Government Geared To You
Introducing Local on NY.gov
Six months ago, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled the new NY.gov — a service-focused, fully responsive overhaul of the State’s website, and the first major update in 15 years.
We know that launching a website is not the end of a project, it’s the start. So we’ve been hard at work analyzing traffic data and user feedback since the Governor introduced the new NY.gov.
We've seen indicators of success, like tripled mobile traffic. And we’ve found opportunities to improve, like a faster, simpler navigation bar, and more local info — the driver of our newest feature.
By popular demand, we’re excited to announce the launch of Local, a new NY.gov section that builds on our most popular feature, bringing you services, information, events and programs nearby in your community.
The information on Local is based on top search queries and most accessed content, emergency and travel alerts, and geographically-specific data from our Open NY platform.
Here’s some of what you’ll find on Local:
- Real-time emergency and travel alerts from NY-Alert
- Public transit status updates from LIRR, Metro-North and the MTA for serviced regions
- In NYC: alternate Side Parking, trash collection and school closure status (Thanks to our friends at 311!)
- Job openings and job fairs nearby
- Green markets
- State parks and more things to see and do via I Love NY
- SUNY campuses and DMV locations
- Local public events
- Stats about your county
- A big, seasonal image from your county as backdrop
The original Local feature on our homepage grew out of a basic question we asked before redesigning NY.gov: How can New York State makes its vast, varied resources more accessible and useful to every individual? How can we show ‘here’s what we can do for you’?
In part, it’s an information-overload problem. Government touches nearly every aspect of your life, from the roads you travel on to the things you buy and spaces where you work. State governments often have a uniquely challenging premise: they serve millions of people whose lives and regions may be very different.
The challenge was to bring the most relevant, useful government services to each and every New Yorker — as quickly and easily as possible.
New York State epitomizes this diversity: it’s one of our strengths. New York serves millions, and our residents live in cities and suburbs, near farms and mountains and beaches and rivers. We have both density and seclusion. Different industries, interests and needs relate to different areas.
As we looked for ways to solve our information relevancy challenge, we considered different options.
A custom profile could help solve the problem, but users typically don’t want to create accounts for government websites unless they absolutely have to. Further, today users expect relevant services and resources to come to them, not the other way around. And we wanted to hold our design to the highest standards of the web.
Ultimately, we decided to use location as the strategic, organizing filter of New York State services in our “Now In” section on our homepage (it’s still there, but more prominent). It worked. The feature was the standout star of our user testing, and quickly became the most beloved tool on NY.gov.
Recognizing the popularity of the feature, we decided to turn it into the standalone section that we are announcing today.
Big thanks to Melanie Galinski, Christina Cioffe, Andrew Nicklin, Tim Crommie, Shawn Hoekstra, Sandra Davila and Matthieu Mingasson for their hard work on this launch.
The launch of Local is the latest in our drumbeat of improvements to bring better, more user-centric digital service to New York State. Tell us what you think and how we can keep improving here or on Twitter at @nygov.
