New York State Senate

Clear Communication is Good Government

The issues behind the Senate’s work are compelling and engaging, but how the Senate works is complex and opaque.

Citizens don't understand how state government works, nor how they can play a role in the process. There is very little transparency to understand where bills are in the legislative process, nor a simple means to interact with elected officials directly. With that in mind, we decided the site should make it effortless for any New Yorker to understand legislation and voice their opinions to Senators. Senators, on the other hand, needed an intuitive platform to broadcast legislative initiatives and explore constituent sentiment. And finally, various constituent groups needed a platform to communicate with one another to drum up support for important issues.

Legislative Story Arcs

To contextualize and demystify a confusing aspect of American government, the site boasts tools like a trending issues page and actionable bill progress tracking bars so modern New Yorkers can learn before they act.

A PLATFORM FOR ACTIONABLE FEEDBACK

We built a simple workflow for Senators and their offices, with intuitive Senatorial dashboards that track real-time support or opposition to legislative initiatives. Tools like this help index and visualize constituent sentiment throughout the site, so Senators can respond to the needs of the people of New York and qualify their votes in quantitative realities.

nysenate.gov launched in early October 2015 to critical acclaim.

We targeted these key metrics as the measure of our success:

1. More Senators will be inspired to use the site

2. The site will generate more engagement and usage by New Yorkers

3. The site will become the standard bearer for State legislature sites, and replicated across the country

If we’re to believe The New York Times—otherwise one of the State Senate’s most vociferous critics—we’re well on our way to bringing powerful digital transparency to New York State.