Redesigned website geared to be more user friendly, interactive, and transparent
NEW YORK, NY– Today, Speaker Mark-Viverito announced the launch of a new Council website that will help strengthen engagement with diverse New Yorkers. While the domain remains the same —council.nyc.gov—, the site adopts the design of Council Labs, an experimental site created with the aim of increasing accessibility and transparency about the Council’s work. In addition to a responsive, mobile-friendly layout, the site includes interactive features such as a visual budget explorer and searchable map of districts.
“More and more New Yorkers interact with and get their information from us online. We want to meet them where they are, help more people understand how the Council works, and make their voices heard, no matter the platform,” said Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. “This new site is also built for a city as diverse as we are: we’ve used clear, plain language to facilitate better translations in multiple languages.”
A year ago, the Council’s Digital Strategy team launched an alpha site, Council Labs, to try out new ways of sharing information and create a better user experience with the Council’s digital platforms. Through the agile and iterative development of Labs, the Speaker and Council sought to establish a comprehensive, accessible source for the Council’s information. A broad testing process further integrated Labs with social media engagement and large-scale legislative projects such as Mandatory Inclusionary Housing, in which Labs content provided residents with clear and concise information.
The redesigned, user-friendly web site was a major goal outlined in the Council 2.0 plan presented by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito in 2015. Council 2.0 is a roadmap for digital inclusion and open government.
Other 2.0-related accomplishments include the creation of a digital strategy team, testing SMS outreach, using social media to engage New Yorkers in Council processes, releasing a constituency services dataset, and two digital inclusion summits.
The Council’s Public Tech Division will continue to improve the new site and welcomes suggestions from New Yorkers via labs@council.nyc.gov or on social media.
To learn more about the new website, please visit us:
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