The MyUIndy site received an upgrade on Sunday, Oct. 12. Students will find that a lot of other changes have been made to the site besides the basic visual presentation. The old site was based on software from the 1990s.
“Elucian came out with a new version of the software two years ago, but there were so many bugs, and it was clear that it was not ready,” said Portal and Content Management System Administrator Kathy Ellis. “About a year ago, I knew that we were ready to start working on migrating to the newer software.”
The new version of the site was in the works beginning in April of this year.
“Getting the site to communicate with other devices became the trickiest part [of the development and migration process],” Ellis said. “Information had to be able to be shared securely, and communication with other sites like ACE had to be worked out.”
Ellis also explained that the content itself proved to be quite time consuming.
“There are over 300 pages of content for the site,” she said. “There isn’t some kind of import system. We have to recreate that data ourselves.”
Ellis did have help for the color scheme and visual elements from the One 14 Design Studio, which is the design studio in the Department of Art and Design.
“I like the new MyUIndy site, but it took a bit [of time] to get used to it,” said freshman chemistry major Alexandra Jaros.
While the site has a new look, most of the features on the site existed on the old version of MyUIndy, but they may have been harder to find. For example, there is a feature that shows the number of computers available in different computer labs on campus, which existed on the previous MyUIndy site.
“People would ask me where to find things. I’m the admin, and I couldn’t tell them,” Ellis said, referring to the old site.
Changes to the home page are among the most evident. There is a spot for current weather on campus, an announcement box, an event calendar, newsfeeds and the UIndy Twitter feed.
“The new site also has a fully functioning search engine,” Ellis said.
The improved search engine allows students to search both within and outside the My UIndy site, with more accurate results.
According to Ellis, small irritations such as being unable to share URLs without the other person having to log in also have been addressed.
“You can now copy a URL and mail it to someone, and it will take you directly to the page,” Ellis said.
With registration this week, directions and help can be found under the Student tab. On the left, where Student Quick Links are found, there is a link for the Center for Advising. Under Center for Advising, a Help with Registration tab can be found. Under this tab are multiple links to help with registration, such as curriculum guides, class search, registration forms, advisor lists and more.
There are no other big updates planned in the near future, according to Ellis.
“We are now in ‘cleanup mode,’” Ellis said. “We are still looking for things like broken links. The site, overall, seems to be more user friendly.”
Ellis said if students find any such problems, they are encouraged to report them.
