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Question of the day
Wednesday, Jul 9, 2025 - Posted by Isabel Miller * It’s been just over a week since the Legislative Information System’s General Assembly website made the switch to its new layout…  I’m still getting used to it. * The Question: What about you? Is it easier to navigate? Are there features you miss, or any quirks or bugs you’ve noticed?
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- The Real Downstate - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 10:21 am:
What I don’t get is how all my saved links to the website suddenly stopped working. Each statute, public act, and bill already has unique numbers. Why weren’t those numbers used for the URLs, so they wouldn’t be broken when the system updated? So dumb.
- rincoiltaffoon - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 10:23 am:
Spare a thought for all the state agencies, legal entities, industry, and libraries throughout the land who now have a whole lotta dead links to fix. The rest is just new tricks for this old dog, which I am thankfully still flexible enough to roll with.
- TheInvisibleMan - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 10:27 am:
It appears my concerns with the navigation of bills was addressed.
Relating to how the bills are displayed in groups now, instead of a dropdown. As well as updating the links to now show the ‘visited color’ to bills that have already been viewed.
This makes navigation much better.
I like it.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 10:29 am:
Looks great, though
- TheInvisibleMan - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 10:32 am:
“who now have a whole lotta dead links to fix.”
A quick check of some old links, shows the new site is using 302 redirects for old links to point to the newer version.
Probably not many dead links, if any at all.
- Just Another Anon - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 10:33 am:
It irritates me that a quick google of a stautory section gives a first link, which appears should link directly to the section searched, goes instead directly to the index, not the section sought.
- Nick Name - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 10:47 am:
I had to update all my links and favorites too.
The old site wasn’t much to look at, but it was easy as heck to navigate and find what you were looking for, whether you needed bills, public acts (going back decades), rules, statutes, back issues of the Illinois Register, whatever. Of all the state websites I’ve had to look stuff up on, the old Illinois website was the best.
So far, the new website seems just as easy to navigate, which is good. But I am of the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” school of thought.
- Socially DIstant Watcher - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 10:48 am:
The website used to have links to pages from prior general assemblies, listing members, bills, public acts, etc. I haven’t found those pages in the new website, so it’s harder now to follow links in current statutes to see when specific causes were enacted, or when one legislator replaced another, or really any of the historical records that were thete. I miss that.
- Sigh - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 10:49 am:
I am not usually one opposed to change and can pretty quickly get used to tech updates. However this is not good. The old website definitely needed some sprucing up and would have welcomed some cosmetic changes or a massive overhaul that actually was a better site. They kept the exact same 20+ year old functions but just made them more complicated. So basically it’s too similar to the old website but not different enough to be an improvement. The biggest issue is the need to download a bill PDF for mobile or minimized browsers. Also I usually search bills by member names it now requires like 5 more clicks to find something. Additionally, the broken links have been a big problem for me and should have been an easy catch.
- Chicago Dem - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 10:50 am:
It’s the WORST! Slow to use, harder to search legislation. I prefer convenience and utility over pretty pictures. I see the pretty pictures in real life when I go to Springfield.
- rincoiltaffoon - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 10:50 am:
All the JCAR links are still broken. Fewer broken links but still in the realm of “whole lotta”.
- Space Cowboy - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 11:00 am:
My work requires me to root around in the ILCS a lot, so I miss the muscle memory of going right to that link on the home page. However, I’m quickly learning how to find what i want. So no real criticisms, just getting used to it. Overall its a better looking interface and seems to be running smoothly.
- Annon'in - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 11:02 am:
Another fabulous redo. Still miss the old section index that came with the print edition.
- Horseshoe Voter - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 11:19 am:
I once looked up a bill from the 2017-2018 GA. Now I cannot get it to reset to the current GA. I have messed with it a long time and I’m sure a more tech-savvy person would’ve figured it out by now. My workaround is to open a Chrome window instead of Edge and that one works. I try not to be stuck in the past and to embrace change, but this one hasn’t been an intuitive transition for me.
- Leatherneck - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 11:31 am:
Bring back the old ILGA site. Much simpler to use, could get to info quickly, and was easy to use when having to use a phone browser.
Plus the old ILGA site has been around in its former functionality since early 2003. Back when the site was still http://www.legis.state.il.us/, it was renamed www.ilga.gov on Dec. 18, 2004.
Looks like the old GA site was updated in early 2003? Wayback Machine shows the old version of the site on a Dec. 2, 2002 capture, but the next capture is Feb. 3, 2003 and the familiar old site first appears. Hence almost 22 1/2 years of institutional memory about the old functional ILGA site has been put to waste.
In my opinion, the redesigned ILGA.gov is the New Coke of 2025. Bring back the old site or always give users the option to use both incarnations.
- Linus - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 11:54 am:
==New Coke of 2025==
That sums up my own experience with the new site pretty well, too. I’m a fan of the new look and layout, but am slowly and painfully finding my way.
I’ve run into some of the same challenges as other commenters. My (delayed) discovery of the “select General Assembly” dropdown at the top of the home page has helped me solve some of those problems.
- Linus - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 11:55 am:
*correction: I’m NOT a fan of new look and layout, but it’ll all work out. Eventually. Amirite??
- Leffy Lefty - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 12:08 pm:
I don’t use the ILGA site much - maybe 5x/year. I will mention that the Illinois EPA site was done this year too. I find it completely unworkable. The worst is that all my old links are dead except for 2. No redirects.
Also - why does Google search, on IL government sites but also this website as well as others I come across, stink so much? No sorting, seemingly random results, just useless.
- Yappatron - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 12:15 pm:
Not a fan. Held off all session because I needed the muscle memory to navigate ilga quickly. Now that it is being forced, not a fan of having to spend time learning the same thing in a flashy new format.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 12:22 pm:
It seems basically the same. Maybe a little easier to navigate to previous general assemblies, which makes any legislative history research a tiny bit easier.
- Homebody - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 12:44 pm:
I agree with Sigh.
== So basically it’s too similar to the old website but not different enough to be an improvement. ==
Maybe there were a bunch of optimizations done under the hood, but I feel like a lot of the state agency website changes I’ve seen in the last year or so have not actually significantly improved the sites.
It reminds me of how Microsoft insists on moving things around in Office every couple years, seemingly for no particular reason.
- charles in charge - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 12:56 pm:
I am admittedly change-averse but so far I don’t like it. I’d like to hear from those who undertook this project what problems they thought they were solving and why this is an improvement. I agree with the commenter who wrote, “basically it’s too similar to the old website but not different enough to be an improvement.” Maybe the old site looked a little dated, but I wouldn’t even say that the appearance of the new one is any better.
- Shadowdocket - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 1:01 pm:
Not a fan AT ALL. I used the old site @10x per week to look up bills and public acts easily as I already knew the bill or act reference… it take so many more clicks to get to the place I need to go and it’s definitely NOT intuitive.
- Socially DIstant Watcher - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 1:27 pm:
@Three Dimensional:
There’s a pulldown on the homepage to previous general assemblies, but that takes you to a page that lists only some of the features the old site had. The list of public acts, for instance, isn’t itself a list of links to each bill, with text and status and votes and more, like the old site had. It’s just a PDF with the effective date, the PA number and the bill number. If you want anything more , then you have to go find the bill number separately. It’s less functional than the old site
- Captain Ron - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 1:29 pm:
Looks nice then all downhill from there
- Socially DIstant Watcher - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 1:44 pm:
I miss having bill searches on each page.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 2:04 pm:
===I’d like to hear from those who undertook this project what problems they thought they were solving and why this is an improvement===
So would I. Just assigned Isabel the story.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 2:09 pm:
===why does Google search, on IL government sites but also this website===
All of Google sucks now. The idiots have broken their own website.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 2:13 pm:
===Maybe there were a bunch of optimizations done under the hood===
Considering how slow and clunky the new site is, I’m kinda doubting it.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 3:15 pm:
There were probably valid reasons to update the system. But my experience is that the developers do far too little research with existing users to find out what they use the site for most.
- Moseley - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 3:46 pm:
I miss the old website bad. I feel we have traded function for style. It is taking me three times as long to get where I need to go on the new site - especially on previous general assembly tabs.
- Nonamie - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 4:34 pm:
===So would I. Just assigned Isabel the story.===
Side quest (if time and space allow): Is the new website ADA compliant?
- ;) - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 5:24 pm:
It’s meh. I hate to say it, but the clunkier, boxier old version was oddly enough better and more user friendly. It is an improvement having everything housed on platform though (compared with the old main page vs dashboard). I’d still prefer the old site though. I thought it was one of the best, in large part because of its simplicity, of all the legislative websites.
- Leslie K - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 6:30 pm:
I am not a naturally change-averse person. But change that makes things much worse, such as the new site, hurts my soul. The old site was one of the best in the country because it was easy to quickly navigate to whatever information you needed, on any platform.
The new site guesses what I might want by putting a few things up front, and the rest is now multiple clicks and scrolls away (e.g. I don’t need every picture of each elected official to scroll through; I need a grab-and-go list to get to the meat of my question). Even the up front stuff requires too many clicks. I’ve also tried it on multiple platforms (iPhone, Samsung, old Windows, newer Windows), and you better make sure you have newer equipment and software (thus making government less accessible to those who can only afford older equipment).
Much less important, I also think it is not very attractive. Both overdesigned and ugly, which is actually sort of difficult to do. So, great job? /s New Coke, indeed.
- Shadowdocket - Wednesday, Jul 9, 25 @ 7:07 pm:
Pls consider this ‘upgrade’ a fail.