When first arriving at The University of Alabama, it’s not hard to see why some call the sprawling, highly populated campus a city within a city.
To help students and others more adeptly navigate the Capstone, UA has rolled out a completely redesigned campus map.
Mike Shelton, assistant vice president for UA Financial Affairs Information Technology and Space Management, said the new map’s features will provide an integrated platform for campus information, including:
- building information
- virtual tours
- live bus routes
- housing
- public safety (blue phones and storm shelters)
- parking lots
- campus construction
“We’ve had a campus map for a while based on Google Maps, which quite frankly had an outdated design,” Shelton said. “The aesthetics and functionality of that map have never been to the level we’d like to see it. We also had very little control of that map. If we wanted to make a change to a road or building we had to deal with Google and it takes months to do that. Those changes will now be done in real time.”
“Having our own, dynamic campus map that we’ve created gives us a much better level of control, allows us to use many options, improves the level of aesthetic, makes it more interactive.”
The new map will be an integrated resource for geospatial related data providing a better user experience and making it more efficient and accurate for the University to manage map content, Shelton said.
Using the New Map
For students using the campus map to search for a building by its code/abbreviation listed on their class schedule, the following steps should be followed:
- Open the search bar in the application.
- Type in the building code/abbreviation (example: “PH” for Reese Phifer Hall).
- Typically the first returned result will be the building that corresponds to the building code/abbreviation searched.
- Strictly for mobile devices, be sure to exit the search and open the search bar again to clear the returned search results from the map.
The platform will also provide embedded links to allow users to visit websites for the programs that are housed in the buildings and other campus information.
Shelton said they’ve been planning a new campus map for about a year and have been working on its implementation for months. That implementation team included UA employees from multiple departments.
The current features of the new campus map are a part of phase 1. Phase 2 will include additional functionality such as wayfinding, additional map orientations, event management functionality and more detailed information on campus programs like athletics. The time frame for phase 2 has not been announced.
A few things about the map are still being fine-tuned. Students who notice any issues with the map are asked to report them to uacampusmap@fa.ua.edu.
Click the images below to view larger images of how the map can work to help you navigate campus.
