discovered that going to multiple destinations with different visa requirements happens rarely, we decided it a "nice-to-have" feature that could be included in the next versions. Also, we would like to do more usability tests and improve the design. Designing a landing/home page is another objective for future iterations.