After more than a year, Northern Arizona University is officially launching its new website—having transferred select, high-traffic pages to a new, modern platform.
The website, which launched Feb. 18, will continue to evolve, and the public will see pages move from the old platform to the new throughout the year. The NAU homepage and select other pages can be viewed online.
“The website is one piece of the university’s overall digital strategy, which includes search engine optimization, audience-centric communications, and of course the ability to present the university’s strengths in a dynamic and competitive environment,” President Rita Cheng said. “That’s why we have taken great care to ensure we are paying attention to all the details.”
In addition to the website featuring bold, bright colors, vivid imagery and a stationary menu bar that makes navigating the site easy, the new platform is mobile-friendly.
“In this day and age, in order to stay competitive, it’s important to take advantage of new technology that reflects the vision of our institution. It is time NAU’s website looked to the future,” Cheng said.
The president thanked the campus community for its support and feedback throughout this project and expressed appreciation to the web development team and support staff, led by Carla Andrews-O’Hara, chief marketing officer, and Steve Burrell, chief information officer, who worked hard to bring this project to life.
“This is just the beginning. Our team will continue to work on an aggressive timeline to build NAU’s image in hopes of streamlining our digital brand platform,” Cheng said. “I am truly excited about the work that has taken place so far and look forward to next steps.”
Bummer! What have you done with the Lumberjack symbol on the first page to get immediately to sports to check the scores from last night?
On the MyNau home page is a yellow message inviting us to try the new NAU Community page. Part of it reads: “…you click on the ’TRY NOW’ button, you will be redirected to the new NAU Community page which will then become your default portal entry page. Click on the ’Cancel’ button if you do not wish to try the new NAU Community and have this page remain your default portal page.” If one clicks TRY NOW and does not like this new page, can one get the old portal back? Don’t want to try it and not be able to return to the tried-and-true without having that option.
Hi there! I’m part of the NAU Community team and I can confirm that yes, if you click Try Now and don’t like the new page, you can definitely switch back to the old portal. There will be a button at the top of the new portal that allows you to switch your portal preference back whenever you like. 🙂
Personally, I don’t like it. It looks corporate and impersonal. And the removal of the beautiful NAU community pictures on he login screen must represent our future vision as not including input from our students, faculty, and staff… I guess this is what happens as our top staff are replaced with outsiders close to the president, and not culled from our campus community and professionals.