October 1, 2009

Redesign of myPurdue Portal coming in October

The myPurdue Portal has played a significant part of the new student system since its inception in July 2008, and on Oct. 11 a newly design portal will be released.

The design changes are the result of feedback obtained through a student survey from Purdue Student Government, a survey by ITaP, and a set of focus groups co-sponsored by Student Services and the myPurdue Portal Advisory Committee.

"We've worked hard since the implementation of Banner to ensure that we are listening to our constituents and the end users, and we are working to meet their needs," says Matt Pistilli, chair of the myPurdue Advisory Committee and senior assistant director of Student Access, Transition and Success Programs. "One of the things we've heard time and time again from students is that myPurdue was difficult to navigate. In particular, students wanted things at their fingertips, not three or four or sometimes five clicks within the portal. The committee took this feedback and worked to create a new look to the portal that brought links up to the top level so that multiple clicks to get to a specific aspect would no longer be necessary."

The students on the committee and in the focus groups also suggested resources and links to be included on various tabs within the portal. The result is myPurdue v2.0 -- where quick links are available on each tab, eSidewalk is a prominent feature throughout, and the Student Life tab is now labeled Resources and is available to the entire Purdue community.

"These are just a few of the changes that were made, and the committee looks forward to continuing to listen to our constituents and working to further enhance the portal in the future," Pistilli says.

Levi Cowsert, student member of mPAC, thinks the biggest effect the enhancements will have is on navigation.

"Currently, you have to click through several menus in order to get to class schedules, registration, and transcripts," he says. "With the new enhancements in place, all of the options are available along the left side of the home screen of each tab. Now, all that you need to do is go to the 'Academic' or 'Financial' tab, and all of the options are listed for you as links, instead of having to dig through different menus to find what you want. I think students will welcome the new look of myPurdue and quickly catch on to how the new navigation works."

Cowsert adds that another benefit of v2.0 is the constantly changing banner on the right side containing eSidewalk announcements.

"This will be a great way for students to easily find out about callouts and events that they otherwise would not have known about," he says.

Another student member of mPAC, Hannah Bowman, says she's excited for the coming changes to the myPurdue portal.

"I want students to know that we have listened to their opinions and have worked hard to develop improvements," she says. "The changes coming in myPurdue v2.0 will make using the portal more intuitive and user-friendly. My favorite aspect of the new portal is the Quick Links. I think fans of the old SSInfo mode of navigation will be happy with them too."