The redesign of My.TCU.edu will make navigation easier and the portal more appealing, Director of Enterprise Application Services Josh Harmon said.

After going to a conference last summer and looking at other universities’ portals, Harmon and his team decided it was time for a change. The last update to the portal was in 2003, he said.

“When we realized it was nine years since we’ve really took a look at it we thought a lot has changed in the internet world during that time and it really needed a face lift,” Harmon said.

A task force of about 15 people met every week to work on the new portal since January, Harmon said. This task force included staff from Enterprise Application Services and other university staff members.

The task force examined about 30 different portals. TCU’s new portal is similar to Notre Dame’s but mixed with an iPhone app feel.

One of the biggest changes is a TCU original idea. There will be a timely links area, which will include links to currently relevant places. For example, the “Add/Drop” feature and the parking permit link will appear during the beginning of the semester.

“We thought to ourselves ‘we can do a lot better’ and I think we have,” Harmon said.

There were a couple of focus groups that included students, faculty and staff. The members of the focus groups were hesitant about the change but once they saw the change they were excited about the easiness of it, Harmon said.

My.TCU will be unavailable on Wednesday starting at 7 p.m. until midnight as they begin the launch.