What I observed in the New Jersey DMV

I arrived in the parking lot at 7:25am on a Saturday during the second week of July, the line had already extended about 50 people deep. Some people had zip loc bags of documents which contained passports, social security cards, and bills. The other groups of people carried documents in their hands or some kind of binder. When more people arrived, the majority of them took a spot behind me and went into the "wait your turn mode". The wait your turn mode consisted of the following activities: Doing some kind of activity on cell phone checking email, checking facebook, and making and receiving calls. Side note: few people observed texting. The conversations between people centered around: What line is this for? Do you know if I have all the required documents? Is this the right building for x? Four people had been waiting in the line when they remembered they left a document in their car, two of them used the social norm we learned as children "would you save my place?"  The car for one of them was located about 20 feet away so this person just step away without saying anything, got his documents and step back into line. The final person of the four got that look of "I want to say something, but does it matter?", so this person walk away from the line, got the documents from the car and with a regretful face took a place at the back of the line. When the doors opened at 8:00am, a person with a loud clear speaking voice started to announce criteria for people to know what group they needed to go into with certain documents. After this person announced the group criteria, this person said " group X follow me into the building." Only a few people started to follow her and then people in the line started to talk with each other on clarifying what criteria went with certain groups. This person noticed that few people are following so this person went individually down the line and asked "what are you here for?"  "You need X and Y document, let me see those." If you did not have certain documents this person told you "in order to start and complete this certain type of transaction you needed to go and get the documents you are missing." Once inside if you had your required documents filled out, you waited in a line to see a person in a group of 3 to verify you had the correct number of documents called the six points of verification. If you had all your documents but not filled out you had to go the reception area and fill them out and give up your place in the line inside the building. When you are verified to have the six points of verification you are directed into a line that is particular to your situation(e.g; drivers licence renewal, title transfer etc).

Next steps after observation notes:

Identify behaviors that seem to be roadblocks in order to move forward in the process. ( sticky notes plus affinity diagramming).

Created a Mind Manager Map to represent priorites and themes in research

Create wireframe to illustrate placement of items and overall structure.