The first day of school has always been a day of excitement and bewilderment as new students file into classes. For many not familiar with the acronyms of Utah State University’s Logan campus, the first day of classes is spent with a student schedule in one hand and a campus map in the other. Utah State now makes it easier for students to find their classes and a whole lot more with the official USU mobile app.
“We saw a need and looked around campus for help developing an official app,”said Trent Hunsaker, USU social media and marketing coordinator. “We were lucky to find great innovators on campus who could tackle such a project.”
Theses innovators make up the team at USU’s Interactive Design for Instructional Applications and Simulations (IDIAS) Institute who were contracted to build the app for both iOS (iPhone) and Android smart phones.
“We had worked with mobile apps specifically tailored for GPS data,” said Brett Shelton, project director of IDIAS, “and we were excited to take on a fully functioning app with many features.”
The app’s features include a campus Google map, complete with building, office and parking information, as well as Aggie Shuttle locations, an Aggie Radio streaming player, Utah State news stories from across campus and athletics, videos, a full calendar for the academic year and events and links to various helpful sites for students, faculty, staff and visitors.
“I’m really happy with our work and the product,” said Shelton. “Our team worked hard, and it shows.”
Shelton’s team consisted of students, staff and faculty from departments of Instructional Technology and Learning Services, Art and Computer Science.
“Mobile apps are evolving quickly,” said Hunsaker. “I think apps could currently be compared to websites of the late вЂ90s. As web designers were contracted to build websites for organizations in the 90s, it didn’t take long for organizations to realize they needed personnel capable of constantly updating these sites. We are going to see smart phone use expand exponentially and we want to make sure we are capable of meeting the needs of our campus community.”
Seeing this similar need for maintenance and continued innovation, the professionals in USU’s Information Technology (IT) department will head up further efforts in the app’s development.
“Mobile app use has grown exponentially,” said Kevin Reeve, IT’s project manager for mobile app development. “I look forward to expanding our capabilities through this platform.”
To download the official USU app, visit https://www.usu.edu/mobileapps/.