Digital government wallet

Research \ Prototyping \ UX/UI \ Mobile & web app

Before we were all tapping to pay, I worked on a concept for a digital wallet.  

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Context

While at PayIt, I worked on a white-label app for local US governments that helped collect payment for utilities, property taxes, vehicle registration, and other services. During that time, we were working with the State of North Carolina to further digitise government services by reducing the need for citizens to store official receipts and documents in a file folders or hunt through email. We were challenged to consider how we might store those same official documents digitally while retaining their authenticity and validity for official purposes like proving vehicle registration or property tax payment.

 

Problem

Storing paper copies of receipts and official documents was tedious and prone to loss. Younger citizens are looking for updated, modern solutions to document storage. Governments need those documents to 

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Process

I collected all of the State's paper-based official documents and saw that most used the local county or State's seal as a watermark or stamp to indicate the document's authenticity. I began to explore what the digital version of this could be and came across interlaced spiral guilloche patterns in modern currency.

 

Using the guilloche concept, I then worked with a developer to generate unique spiral  patterns for government documents, animating them so they could not be easily counterfeited. I also worked with another designer to develop the wallet's style guide, focusing on typography and simple iconography. 

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The State of North Carolina launched a beta program of providing digital vehicle registrations in 2017. Despite the 90% approval rating from citizens, they could not get the amendment passed to officially transfer all vehicle registrations to digital applications.

 

Fast forward 5 years and I can't help but think of this project now each time I show my vaccination card or digital drivers license. Those digital documents share many of the same qualities we explored here.