NYC Department of Finance Redesigned Website

Last Updated on January 13, 2015 by Lawrence Berezin

Did you know the NYC Department of Finance redesigned its website?

This was my first look at the NYC Department of Finance redesigned website, and I like it! It’s more than a fresh coat of paint, and a major improvement on the prior version.

Click and ye shall find…

Let’s start by setting expectations

What should the driving public expect from a city agency website?

• Ease of navigation
• Clarity
• Simple search tool to find your parking tickets
• Online Fighting tool
• Secure Pay tool
• Search capability to locate a towed chariot
• Information, information, information

What’s missing? Any “expectations” to add to the list?

1.  Landing Page

When you land on the Department of Finance website, you’ll be greeted by an easy-to-understand navigation bar and a slider. The slider contains images with links to valuable information.

2.  Let’s click on “Vehicles”

This is what you’ll find

There is a bunch of clarity on this page. Not only do you find a plain language navigation bar at the top of the page, but you have links with images and descriptions at the bottom of the page.

The dispute link at the bottom reminds you that you have 30 days to submit your dispute or get hit with penalties.

 3.  The Dispute Link

You’re transported to the following page, after clicking the “Dispute” link…

I recommend clicking the links for both brochures. The “Got Tickets” brochure is an excellent, comprehensive guide to defenses for every parking violation published by the Parking Violation Bureau.

4.  Check out the “common defenses” link

Is this an exhaustive list of all possible defenses? Of course not. But, it starts the defense juices flowing, and refers you to other brochures that contain more detailed information.

5.  What’s this “Evidence Recommendations” link?

I don’t know, so let’s click away…

Does this list meet your expectations? What’s missing?

6.  Click of the “Forms” link on the Vehicles website page

You’ll find links to important forms after clicking on this link

Here’s what happens when you click on the link for one of the Forms

 Commentary

This website provides an excellent starting point in searching for knowledge about whether to fight or pay NYC parking tickets.

You can easily navigate to a page full of parking ticket defenses. But, please keep in mind this is not an exhaustive list.

How about evidence? There is a list of evidence that can be submitted to beat a parking ticket. However, what’s missing is how to connect the evidence to a specific defense.  It’s simply a starting point.

The online process to fight a parking ticket has morphed into a great option to use.

This is a wonderful redesign. It exceeds my expectation for a city agency website. But, you’ll need to look for other resources outside the website to fill in the details.