As of today, the University's website has a whole new look, designed to help make the site more user-friendly and make information easier to access.

"Many of us have been unhappy with the website for years, it just felt clunky and hard to navigate and especially difficult for people who don't know the University. So we just wanted to make it more accessible and have a smoother look and feel," said interim Provost Paul Courant.

While the underlying information on the site hasn't changed, he said, the new presentation makes it easier to navigate.

"As I look at other universities' websites, I was thinking we ought to have a nice, easy-to-use website, so now we do, one that allows you to get academic information, business information and allows people who are thinking about visiting or applying to find out what they want to know," he said.

He added that he looks forward to seeing what the University community and visitors think of the site. He said he has no doubt that as people use the site, he will receive plenty of feedback.

"One of the great things about Michigan students is that they almost invariably tell us what they think," he said.

Vice President for Communications Lisa Rudgers said the site, which has been under construction for over a year, will have the same subject areas but also have content organized by audience to assist users of the site who might have trouble finding what they're looking for.

"It will be more easily navigated whether you are a member of the campus community or outside of the campus community," she said.

The site is organized in a more intuitive way and has been in trial stages for the past six months, she said.

"We've been testing it for about six months, 200 users who represent faculty, staff, students, prospective students and alumni, who tested the site and gave it lots of good feedback," she said.

The new site also features multimedia, links to audience-specific homepages, a "news-rich emphasis" and a text-only version to assist individuals with visual disabilities and others.

"We're trying to include multimedia features as much as we can. We feel it maximizes the medium itself and presents the University in a very vibrant way," Rudgers said.