IMT released a new APU Mobile app for iPhone and Android with many updated features
Azusa Pacific’s old mobile app was created before smartphones became mainstream. Knowing that students and faculty of APU didn’t use the app due to its outdated design and abilities, the APU Mobile team set out to create a brand-new app that would meet all the desires of students.
The former APU Mobile app was viewed as old, outdated and simply unintuitive due to its design that originated ten years ago. According to the APU Mobile team, students either didn’t bother to download it or made the effort to download it only to find that it was less than desirable and promptly deleted it.
The relevancy and usability of the app dwindled over the past several years due to updates in technology.
“The biggest problem with the old one is that it was old,” said Dante Cordova, a member of the APU Mobile team. “Early last year we began investing in resources to update this app.”
Creating a new app was put on the backburner for the IMT team for some time. It got to the point where IMT realized that in order to make a truly convenient and enjoyable experience for the APU community, a new and improved mobile app would be necessary.
According to Cordova, the slate was essentially wiped clean to create a sleek, new product that students, faculty and staff would all enjoy.
The process of designing the app was complicated and took many months to complete. There are many improvements still to come.
“We’ve been on a continuous improvement cycle,” said Rick Roberts, who is also on the APU Mobile team. “If you downloaded the app a month and a half ago, we’ve added quite a few things since then and that’s been the process.”
The new APU Mobile app has an incredible number of new features. On the main page alone, there are eight options to choose from. These options include class search, trolley tracker, campus map, campus dining, calendar, parking, support request and a sign in button to link the app with your personal home.apu.edu page.
Once signed in, everything that is available on the APU home page is available on your phone. This includes class schedules, OneStop, account holds, prayer requests, transcript information and a new feature––enrolling in classes.
“Enrollment is our latest feature that we just turned on,” said Cordova. “It’s the first time ever an APU student has been able to register for classes through their smartphone. This is an actual app that can do that for you easily.”
Another addition to the APU Mobile app is the widgets feature. Students will have the ability to add and remove widgets from their page. This is just one of many new additions designed to make the new app experience easy.
Everything within the app is sleek, simple and straightforward. Simplicity was a big key for the APU Mobile team. They wanted students to be able to access their information quickly and efficiently, without confusion.
“We want students to have an easier way to get to their data, their information and we want them to be more engaged,” said Monte Thigpen, a new member of the team.
Thigpen said that a balance of content and user-friendly characteristics was key. The mobile team didn’t want something similar to the old design since students had a bad taste for it.
The new APU Mobile app makes accessing your school information from your phone convenient. The team feels that it is helpful to have what is available on the home.apu.edu page in a format that is fitted for your phone.
The mobile team is consistently looking for ways to improve the app. The app has already seen 39 new updates in the past nine months. Over time, the app will continue to improve with more feedback and user experience.
User feedback is critical to the success of the app. The APU Mobile team wants to hear what the student body, faculty and staff think about the app. This is why a “Got Ideas?” feature was included in the new menu.
“We will continue to do updates and the more users we have, the more ideas we get, the more we can work with departments to create more features,” Thigpen said.
The new APU Mobile app is available on iOS and Android.