In addition to new buildings at the Downtown Phoenix and Polytechnic campuses and a renovated Memorial Union in Tempe, students returning to campus this fall also found a newly rebuilt MyASU student page.
University Technology Officer Adrian Sannier said the new Web site was designed to enhance the user experience when accessing University services online by concentrating them in one place.
In a process he calls “Amazon.com-ification,” online University services are gathered in one place so users can avoid having to search in several different pages for services they often use.
Sannier said the almost 1 million individual pages on the ASU Web site make finding specific information difficult, but ASU Interactive was designed to put different online services together.
“[ASU Interactive] sweeps what you need into one page but is not organized well,” Sannier said.
The new features on MyASU are designed to replace ASU Interactive, which will be discontinued Sept. 8.
New features include the “My Classes” box — which has direct links to Blackboard, a class schedule and book lists for each class.
Sannier said the new MyASU was designed using student focus groups to get early feedback on the most useful format for students.
Sannier said his favorite piece of student feedback came in an e-mail saying, “Change it back to the way it was. I hate it.” The next day, that student sent another message: “I take it back.”
Pre-art freshman Brynne Wambold said the new site took some getting used to.
Although Wambold likes the new format, she said the option to use the old page helped her make the transition.
“The entire Web site seems a little iffy,” she said, because of links that misdirected her or led to out-of-date information.
Kinesiology junior Jaclyn Saltamachia said she has no preference between the new and old formats.
“I just use it for school. It serves its purpose for me,” she said.
Business administration freshman James Newcome said his favorite feature of the new page is the “My Classes” box.
“Everything is compounded into one page,” he said.
Newcome said the old page was confusing for prospective students during the application process.
“I didn’t like the old design at all,” he said.
Graduate student Tyson Moulton said the new MyASU “is one stop. It makes it easy.”
Sannier said the MyASU page would continue to change to fit the needs of students.
“It’s built off of our relationship with Google,” he said. As a result, future changes may reflect elements of the iGoogle homepage, including tabs and gadgets.
Sannier said the technology office is still working on combining e-mail with the new MyASU and integrating other elements currently on the “My Stuff” tab of the Web site.
Reach the reporter at adam.sneed@asu.edu
