MPC iOS & Android App
The challenge
Whether you are a visitor to the United States or a U.S. citizen arriving in the United States, travelers must complete the U.S. Customs and Border Protection(CBP) Declaration Form 6059B, which provides CBP with basic information about who you are and what you are bringing into the U.S. Customs Border Protection (CBP) officers are legally required to inspect each traveler's passport and customs declaration information. The length of inspection lines across the U.S. has hit unprecedented levels. Sometimes Travelers have to wait around 3-4 hours. Increasing lines at the airport leading to frustration.
My Role
I joined the team as an User Experience Design Lead. I was responsible for all aspects of the design process to frame problems, define insights, design down from a vision, create user flows, concepts and prototypes, and transformed into intuitive, accessible, and easy-to-use solutions. Created various assests needed for Apple Store and Google Play. In the end, handed needed artifacts (widget guidelines, etc) for Dev team to create pixel-perfect designs.
Creating a vision & Designing down from a vision
CBP wanted to develop theIr 1st government authorized Mobile native iOS and Android App to streamline the airport screening/inspection process for all foreign air travelers who enter the U.S. every day.
I was brought in - the ‘one person UX team’ as a part of a multidisciplinary agile team member. With a User-centered mindset, I quickly gained an empathetic understanding of end-users, what users do, see, feel, just to understand current pain points and their overall experience. In order to gain more insights on how the current declaration form is being filled and submitted to CBP officers, I decided to conduct field studies and user interviews. I was able to get a deeper understanding of current pain points.
After hypothesizing two different archetypes, we used them as guides to discuss user goals, pain-points, and behavior. We prioritized the phases of the project according to the persona types designated. Amy, our primary persona, was the main focus of the project. We used these personas throughout the entire project to ensure that all design decisions were user-focused. Meet Amy:
With that data-driven insights, I have started defining designs. I created various design artifacts in various stages I was in - such as personas, user flows, journey maps, interaction models, that resulted in low to high fidelity prototypes to help communicate my vision, my design concepts of the end product. I have used Axure RP to create high fidelity protoype.
I drove positive and highly visible changes that exceeded clients’ expectations. Overall, this helped tie users' needs, desires, and motivations. Consequently, I have been awarded ‘BRAVO to our Stars - 2020’ for performance in recognition for driving PSPD client satisfaction.
The Results
App eleiminated wider range of efficiencies in workflow as well as time and cost savings that includes:
- Reduced passport control inspection time and overall wait times. Travelers now answer CBP inspection-related questions electronically ahead of time via their smartphone or tablet.
- Efficient in-person inspection between the CBP officer and the traveler
- Peace of mind that travelers’ information keeps private and protected as it submitted directly to CBP via secure encryption protocols
For confidentiality reasons I have omitted the actual values for these metrics.