Users visiting NIU’s website for its many different resources may have noticed some changes.

“We switched the website in June and gave it a fresh new look,” said Jennice O’Brien, web communication team leader. “This is something that we’d like to do more regularly.”

O’Brien and her team have been developing and designing the new site since the beginning of 2010. The previous one was up since 2006, and it was decided that it needed a face lift to spruce up the web domain.

The website was primarily reorganized to make it easier for users to find and utilize its resources and more appealing, O’Brien said.

O’Brien and her team also implemented a new content management system, a change that users will not notice.

“The new content management system took longer to develop than the actual website,” she said. “It helps us out and makes it easier to manage the content.”

The backend of the website may not affect the users directly, but is able to bring them a more consistent site, O’Brien said. Although the goal was to make the page look fresh and more user-friendly, not all students feel that the change is a positive one.

“The previous [website] was simple and [had] easy-to-find functions,” said Chi Zhang, junior computer science and mathematics major.

Zhang said he noticed the website switch and that it was not displaying correctly on his web browser, a problem, he said, that was fixed quickly by downloading an updated version of the web browser.

Senior geology major Justin Jurgerson didn’t notice any problems with the new website and enjoys the new look.

“It’s visually easier, and it’s really easy to find everything,” Jurgerson said.