Arizona Mobile rolls out a full redesign

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If you are one of the 60,000 people who have downloaded the Arizona Mobile app, you have likely noticed a redesign.

The centerpiece of the upgrade is enhanced campus navigation. Users can pick a building or service they are looking for, including food, libraries or laboratories, and the app will use the map function on their smartphone or tablet to provide directions. Version 5.0 also includes a Cat Tran map featuring real-time locations of shuttles and automatically highlights class locations when students input their schedules.

"We found through five years of analytics that the map module and Cat Tran module were by far the most used parts of the app," said Amy Buczek, principal applications systems analyst for Student and Academic Technologies. "With this information, we refocused the entire app to be centered on the map."

The new home screen takes users directly to the interactive campus map. All other functions from the previous versions, including access to CatMail, Desire2Learn course sites and the campus phonebook are all still available through tabs that can be swiped up from the bottom of the screen.

Buczek says Arizona Mobile 5.0 was built from the ground up.

"The previous version of Arizona Mobile was developed by a vendor who creates mobile apps for university campuses," Buczek said. "We built the new app completely in-house from scratch."

Work on the update began in June 2018. Buczek worked with three student developers and one student designer to build the new version, which was released Jan. 3. They collaborated with the University's Enterprise Geographic Information System team to integrate the campus map features and worked with partners including Arizona Student Unions and Parking & Transportation Services to create a comprehensive list of campus resources to include.

Buczek says future upgrades will depend on users.

"We rely on user feedback to bring in more features and better understand what users want," Buczek said. "A couple of times each year, we are on the street asking people for feedback about Arizona Mobile and what they would like included in the app."

She says users can also provide feedback online. The Arizona Mobile website also offers more information on how to use the upgraded app and finding specific features within the redesigned layout.

Arizona Mobile is free and available in the Apple App Store or on Google Play.