ID-Card Application
Some time ago, we took up the honorable challenge of designing for the whole nation. No, really - almost everyone uses an ID card in Estonia. The app for managing the national ID card is called DigiDoc4.
Service
Full service: from research to graphics
Client
Information System Authority
Find It Here
Now let's be honest. Designing for a growing user base of 600k involving all citizens is a weighty task. We were lucky to have a dedicated team of subject-matter- and tech experts on the client's side to tackle that challenge together. Naturally, the journey that involved three designers, had to start with in-depth co-designing workshops. That way we got a solid overview of the vision and mapped a plan. The close collaboration continued as we mapped the criteria for defining user groups, described the
personas, and finally researched where the app currently stands among users. Wanting to know what their actual needs are, we conducted a lot of interviews. We talked to the super-users - officials who give hundreds of signatures per week. We listened to people not using computers very often. We also learned a great deal from IT support. We wanted to include everyone, so we also interviewed the 'extreme personas': the grandmas, e-residents (foreigners), and IT admins.
All of this gave us an excellent understanding of the current problems and needs. Talking to users is great because we don't only get an idea for the design, but also understand the entire journey of using the product. We knew we needed to put three existing separate applications into one. We knew we needed to simplify things and create a step-by-step onboarding. We knew we needed to add a help section and fallback links to actions. There were so many ideas.
The next step was to visualise these ideas on wireframes and iterate them. We tested the concepts with end-users and asked for feedback from across departments. We didn't settle with the first two structural approaches. Along the way, we created low-fidelity (read: simple, almost black & white) prototypes in UXPin for mobile, tablet, and desktop in three languages and all major platforms.
"The design team was motivated and professional.
Feedback was quickly and properly taken into consideration. In close collaboration, a strong design was created.
- Annika, (former) Client's Project Manager
While our UX Expert Slava was crafting the interactions and thinking of all possible alternative scenarios, UI Designer Hedi started designing a coherent visual language. The aim was elegant and appropriate for an official government application, with the visual hierarchy supporting the task flows. She created a comprehensive design system, along with icons and other graphical elements that bring the vision alive.
It's a part of our process to help developers with implementation in order to guarantee the intended result. We call it Design QA. In this project, we did it as a one-time workshop, because we weren't officially involved anymore when frontend started. We joined forces with the CGI team of software testers and handed over final recommendations on how to improve the product design.
The Result
DigiDoc4 is the official application in use today for electronic signing, encryption and mangement of eID. It is used by everyone holding an ID or e-residency card across all the major operation systems and on Android and iOS.
The app has won first place in European Commission's competition "Sharing & Reuse of IT Solutions Awards" 🏆. The cornerstone of e-Estonia DigiDoc software was entitled as the most impactful open source solution for citizens.
