Digitalisation is supposed to not only bring efficiency to the operations of the service provider, but also provide seamless customer experience and convenience to the consumer. Either way, digitalisation with respect to Government-to-Citizen (G2C) interactions should allow for an enjoyable public service delivery.
It is not a heart-warming digitalisation experience trying to renew a passport on the e-government (Ghana.Gov) online application platform. The online passport application for both new and renewal has seven stages. Start, Applicant, Education, Citizenship, Guarantors, Witness and Preview. The functionalities, in terms of the User Interface Design (UID), may be working but the User Experience Design (UXD) has been poorly done. We cannot invest in the digitalisation of public services and yet not get the benefits anticipated.
This article is to share my experience, more of frustration, trying to renew an existing passport online and to highlight how ill-designed the system is. I will then give some recommendations on how each stage can be improved so our touted digitalisation agenda brings with it a user-friendly, value for money public service delivery with respect to online passport renewal.
The experience
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Start stage
This requires the applicant to indicate the type of application being completed. Whether damaged, first time, a renewal or missing. Mine was a renewal so I chose that option. You are then asked to upload your picture, which works fine; and then the application form must be completed.
If completing the application form for a renewal, then missing and damaged are not necessary. Once the applicant at the Start stage indicates renewal, it should ask for the old passport number. Once this is inputted, the biodata as captured and digitised in the system should pop up for an update if any. Completing the whole renewal process should then take not more than 10 minutes.
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Applicant stage
At this point, you are required to input your biodata. For new applications, this is fine but mine was a renewal. I used the same platform in making my earlier application. So, once you log in, there is a history section that lets you view the old completed application. I could actually see the old application form I electronically completed, which is great.
Unfortunately, it does not allow you to just copy to re-use, edit or update the information in that old application for the renewal. You must complete a new form as if you were a new applicant, which does not make sense. Yes, in a manual system, it is understandable to fill out a new application form; but not with a digitised system. What use is digitalisation then? I could see all my details on the old application and nothing had changed, yet I had to re-type everything all over again.
Also, you are to upload proof of profession, which gives two options. Introductory letter or student ID with three mandatory fields to complete: Document Number, Date of Issue and Place of Issue. Even if you choose an Introductory letter, it requires the mandatory Document Number. How many introductory letters have reference numbers, especially from the private sector? The applicant will be compelled to input any number to be able to move on. How useful is this?
As a renewal applicant, this stage should have taken me not more than five minutes to review my existing information and to make an update where necessary.
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Education stage
Details of educational background are collected at this point. Unfortunately, once completed if you are unable to go through with the entire seven-stage process and you come back, it has to be done again. So frustrating.
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Citizenship stage
At this stage, you are asked if your mother, father and grandparent are alive. You answer no and you are asked to provide postal address, telephone number and email. They are dead but you want these details, really? Under the email field is the inscription “Not Required If Father Is Living or Not”. If that information is not required if father is living or not, why should it be in the design. Unfortunately, the postal address and residential address fields are mandatory; so if you do not complete, you cannot move on. This is just compelling applicants to provide false information. At a point for residential address, I – out of frustration initially – wrote “Osu Cemetry”. I had to put in my own details so I would be able to send any letter posted to my dead parents, delivered to them at the cemetery. Is the User Interface Designer (UID) or programmer happy now?
Once the applicant indicates that the mother, father or grandparent is not alive, the email, telephone number and postal address fields should not even pop up. A no-brainer programming design.
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Guarantors and Witness stages
Practically, applicants can have all the information about themselves and start the process. On getting to the guarantors and witness stages, you may realise you require some personal details of these people you do not have. Fair enough, you decide to continue later so you save what you have done so far. Once you get the details, log in and want to continue, the whole application with previously filled details, has gone blank. You need to start all over again. This not only defeats the benefit we are supposed to be getting from the investment in the digitised process, but is very frustrating.
Each of the stages should be independent of each other and once completed, the system should be intelligent enough to know so. There are no dependencies in the stages, not even on a manual printed form where the form can be completed over a period as and when information becomes available.
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Preview stage
At this point, the opportunity is given to the applicant to review all the information from the Start stage to confirm if the information is correct. When I started the application and got to the Witness stage, which is before the Preview stage, I realised I needed more details about the witness so I saved to continue later. After getting the details of the witness, I logged in and continued from the Witness stage since in my mind I had already completed the other previous sections.
To my surprise, on getting to the Preview stage, I was asked after completing the Witness section to complete the Application stage again. Why should I when I already did? Very frustrating indeed; as if the system has no memory.
Other challenges
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Technical
Aside from the issues raised, you are likely after completing the form and trying to save to be confronted with the frustrating message:
“Service Unavailable. The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.”
This message came up for two days before I was able to start my application. Again the message came up a couple of times during the process when trying to save, which required me to start all over again. Not an enjoyable experience.
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Appointment booking
I did my application this January and getting a regular appointment date was a nightmare. The only available dates were June, 2024. I then decided to choose premium with a charge of GH¢200. The earliest date I got was April, 2024. Operationally, this could be as a result of two key possible issues. Either there is lack of human resource to get the appointments done quickly or the inefficient application process where lost, renewal, damaged applications are mixed up with new applications.
To resolve the human resource challenge, if it is the 8-hour (8 am – 5 pm) only system that is creating this unacceptable waiting time, we may need to consider working a 3-Shift system (24-hour economy) to reduce the waiting time. Also, for applicants who already have passports but lost, damaged or expired, there is absolutely no need for an appointment unless certain critical information has changed, such as change in name where an official may want to physically sight the original document related to that. The system already has all the needed information to re-issue or renew the passport barring any critical verifiable change. This will drastically reduce the waiting time of a minimum of 3 months, even with a premium service, as I experienced.
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Printing of appointment slip
After a successful application process, you are required to print an appointment slip which has all the information that was completed to be signed by both the applicant and the witness. On the face of it, it is understandable for purposes of authentication, but is it really necessary in this highly digitised environment? I do not think so.
The applicant logged in with a username and password using a personal account that was created for the purpose, so this is enough authentication that it is the applicant who is requesting the service. We log in into our banking platforms the same way and move funds. We use ATMS with our passwords, we use passwords with our MoMo accounts and that is enough authentication that indeed we did the transaction.
For the witness, there are two options. The first option is when the witness has no online account. Send an email with a link to the applicant’s details. Once the witness clicks the link, let the witness request for a One-Time-Password (OTP) to their telephone number to be used as authorisation to view the applicant’s details to be authenticated by the witness. The second option is when the witness has a passport and already has an online account. For this, send the applicant’s form to the online account of the witness with message to their email or telephone to log in. The witness then logs in, views the applicant’s details, authenticates and saves, having first read some legal statement. This process is another no-brainer programming with no legal risk because a hard copy form has not been signed in ink.
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Status
