Memorial recently updated self-service early this month, and now that we have had time to get accustomed to it, we can safely say it is better than before.
Granted, that bar wasn’t exactly a high one. The old self-service functioned fine enough, but it was agonizingly dated. It was laid out like a relic of the 90s, with everything being left aligned on a blank white background.
Additionally, due to how dated it was, it simply was never going to work on modern smartphones. It was nearly impossible to navigate, requiring constant zooming and panning to access anything.
Course registration also barely functioned on mobile, requiring an infuriating number of refreshes to properly view course offerings.
In contrast to the dated form factor of the original, the new and improved self-service feels like it was made in the 21st century – and to make it even better, it actually works.
It has now become part of my.mun.ca, which likely also saves money, due to there only being one website to maintain.
It sits in its own tab at the top of the screen, above things such as the Brightspace login and student services. Five main functions are present, giving students easy access to their personal information, student hub, payment centre, registration, and exam schedules.
In each of these tabs, you can easily view all important information you may need. Your student ID picture is shown alongside your student number, allowing you to access them in case you forget or lose your ID.
Perhaps the single biggest improvement over the old self-service, however, is that it actually works on mobile now.
It still is not the greatest experience, and could use improvements in some areas. The mobile formatting is not ideal, with odd zooms and being unable to clearly see the full text of a box, especially on the registration screen.
Furthermore, navigating the new website can be confusing.
The student hub section feels like it was a catch-all, and is incredibly packed with information, especially when compared to the other tabs. Having the final exam schedule take up a whole section on its own also feels strange.
Overall, despite the strange allocation of information and services across tabs, the new self-service is a step up from the original.
It was clearly made primarily for usage on a computer, and it does work incredibly well there. It’s clear that, in order to make the mobile experience better, they would have needed a lot more time, and maybe even a separate mobile self-service app to accomplish.
Hopefully this change is a sign that MUN is trying to push its digital infrastructure into the modern day.
