Ten year renewal
Every 10 years you need to renew your photo-card driving licence. It needs to have a new photo that show’s your current likeness.
The details
Using my previous experience with accessible design and customer facing interfaces, I worked as part of a small team overhauling and improving the existing service.
My role -
Sketch
Confluence
Visual Studio Code
MS Teams
Tools -
User testing
Iterating
Collaborating
Wire framing
Prototyping - Sketch/code
Methods -
Users need to provide a recent photo for their licence renewal. If their passport photo is still a true likeness, they can use that instead, but some may choose to upload a new one anyway.
The challenge was designing a journey that clearly explains the photo requirements while keeping the upload process simple and accessible. Testing with users of varying digital confidence and experience was key to making the service inclusive and easy for everyone to use.
Overview and requirements -
The focus
Some parts of the journey, like asking for basic details such as name and date of birth follow established, well tested patterns from other services.
For this case study, I’ve chosen to focus on the areas that required more thought and development, leaving out the parts of the journey that were already tried and tested.
Taking and uploading a photo might seem simple to some, but for many people it can be a new and sometimes daunting task. A large number of users in the UK fall into this group, so it was important that our design considered their needs. We made sure to test the service with people of all digital abilities, especially those with lower confidence and experience online.
Digital inclusion
The process
“I’m just not good with computers”
“Digital exclusion is not acceptable. Everyone has a right to the benefits of online services. It’s our job as designers to make those benefits available to everyone”
- unknown
1
Personal anecdote
Me: “Gran, if I asked you to take a photo of yourself and upload it online, do you think you’d be able to?”
Gran (92): “Like Facebook?”
Me: “Exactly, but what if I said your photo had to follow some rules, like a passport photo”
Gran (92): “No I don’t think I could do that, you have to use the booth. My photos are always blurry”.
If my 92 year-old gran can upload blurry cat photos to Facebook, I can design a service that works for people with low digital confidence.
Taking and uploading photos is second nature for some, but for others it’s unfamiliar territory. Those are the users I need to pay close attention to.
2
At the start of the renewal journey, applicants are asked to prove their identity. One way to do this is to provide a UK passport number. If they entered their passport number we’ll ask them if they want to use their passport photo later on in the journey.
If they say yes? Great, as long as it’s still a true likeness, we can use it on the driving licence. But if they say no, that’s where things get a little more complicated.
Taking a new photo that meets the criteria for a driving licence can be tricky, especially if it isn’t something you’re used to. There are lots of things to consider, so we need to break it down step-by step.
3
Asking users to take and upload a photo isn’t new for DVLA. It already happens in the ‘Apply for your first provisional licence’ service. I was lucky enough to work on the internal side of that project, which gave me valuable insight into how users approach this task.
Through the internal service team, I got access to a list of photo ‘reject reasons’, the issues that led to users being asked to resubmit their photo. I saw this as a ready made list of the most common pain points. By ordering them by frequency, we could pinpoint exactly what users were struggling with.
4
Now we had access to thousands of data points and could clearly see the top 10 mistakes users were making. With the ‘Drivers First Provisional’ (DFP) service as a strong foundation, we turned our attention to the guidance and help pages.
The DFP team found success by breaking photo requirements down into simple, step-by-step guidance. Combined with advice from HMPO on passport photo standards, this approach helped users get it right more often. Using that as our starting point, we began shaping the content to suit the needs of our service.
We looked at the top 10 ‘reject reasons’ and noticed that they fell into 5 distinct categories. This screen was the first iteration of the guidance page, telling the user what they needed to do to take a successful photo.
This screen sat within a key section of the journey where users are asked to take and upload a photo. We first explained what they needed to do and what they might need to complete the task. This was followed by a clear guidance screen to help them get the photo right. From there, users reached the upload screen, which followed the GOV.UK Design System pattern. A short loading animation reassured them that their photo was uploading, before taking them to a final screen where they could check that the image met the guidance and appeared correctly—especially in terms of orientation and clarity.
5
After sense checking the journey with the wider project team, we added this new section into the overall flow and moved on to prototyping.
To get meaningful insights from testing, we needed the prototype to feel as close to the real thing as possible. That meant building a version that actually allowed users to upload a photo, something that took a bit more time to get right, but was well worth the effort.
Observing users interact with the prototype was a brilliant experience. We ran sessions both in the UX lab and remotely over Teams. One thing we were mindful of was how being observed might influence user behavior. Uploading a photo, especially of yourself, can feel awkward when someone’s watching. We accounted for this during analysis, knowing the environment was slightly artificial even if the prototype was realistic.
“I’ll just take a picture of my passport photo”
“You can see wallpaper a bit, that’s alright though isn’t it?”
“I can’t just get rid of my shadow can I?”
It was clear that users were still having some trouble getting the photo just right.
We knew this wasn’t going to be home run on the first try, but the information we gathered from these first rounds of user testing gave us plenty to work with. Back to the drawing board.
6
After reviewing the testing report with the user researchers, two clear problem areas stood out:
Backgrounds
Shadows
It became clear that our original step-by-step guidance didn’t go far enough. Users needed more clarity and support, especially around these two issues.
We explored a few different approaches and put them through further testing. In the end, we found that giving each common issue its own dedicated screen, with focused, crystal clear guidance was the most effective way forward.
After listening to users describe their confusion, we made a key change in our approach. Instead of only telling them what they should do, we also highlighted what they shouldn’t do and importantly, explained why.
This shift gave users not just clear instructions, but also practical solutions to the common problems they might face when taking a photo.
Below is how the two new screens were integrated into the existing user journey. In an earlier iteration, they were combined into a single section styled similarly to the original guidance screen. Users often skimmed past it or ignored it completely. It wasn’t until we split the content into separate, visually distinct screens that users began to pause, read, and take notice.
The conclusion
With the right guidance and support, users can confidently navigate even unfamiliar or complex tasks. Clear, empathetic design empowers them to succeed.
“Is it supposed to look like a mugshot? That’s not going to help me if I get caught speeding”
- Participant from user testing
Summary -
1. Looked at the approach of another service that was asking users to take a photo
2. Reviewed the top reasons why users were getting their photos rejected
3. Used these reasons for the basis of an instructions/guidance screen
4. Built a realistic prototype that allowed users to try taking and uploading the photo themselves
What I did
5. Working with user researchers to locate pain points and find potential solutions
6. Iterate and test with different patterns and orders of process until we found users taking the photo correctly on a more frequent basis
7. Insured that we had tested with a wide range of users from every section of the Digital Inclusion scale before we had full confidence in the design and solution
Watching users during testing sessions made it clear just how varied digital ability can be and that age or profession aren't reliable indicators.
One woman in her 20s working in tech struggled with her photo, while a woman in her 70s, with no smartphone experience, got it right with her husband’s help, on the first try. It reinforced that assumptions have their place, but real insight comes from evidence.