Redesign Brainstorm: The DMV
(In case anyone outside the US reads this: the DMV is the Department of Motor Vehicles, the place where you have to go to get your drivers license renewed or replaced, get an ID card, and other such licensing requirements for vehicles.)
The DMV sucks. Every one that I know hates it, hates going there, hates standing in line for hours and sitting on the floor and being grumped at by unlikeable government serfs. I have a bad habit of losing my wallet (the current record is twice in one year), and every time I have to go to the DMV to get my license replaced, I get a feeling of dread. It is a thoroughly unpleasant experience, and one that people hold up regularly as an example of government incompetence.
So what could be done to change that? Just for fun, I’d like to invite you to join me in brainstorming how you would change the DMV to make it more effective and less miserable. (Leave a comment with your ideas!)
I think I would start by listing the common reasons that people go to the DMV, and then I would run some time studies on each category of task, to gain a thorough understanding of the time required to complete each type of task. For example, taking your initial drivers test is going to take a lot more time than getting your address changed.
I would use the findings of these studies to create an online reservation system with a pleasant, simple interface, where people could indicate what they needed to do and sign up for a specific time slot to come in. The system would allocate appointments to workers, based on the length of time needed for each task (with some extra built in). And — this is the key part — I would build into the system a feedback mechanism where the DMV employees could indicate when they finished each appointment.
This way, if things started to back up and run late the system could a) reallocate appointments to other workers who might have extra time, and b) send people text/email notifications, like airlines do when a flight is delayed. There could even be an iPhone app where you could check your place in the queue, find out whether your appointment was likely to be delayed, and reschedule if necessary.
My motivation with this redesign is to tackle what I see as the biggest point of pain, which is the interminable waiting (often measured in hours) and the powerlessness of not knowing what time you’re going to be seen. My system would provide better feedback to the user, allowing them to make better use of their time; and it would benefit the employees too, because they wouldn’t be dealing with huge backups and angry, disgruntled customers all of the time. (And of course the scheduling algorithm would take into account lunch hours, breaks, and vacation days.)
In order to accommodate the constituency that doesn’t have internet access, there could be scheduling kiosks in the DMV lobby, where people could come in and make their appointment. That way at least they could leave and do other things while waiting.
Of course, the real-life DMV is a government monopoly and therefore has no incentive to change. But it’s fun to think about how much better things could be, if they decided to leap into the 21st century.
[Update: Hey, it looks like California and Florida actually have online scheduling systems. Good for them! Although they still don't provide the granular level of feedback that I think would be ideal.]
Meta: I’m going to be posting these redesign exercises occasionally in this blog. Sometimes it’s fun to brainstorm without real-life constraints, and to look at a broken system and think about how it could be improved.
I would like to invite you to participate along with me, in the comments. What do you hate most about the DMV? How would you change the experience, if you could?
