Penn Portal will see major makeover this semester

This fall, Penn will open the portal to a new student homepage.

PennPortal, the University's online information gateway for students, is scheduled to receive a major facelift this fall, following similar updates to Penn InTouch and the Course Search tool.

Changes are intended to improve simplicity and usability, according to Jackie Smith, senior director of operations and service at Student Registration and Financial Services.

Users logging in to the current PennPortal homepage are presented with over 100 links to various student resources - calendars, maps, weather, registration, and more, down to the Civic House and Navy ROTC pages.

"The site is generally very busy," said Dan Shapiro, IT Director of Administrative Information Technologies and Communications. "Every office wants some kind of presence [on the homepage]."

A recent draft of the site is cleaner and more colorful, showing fewer obscure links and easier access to popular content such as housing, dining and registration.

Designers have tried to promote customization, a little-used feature of the current PennPortal. The new site includes several adjustable tabs for information of interest, much like Google's iGoogle homepage.

The website update is part of a joint project among Information Systems and Computing, the Provost's Office and SRFS. The Undergraduate Assembly and the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education are also providing recommendations and feedback on the program.

The development team has already rolled out a simple version of the site usable by the class of 2013, including New Student Orientation links and a small NSO Twitter box.

Shapiro noted that upperclass students are used to the existing site, and are interested in a portal that combines the functionality of the current site with a newer "Web 2.0" interface.

"We've applied some high-level design concepts. We've rounded corners, changed fonts … We're going for a more streamlined look and feel," he said.

Talks about improving PennPortal began over a year ago as part of the University's push toward usability in its online presence.

"It was a collaborative decision that the technology had changed," said Rob Nelson, director for education at the Provost's Office. "We simply took the opportunity to improve."

The new site is currently in the drafting process. ISC staff are relying heavily on feedback from the UA and SCUE, as they did with Penn InTouch.

Alec Webley, College junior and UA chairman, said, "The project is headed in the right direction, but there's much, much more to do."

The final changes are slated to be finished this fall "if all goes well," according to Smith, though she could not give a specific date.

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