Monthly registration renewal

A simpler, more flexible way to renew vehicle registration

Lead UX Designer | VicRoads | 2025

The challenge

Customers could only renew for 3, 6, or 12 months, creating affordability barriers and limiting flexibility.


VicRoads wanted to:

  • Introduce a monthly renewal option

  • Increase digital uptake through direct debit

  • Reduce operational overhead (OPEX)

  • Maintain regulatory compliance and system integrity

The goal

Deliver a smooth, digital-first experience that encourages customers to switch to monthly renewals and set up direct debit easily.

In-scope

  • Personal accounts

  • Light vehicles and motorcycles

  • Authenticated experience (logged in)

  • Introduce direct debit to flow

  • Changes to other areas of the site (direct debit setup, payment methods, notification preferences etc)

  • Edit existing page

  • New email and some edits to existing

Out-of-scope

  • Business accounts

  • Heavy vehicles, trailers, caravans

  • Non-authenticated experience (not logged in)

  • Trade apprentice, stolen or sanctioned vehicles

  • New pages

  • Changes to 3, 6 and 12 month renewal experience

  • Vehicle level direct debit

Challenges

Legacy infrastructure

Direct debit setup required Westpac API integration and new validation logic.

Tight timelines

Only one frontend developer shared across projects — we made feasibility calls live in workshops.

Complexity

24 epics, 45 user stories, multiple touch-points. I collaborated with the BA, PM, Solution architect and Tech Lead to document every condition, logic rule, and error state to prevent build confusion and rework of designs.

My approach

As the sole UX Designer, I owned every stage of the design process — from discovery through to delivery.

Key contributions:

  • Conducted user research (surveys + interviews) to identify pain points in the renewal process

  • Created journey maps, future-state blueprints, and user stories

  • Designed and tested low-fidelity prototypes via Askable

  • Facilitated cross-functional workshops with backend, frontend, PMs, and BAs

  • Delivered final Figma files with detailed interaction logic and error messaging

Outcome

An intuitive monthly renewal experience ready for development

  • Direct debit experience integrated in the registration change flow

  • Simpler messaging - notifications, emails and postal documents

  • Improved messaging clarity and payment validation - error states

  • Supported VicRoads’ move toward digital-first, affordable registration

Impact:

  • Streamlining the customer experience for 5.1M drivers

  • Reducing operational handling of manual refunds

  • Strengthened system foundations for future business expansion

Reflection

One of the larger hurdles to overcome as a designer was working with a broken and limited design system. Regular collaboration with the front end developer was critical to the overall user experience and meeting project timelines.

This project reinforced how critical it is to document logic clearly for technical teams — especially when only one developer is available. Balancing complexity, constraints, and empathy for the end user was at the core of this rollout.