AusPost Digital ID

Phase two

Phase one of this project can be found at AusPost Digital ID (I).

The Project

At the time of this brief, Digital ID was a recently introduced app created by Australia Post to store identity documents such as Drivers License or Proof of Age cards, for use in retrieving parcels from the post office, or for purchasing alcohol in bottle shops or pubs. The Digital ID implementation team approached RMIT Masters of Communication Design students to design service streams for encouraging more university students to sign up for Digital ID. We were given free-reign to develop any potential service solutions as long as the solution would allow for more enrollment of students into the ID system.

Target Audience

Both my partner for this activity and I were overseas students in the program (she from India, me from the United States). As such, we were used to carrying around all forms of identity documents (overseas passports, visas, foreign drivers licenses, etc.). The experience of having to carry around a passport on the chance that a colleague or friend would ask us out to the pub for a drink after work was a stressful concept to both of us--as neither one of us had any desire to lose our passports (but do both enjoy a cheeky after-work drink).

We both decided immediately to sign up for Digital ID. Only upon beginning the onboarding process itself did we learn that a person needs to provide multiple forms of identification to sign up. While a foreign passport would be accepted, we would need a secondary ID to enroll (such as an Australian driver's license). 

As a result, we focused on international students for this project. Being from overseas, we have experienced what it is like to move to Australia as students. 

Knowing the stresses of carrying a passport every day as proof of identity or needing to produce a visa or confirmation of enrollment (CoE) to open a bank account or amend a phone plan are experiences specific to international students. 

Our participants were from:

China, Germany, India, Kenya, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam, 

EDUCATION LEVEL

We had a diverse mixture of undergraduate and graduate students.

TIME IN AUSTRALIA

Some of our participants had arrived in the country as recently as February; others had been in the country for more than one year.

OUR GOALS + METHODS

Our card-sorting activity was conducted as part of the one-on-one interview process, and simply asked students to rate from “most difficult to attain” to “least difficult” the following items:

• Housing 

• Bank Account

• Phone

• TFN (Tax File Number, an essential document for anyone hoping to work while studying)

• Healthcare 

• Utilities 

• Myki/Transport (the Melbourne public transport payment card)

• Car 

Card Sort Findings

After conducting several card sorts with students across the RMIT University spectrum, we collated our data into an affinity map, as well as a related Google Doc. From this streamlined data, we ascertained the following:

The primary learning from the "difficulty” question posted in the activity almost unanimously pointed to housing being the most difficult item to attain—this fact wasn’t entirely surprising given Melbourne’s competitive housing market as well as the number of additional hoops that both students and professionals living in Australia living on visas must jump through in order to rent property.

What did provide significant learning were the more anecdotal stories told to us as a result of the card sorting exercise. Every person we spoke to told us a story (or multiple) of having an unpleasant experience because they had not anticipated needing their visas or CoE for transactions. Transactions such as opening a bank account (which requires CoE and visa, as well as a passport) or changing a phone plan (which requires the same set of documents). We identified this as an opportunity for Digital ID to provide additional documentation storage for international students, because who really wants to carry around approximately 15 pages of paperwork, every single day?

Willingness to Use

One of the major learnings we addressed in Phase One was to streamline the onboarding process for the 75% ‘willing to use’ segment of our interview populace. In Phase Two we sought to develop a way to make Digital ID more appealing to the remaining 25% of reluctant international students.

Some of the reasons students were reluctant to use the app based on interview responses:

We further refined the willing and unwilling to use mindsets and attributed characteristics to each as a first step in developing our personas.

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT TERMINALS

Phase two of this project focused on the “unwilling to use” mindset identified in our interviews.

Focusing on the unwilling to use mindset, we developed the second delivery concept, targeting arriving international students.

THE CONCEPT

• Creation of terminals that can be placed on university campuses

THE DELIVERY

• Allow for document scanning (a la airport check-in kiosks)

The Channels

• Terminals themselves, signage, social media 

THE Bonus

• Terminals would not need to be manned so that information could be intaken at any time campus is open.

Persona and Journey Maps

We developed a persona that we named Sam, a composite of two of our unwilling to use Digital ID interview subjects.

We then developed two journey maps—one in which Sam attempts to do to the pub, only to realise that he'd left his passport at home, and is denied admittance to the pub. Admittedly, this is an all too common for international students who've ventured from their local. As well as a second journey map, trying to envision how Sam would feel had he left his passport at home, but been relieved to remember that he had signed-up for Digital ID previously.

The next consideration was how to get a student like Sam to sign up for Digital ID in the first place. From our interviews, we knew that there were a significant amount of students who were concerned with sharing personal documents (such as a passport) with a third party, and were particularly uncomfortable with the idea of doing so online. We reasoned that if we give these students a sign-up experience that they interpreted as more secure than a standard website, we could encourage more sign-ups.

Terminals Deliverable

Based on the touchscreen self-check-in kiosks used by Jetstar (an international budget airline based in Australia), these terminals would allow for the creation of new Digital ID™ accounts, as well as document scanning (ie passport, driver license, student cards).

Having these terminals present at Universities will increase awareness of the Digital ID™. It is also possible that having a physical presence would be effective at increasing brand confidence.

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES 

PARTNERSHIPS

Partner with universities to install Digital ID™ kiosks on campuses

AUTOMATION

Automating application to save labour of staff visits to campuses 

AWARENESS

Increasing awareness of Digital ID™ among students with a physical presence of the technology + advertisements on campus