Redesigning Boston
By Jacqueline Houton Dec. 21, 2016
Reroute the RMV
“I moved to Boston eight years ago, and like many new residents, decided to apply for a Massachusetts driver’s license. Shockingly I ended up making four trips to the RMV to finalize what should have been a simple, one-visit process in the 21st century,” Michael Hendrix recalls. “The headaches persisted from tracking down the correct forms, to providing proof of residence, to driving to the North Shore to sort out insurance in a new state—not to mention the ‘take-a-number and wait’ process! A colleague shared her recent experience with me, and it turns out the inconveniences are still the same. What should this look like in the digital era?” Hendrix is a partner and executive design director at IDEO Cambridge, no stranger to municipal challenges: The firm helped redesign Boston.gov for the City of Boston in 2016, streamlining a digital labyrinth that previously had nearly 50 motley microsites for different departments. “Two of the great characteristics of the digital era are decentralization and network collaboration,” Hendrix continues. “In this world we can easily share information between organizations, we can verify identity and we can automate services. The RMV is ripe for these improvements, which will not only create efficiency but a better customer experience. It’s not hard to imagine verification through digital network activity (see Lenddo.com, for example), documentation verification via blockchain technology, and activation and communication through a social platform like Facebook. Boston is historically known as the ‘hub of the universe.’ We can show that leadership position today—not by being the center of control—but by being the convener of collaborative networks. Redesigning the RMV is a great example of how we can use this power to improve services in our city—even for something as mundane as a driver’s license.”
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