Customers assist in developing the new e-service

The Finnish Immigration Service will launch its redesigned e-service next year. Customers of the agency have also taken part in the development of the new service.

During the autumn, a series of articles will be published about the process of redesigning the e-service. The first article focuses on designing and testing the new service.

Eric Cheung, Canadian ICT expert, moved to Finland for work in 2010. Back then, residence permit applications had to be submitted on a traditional paper form, since the current e-service was launched in 2012.

– At that time, I was working for Nokia and my employer took care of most of the paperwork involved in applying for a residence permit, but it was a fairly long process, Cheung recalls.

He submitted his application in April and received his residence permit at the end of the summer.

– I submitted my application to a consulate, which sent it to an embassy, which sent it to the Finnish Immigration Service in Finland. When the Finnish Immigration Service had made its decision, the residence permit came back the same route.

Past experiences sparked interest in testing the new e-service

When the team responsible for creating the new e-service started redesigning the service, they turned to the customers of the Finnish Immigration Service for comments. In the spring of 2014, a test version was ready to be tested by a couple of users.

One of the test users was Eric Cheung.

– I thought that I will use the e-service in the future when I apply for an extended permit. By taking part in the testing, I can at best make a difference to improve the user experience in the future, both for me and for others.

The test users received an invitation to come to the Finnish Immigration Service, where each of them, in turn, tried out the test version with the testing group.

– I saw different versions of the planned page structure and gave my opinion on them. After that, I was asked to imagine that I am a student from Peru who is using the service to apply for a residence permit.

While Cheung tested the service, he was asked to answer a number of questions.

– They asked, for example, if I knew how far I had gotten with the application. It turned out that I didn’t, and we talked about it being a good feature in the service.

Tester hoped for a better use of new technology

Cheung had no experience of the older version of the e-service, since he submitted his residence permit application before the current e-service was in use. This was also the first time he was in the role of a tester.

– I think it was a very good thing, because I was able to pay attention to the right things.

One of the suggestions Cheung came up with concerned the use of smartphones to scan attachments.

– The applicant has to attach different kinds of documents that must be scanned into the system. Very few people have scanners at home, but nowadays almost everyone has a mobile phone with a camera. I suggested it should be possible to upload photos taken with camera phones to the service.

The problems with scanning have been taken into consideration in the new service, and the aim is to make it as easy as possible to fill in the application. The easiest way to take photos of documents and to upload them to the service is with a smartphone or a tablet computer, because applicants can take photos with the same device they are using to fill in the application.

Next article focuses on designing the service

Experts in various fields participate in redesigning the e-service. The officials at the agency provide the factual content of the service, but the actual service is created by web designers and coders.

The next article focuses on the challenges that have arisen during the development of the e-service of the Finnish Immigration Service.