Defence operates one of the largest, and highly complex travel ecosystems in the Australian Government. It is required to support a high volume of domestic and international travel across diverse user groups – from business trips to deployment missions for its 100,000 strong workforce. Travel processes were difficult to navigate, content was fragmented across systems, and users struggled to find clear, actionable guidance. This created friction for travellers, administrators and approvers alike, impacting efficiency, compliance and user experience.
We began with a broad exploration of the current travel landscape to understand who interacts with the ecosystem, the systems and processes underpinning travel and the policy constraints shaping decision-making.
Complexity in this space was unpacked, considering the various travel scenarios that can occur (such as business meetings, training, and exercises), the variation in security requirements in different areas of Defence, and the type of Defence employee and family structure that influences taxes and travel benefits. Each of these considerations determined how a traveller needed to navigate travel processes and systems.
Mapping the complete travel ecosystem created a shared, enterprise-wide view of travel and highlighted key areas of complexity and opportunity that cut across Group and Service organisational divides.
We shaped a new discovery process for the Capability Design team using proven design thinking methodologies and frameworks.
Through structured analysis of the current state and stakeholder prioritisation and voting sessions, we narrowed focus to priority problem areas in the travel ecosystem. This allowed us to deep dive into areas with significant user pain points and barriers, critical process bottlenecks, and areas heavily constrained by limited system functionality and policy complexity.
This approach ensured effort was focused on solving the problems that mattered most. Providing a repeatable, scalable model to explore travel problems systematically, prioritise high-impact areas consistently and guide future discovery work across the ecosystem.
A strong user-informed approach was embedded throughout the project. Insights were initially drawn from existing research and artefacts, travel intranet feedback and customer enquiry and call centre trends.
We conducted 20 contextual discovery interviews across travellers, admin staff and approvers – capturing their experience from trip planning to post-travel administration. Staying open and flexible to which aspects of their travel experience were the most frustrating whilst maintaining a consistent line of questions and prompts to capture the full journey.
Concept testing of alpha designs of international travel requests and new onboarding content using wireframes brought solution ideas to life. It allowed early validation of ideas, ensuring solutions were grounded in real user needs and helped de-risk and accelerate delivery.
We worked closely with business stakeholders and SMEs to balance user needs with operational realities through deep engagement with 18 teams across policy, technology and service delivery.
Over 11 months, this included:
This collaborative approach ensured solutions were not only desirable to users but viable and feasible for the teams that support travel.
A key priority and problem area to explore was how to uplift Defence's travel intranet experience.
We led an enterprise-wide content audit to identify duplication, gaps and inconsistencies in how travel guidance was communicated. Then we proposed a new, evidence-based information architecture that simplified navigation pathways and a strategy for how Defence could uplift and more easily maintain travel content into the future.
Additionally, priority content was re-written into clear, actionable guidance, particularly focused on supporting first time and infrequent travellers. This significantly improved how users found and understood travel information.
Jude delivered a modular, flexible design approach that enables Defence to continuously improve the travel experience. The work provides Defence with a user-validated model for change, clear alignment between user needs and business constraints, and a scalable framework for future enhancements.
By combining deep user insights with close stakeholder collaboration and data insights, this work has laid the foundation for long-term transformation. This has equipped Defence to deliver clearer and more accessible travel information, more efficient and user-friendly processes, and ongoing improvements driven by evidence and real user needs.
