DroneSign

UX flow
Landing Page
Discover Page
Authentication Page
Dashboard
Registering New Drone
Drone Agreement Mail
Drone Agreement - Docusign

Inspiration

The idea for DroneSign came out of the need to simplify the drone registration process in the United States. With the FAA pushing to have all civilian drones identified, we saw an opportunity to streamline the experience by leveraging DocuSign's powerful e-signing capabilities and create a Proof-of-Concept. The vision was to create an easy-to-use platform that would allow users to register their drones, sign agreements, and manage their drones digitally. The project aligns with the FAA’s goal while providing a user-friendly solution for drone owners.

What it does

UX Flow

DroneSign is a React-based application designed to help users register their drones efficiently. It integrates with DocuSign to handle all the legal agreements via e-signing, ensuring that the process is both quick and secure. The platform allows users to authenticate using their DocuSign accounts and access their personalized dashboard, where they can:

View their registered drones
Register new drones by filling out a simple form
Receive an agreement email to sign through DocuSign's e-signing APIs
Track the status of their signed agreements in the dashboard
View the signed agreements and save them for later reviews

This seamless process ensures that users can handle everything digitally, without the need for paper documents or physical signatures.

How we built it

DroneSign was developed using a combination of technologies to provide both frontend and backend solutions:

Frontend: React is used to create the web interface, allowing users to interact with their dashboard and register drones.
Backend: The backend is built with Flask utilising Python, handling the user authentication, drone registration, and integration with DocuSign’s Python SDK to manage e-signatures.
DocuSign Integration: We use the DocuSign eSignature API to send agreements to users and manage signed documents. Once the user completes the form, an agreement is generated, and DocuSign handles the e-signing process.
Libraries: We utilize libraries like FPDF to generate PDF documents and QRCode to display QR codes for tracking and sharing drone registration details.
Design: For designing we've used Figma as our go-to tool.

The app takes security into account and everything is abstracted well between the communication of frontend with the backend, creating an intuitive user experience from start to finish.

Challenges we ran into

During development, we encountered a few challenges:

API Integration Complexity: Integrating DocuSign’s eSignature API was one of the more intricate parts of the project. Ensuring smooth authentication and document management within the app required a deep understanding of the API documentation and a few adjustments to make the user flow intuitive.
Document Handling: Creating and managing PDF documents automatically for the drone registration agreement posed a few hurdles.
User Authentication Flow: Setting up the DocuSign OAuth authentication for seamless login and integration was a bit tricky, but with careful testing, we were able to integrate it successfully.

What we learned

Throughout the development process, we learned:

DocuSign's API ecosystem is extremely powerful but requires careful attention to detail when integrating into a custom application. Its wide range of features, like document generation, authentication, and signing workflows, were pivotal in our project.
User experience is critical. Even though the underlying technology is complex, we focused on making the user interface intuitive. Having the ability to track the registration process and sign documents via email ensures accessibility for all users.
Building a secure and scalable system requires a combination of solid coding practices and thoughtful UX design, ensuring the app works smoothly for all users.

What's next for DroneSign

We are excited to take DroneSign further by implementing additional features to enhance the user experience:

DocuSign Payments Integration: We plan to integrate DocuSign Payments to facilitate any licensing or registration fees directly within the app, streamlining the entire process for drone owners.
AI-Driven Form Automation: We’re working on AI features that will allow users to automatically fill out registration forms using invoice images, significantly reducing the time required for drone registration.
Expanded Dashboard Features: We’ll continue to improve the user dashboard by adding features like drone status tracking, notifications for upcoming renewals, and analytics on drone fleets.

By continuing to build upon DocuSign’s robust API suite, we hope to create a comprehensive solution for drone registration that serves both individuals and businesses in a secure, easy-to-use platform.