New look for CIS coming September 8

On the evening of September 8, 2017 Campus Information Services (CIS), the online application used by students, faculty, and staff to access everything from paychecks to class schedules, is getting a new look.  

A convenient start-up guide is available for users in the UIT Knowledge Base.

Visually-cluttered lists of links will be replaced by clickable tiles with intuitive icons. The homepages and subsequent tiles are dedicated to user roles, functional areas, and common themes. For example, in addition to the student and employee pages, the new CIS offers a “Financial Services” page with links to finance applications; a “Faculty and Research” page with links to resources for faculty, graduate students, and principal investigators; and a “University Resources” page with links to applications and services common to all campus users (e.g. Marriott Library, Campus Map or Shuttle Tracker). Users may add or remove optional link tiles on any of their pages, and can create their own custom home pages with the tiles they use most.

University Information Technology (UIT), the campus organization taking the lead on the project, used a data-driven methodology to develop the new CIS. Web analytics and user feedback played a major role in rethinking the portal.

“Over the last year, we’ve been using Google Analytics to track link usage in the current CIS portal,” said Mark Curtz, product manager overseeing the redesign. “We used that data in the new design to position the most-used applications and resources so that they’re easier to find.”

In addition, as the new CIS took shape, UIT staff conducted usability testing to collect analytics and user feedback on the prototype design.

"We spent a lot of time talking to students, faculty, and staff members from across campus to help optimize the design for them," said UIT User Experience Developer Kelsey Loizos. "This also helped us gain an understanding of the things they need easy access to, to help make their time at the U successful."

UIT engaged faculty focus groups, the Academic Senate, and campus IT governance committees in the months leading up to the release. Several rounds of refinements were further informed by input from campus stakeholders including Student Administration, Research Administration, Human Resources, Finance, and Auxiliary.

“The new streamlined interface, combined with the flexibility for users to customize their pages, will make the CIS portal much easier to use,” said Curtz. “We’re thankful for the amazing collaboration shown by all our campus partners as we worked together on making CIS better.”

For questions about the new CIS, please contact the UIT Help Desk at 801-581-4000 option 1. 

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