Big news! Today we launched the new City Council website. The redesigned website is more user friendly, interactive, and transparent and will help strengthen engagement with diverse New Yorkers.

While the domain remains the same — council.nyc.gov—, the site adopts the design of the previous experimental site Council Labs, 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.

A year ago, the we 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.

We will continue to improve the new site and welcome suggestions from New Yorkers via labs@council.nyc.gov.