New design emphasizes accessibility, popular links

Beginning in late August, visitors to Seattle.gov/Council will notice something a little bit different. The website has been completely revamped thanks to a successful partnership between the Council Communications Team, Seattle IT, and Legislative Department IT teams. This effort revived a previously abandoned project to modernize the site, resulting in a platform that is more accessible, faster, and (hopefully) easier to use for constituents, visitors and other community stakeholders.

Some key improvements:

• Greater Accessibility: The new site is more accessible to all users, a crucial city-wide goal.
• Modernized look: A cleaner, more modern design makes the website easier to navigate.
• Faster Performance: Users will experience faster load times.
• Behind-the-Scenes Improvements: The project included the removal of outdated content and old, unreliable code, making the site more stable and secure.

Also moving forward, you’ll notice that the Council Blog will be evolving. Recently, we consolidated the main menu items, eliminated a redundant column and other content, and highlighted a “Quick Links” section for member pages. Our goal, like the website, is to make it easier for constituents to use and bring it more in line with City branding. Stay tuned.

Please note that today, Friday, Aug. 22, there will be periodic 404 errors as we publish our new web pages. These errors will be resolved once all pages are published. If you continue to see old council web pages after Aug. 22, we recommend clearing your browser cache to view the new website.

If you have any questions or comments about the new website, please feel free to reach out to the Communications Team at CouncilComms@seattle.gov. We welcome your feedback!

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