Unlocking Success: Bucknell’s Centralized Login System
Students and faculty in universities all over the world are busy individuals who value their time greatly. There are assignments to be done, assignments to be graded, emails to be read, and emails to be sent. Many different web-based platforms are visited every hour to accomplish these tasks, so it is important for each user, students and faculty alike, to be able to access each with ease and efficiency.
Here at Bucknell, our gmail accounts, Moodle sites, and myBucknell are among some of the most popular resources that are used by students and faculty. It would be exasperating if we had to log into each platform individually every time we want check an email or look up our schedules. Ergo, Bucknell’s centralized login system.
“Log in once. Log out once.” Oftentimes, I receive and open an email from a professor redirecting me to an assignment they posted on Moodle. Because of this efficient system design I do not have to enter my username and password for a second time in the span of ten minutes to view the posted assignment, which saves me time and frustration.
This design is carried on in Bucknell’s mobile application. In this Bucknell application, users can access all the important information offered by the university, like Academics, Dining, Campus Life, and Events, among many others. If you delve deeper into the Academics portion of the application, the aforementioned platforms such as Moodle and your course schedule can be accessed. When a first platform is chosen, the application asks the user to log in with their username and password once, and you can access a different platform after exiting that one without having to re-enter your credentials. This centralized login system has yet again proven to be a good design.
“Good design makes a product understandable.”
Furthermore, on Bucknell’s student and faculty resources page, there is a catalog of the resources available listed, with a small picture of a lock displayed next to some of the resources. This lock successfully communicates to the user which platforms requires a log in, and in turn, which platforms are included in the centralized login system.
Functional design is not always evident in a product, and whether it is hardware or software being considered, usability is key. We successfully log into these platforms with ease everyday, and some are not even aware that only one login is necessary to access the multiple platforms available to us as part of the centralized login system. There is no additional effort required for the user, which is part of what makes this login system a good design.
