Digital Passports Design Challenge

Every country in the world is unique and the things that represent them are also unique in their design and purpose. Did you know that your country’s passport was designed with intention? Pretty cool! 

For our August design challenge, we asked students to redesign their country’s passport in a digital format that can be accessed from a mobile device. This could look like a mobile app, a card that’s added to your device’s wallet, a web app, etc.

The top 5 submissions received free passes to (virtually) attend the Festival of UX & Design 🤩

Here are the top submissions for this challenge as determined by the Designlab internal team and community voting…

Winner 🥇

Adan Rodriguez Reyes, UX Academy Foundations Student

My passport is from the US. I used the physical booklet as a reference and tried to bring the essence of it into an app form. This is because I felt it would be very familiar to most people who own passports already. They would be able to recognize most of the elements and be able to navigate through the app with ease and familiarity. I also included options that would be difficult with just using a physical passport and useful links that would always be up to date. Being a government application the information on the passport wouldn't be editable, but the user could at least change the background image of the tile card, this is shown with two options here. They would also be able to show a QR code or simply add it to their wallet app and the passport app will be able to keep a record of when and where the passport was used. There's a section for visas, which I think would be really cool and has a lot of opportunities. Imagine having a gallery-type page, with images of historical monuments of the countries visited. There are some animations I wish I could show but I don't have the skills yet! For example, the passport card would flip over and show the QR code, and there's a reflective sheen on the card, similar to what we have on our driving licenses, and if the user tilts their phone the animation would take effect. That would have been grand, but all I could do for now is just show the colors of the "sheen." This is my submission and I hope it meets your expectations of a digital passport :)

Runners-Up 🏃‍♀️

Doris Cheng, Kahlo cohort 

E-PASS is a digital passport app for Hong Kong passport holders. Unlike the ordinary passport, E-PASS has the contactless QR code that stores a digital version of the ID photo and all of the data found in the paper passport, such as travel stamps, work/travel visas, vaccination records, TSA pre-check, and global entry, etc. This is a one-stop app for all frequent travelers to make travel easier and more seamless than ever.

Traveling should be enjoyable, regardless of the destination. I wanted this digital passport to be an ultimate one-stop app for all the travelers where they can have all the important documents electronically saved in one space and explore the world worry-free. 

Sam Davidowitz-Neu, Mellier cohort 

My passport is a proposal for the United States of America. It seems that the most common use for a passport is for flying internationally as one can travel from state to state with a Driver's License or State ID. For my digital passport design, I began by thinking about the documents one might need to access while traveling and the order in which they might need them. Next, I came up with several mockups all intended to streamline this process as much as possible. Once I settled on the best mockup, I edited and played with a number of color schemes.

Alex Cude, Bass cohort 

My digital passport represents the U.S. I wanted to replicate and enhance the overall look and feel to be more modern. I envisioned it as a digital app that people can sign in to view" or carry on their phones when they travel.

Ashdin Dalal, Dwiggins cohort 

A digital US passport with a sign-up/sign-in screen and main screen displaying passport information with a QR code for verification purpose.

To learn UX design through an education provider that emphasizes the importance of community through fun events like these design challenges, we encourage you to explore our UX Academy program.