Case Study: DriveBC

Service design challenge

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) launched the DriveBC Traveller Information System website and toll-free phone line in 2005. Since then, it has become the most frequently visited government website, providing up-to-date road and travel information province-wide, 24 hours a day.

DriveBC provides current road conditions, upcoming roadwork notifications, as well as information on closures, delays, and travel advisories. Extended information, such as inland ferry schedules, border wait times, and the BC HighwayCams program can also be found on DriveBC. Striving to meet user needs, DriveBC also offers data through subscription services that enable users to self-subscribe to receive information directly to them through email, Twitter and/or RSS.

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure engaged the Strategic Design and Transformation Branch to support work to streamline the DriveBC website to better meet user needs.

Service design activities

The Strategic Design and Transformation Branch team worked with the ministry project team to better understand how users were accessing the DriveBC website, popular features and opportunities for improvement.

As part of this research, the project team travelled across B.C. to speak with local commuters, tourists, commercial vehicle drivers and internal/external stakeholders at in-person interviews in 25 communities, as well as on-site observation of how DriveBC online resources were accessed in real-time with the travelling public. The project team also completed a jurisdictional scan of common design practices used by other jurisdictions for similar online transportation systems.

The project team then incorporated research findings into prototypes for a redesigned DriveBC website on mobile, tablet and computer interfaces. After testing the prototypes with users, the team refined the draft designs and worked with the ministry’s IT team to develop a technical roadmap for the prototype designs and implementation recommendations. 

Outcome and impact 

DriveBC has and continues to incorporate user research into updates to its online resources for travellers.

• DriveBC