Re-imagining the future of Government travel

In order to better understand the business travel experiences of the GC community, the NextGen Travel team adopted a design thinking approach to reframe how we develop and design the future travel solution. By placing the traveller (end-user) at the core of the travel experience, we hope to reframe the travel journey so that it becomes simpler, accessible, innovative and more intuitive for everyone.

Our goal was to co-create a solution not just with the end-user in mind, but actually with the end-user! To do this, we crowd-sourced ideas on how to improve the traveller experience and to seek their input and feedback on possible solutions. The NextGen Travel Program embarked on a cross-Canada tour (accessible only on the Government of Canada network) from October 2018 to March 2019 starting in the National Capital Region and travelling to 7 cities across Canada. We held 8 open houses, 15 innovation labs, and listened to and engaged with more than 750 employees from coast-to-coast-to-coast. The conversations and ideas that were shared empowered employees to directly contribute and shape the future of their work-related travel.

By bringing different perspectives to the table, we realized that certain regions and departments have unique requirements that make business travel challenging, such as travelling with special equipment or to and from remote locations. Hearing employees express their experiences and what they need to have in place for a positive travel journey has been an exciting learning experience. We quickly discovered that employees were passionate and enthusiastic to share their ideas and excited to be engaged so early in the process. Those who travel, provide travel or financial support, or approve travel are looking for an experience that is intuitive and seamless and they had lots of ideas on how to do it.

As we began a new fiscal year, we created GC Intranet (accessible only on the Government of Canada network) page as a place to share what we learned along the way. We will also be using it to continue to engage with users and seek their feedback on as well as share where we’re going next.

Colleagues shared their experiences and ideas on how their business travel experience could be improved. By focusing on inclusive design, the NextGen Travel Program heard different perspectives and experiences, and hopes to proactively remove barriers to accommodate and ensure accessibility is built in to the next travel solution from the very beginning.

What we’ve learned is that designing with users isn’t just about trying to understand what we think they may want and need, but asking them directly what they actually want and need.

We also found engagement isn’t a one-time thing, but that we need to keep engaging throughout the process by creating opportunities for constant feedback with users; sharing what we learned, checking in and validating where we’re going along the way. Designing with users may take more time but it’s time well spent to ensure we continue moving in the right direction.

But wait! We’re not done yet; not by a long shot. We’re continuing to engage with users, generating ideas, creating concept prototypes and testing our designs with users. Interested in getting to test our ideas up front? Sign up to help us test our concepts and designs (accessible only on the Government of Canada network). Have something to share about your travel experiences or what you’d like to see in the future GC travel solution? Check out our Next Generation Travel Intranet (accessible only on the Government of Canada network) page and have your say!