The University of Mississippi IT Department will launch a renovated myOleMiss portal Saturday.
Kathy Gates, chief information officer for the university, said the decision to change the website came from the increasing number of visits from mobile devices.
“So much has happened in the last five years with Web and mobile technology,” Gates said. “As you know, students now interact with the university not just through their computers but also through mobile devices. They expect for myOleMiss to work no matter how they connect.”
Gates explained that the website design was also altered in order to be compatible with the new portal design.
“Also, the design needed to be updated to fit with the new UM Web (www.olemiss.edu) design.”
Gates credits employees in the IT department for the creation and implementation of the updates.
“The credit goes to Frank Mathew, Harshul Sharma, Robby Seitz and the rest of Frank’s team,” Gates said. “Harshul developed the core portal techniques as part of his master’s thesis in computer science. Robby Seitz is our campus webmaster and handled all of the stylistic aspects of the new version of myOleMiss.”
Seitz explained that the changes will also allow students to bookmark the applications from the website.
“The landing and home pages are getting a complete overhaul,” Seitz said. “People will be able to easily search for applications they need to use and bookmark the ones they use frequently. The applications themselves are getting a facelift to match the new design. Mercury Intermedia worked with us on this design from both aesthetic and usability perspectives.”
Mathew, director of application development and integration, said the changes will make the website more accessible for students and faculty members.
“My unit in IT was charged by the university’s CIO Dr. Kathy Gates with reworking our portal to be more intuitive to use, update and freshen up the interfaces, make sure it will work as best as possible on mobile devices and be as accessible as possible to visually challenged students and employees,” Mathew said.
Seitz said he thinks the changes will also improve the use of myOleMiss overall.
“Our goals for improvements were these: One, make it easier to find things; two, make it mobile friendly; three, make it accessible to more people. Four, make it look nice,” Seitz said. “While it might take a little getting used to at first, I think these changes will make the time spent using myOleMiss less frustrating and more productive.”
Mathew said he and his unit have been working since last fall to prepare for the upcoming changes.
“We got some ideas earlier last fall on how achieve some of this, worked with professional web designers to help with the aesthetics and then have been doing the technical work since then through spring and summer to make it all happen this fall,” Mathew said.
The website will be shut down beginning 5 p.m. Friday to implement the changes. The updated website will open Saturday morning.
