UM Webmaster Robby Seitz leads a workshop at Weir Hall on the new features coming to the myOleMIss web portal.
OXFORD, Miss. – University of Mississippi students, faculty, staff and others with a university WebID can look forward to a complete overhaul of the myOleMiss web portal beginning Friday (Sept. 19).
The changes to the system will make finding links easier, make the site a more mobile-friendly experience and improve accessibility, said Robby Seitz, the university’s webmaster.
The myOleMiss web portal has been in operation since 2008. Since then, much has changed with Web technology and user expectations, Seitz explained. A major shortfall of the current portal is its flexibility when used on mobile devices.
“Mobile users will begin noticing that many of the forms are now functional on the smaller screen sizes,” Seitz said. “And with the new ‘search’ function, everyone will be able to find things much easier than before. All myOleMiss users should benefit from the new layout. People who have vision disabilities will find the larger type and screen reader access to be a great improvement.”
An initial prototype was created for the new portal last fall. Once the update proved to be practical, they enlisted the services of Mercury Intermedia, the same company that designed the mobile app, to design the new layout.
“Mercury International delivered the updated designs for the site in May,” Seitz said. “Since then, we have been creating and updating code for our existing portal applications so they will work within the new framework.”
During Technology Enhancement Week, a few people attended demonstrations of the new interface. Adjusting to the new system should be relatively painless and, once adjusted, users should find it more intuitive than the current one, Seitz said.
The current portal will be disabled at 5 p.m. Friday. The university’s IT staff should have the new site up and running by early the next morning.
Users must ensure their Web browsers are current because the new myOleMiss will not support older browsers. Certain older browsers have security vulnerabilities and do not conform to the modern standards of programming the new portal requires.
You can check whether your browser is up-to-date by visiting http://www.whatismybrowser.com.