OTDI Assists with Buckeye Link's New Look

Annie Furia | October 13, 2023
The new dashboard for Buckeye Link, showing assignments, grades and more personalized information.

Buckeye Link has debuted a simpler updated look, but one that will be familiar to users of the Ohio State mobile app. As part of a collaborative, cross-university effort to improve the student experience on Buckeye Link, the Web and Mobile Applications team in the Office of Technology and Digital Innovation has simplified the site’s design and built in popular features from the mobile app.  

The changes began with student testing groups in January 2023. The team collected information from students about how they used the previous version of Buckeye Link and what they would like to see changed.  

“We wanted to make sure students were heard throughout the process,” said Grace Tay, a developer in OTDI who worked on the Buckeye Link refresh. “One of the big things we heard from students was how much they liked the (Ohio State) app.” 

The new website echoes the app in its streamlined design, allowing students to go back and forth between the two and get a cohesive experience. Like the app, Buckeye Link also now shows a personalized dashboard of information after logging in, giving students a single place to check grades, upcoming assignments, Buck ID balances and more.  

Even while crafting a clean and intuitive design for the site, the team was careful to preserve all the important features students rely on Buckeye Link for, such as the search function. Lauren McBride, product manager for the redesign, said the team wanted to make sure that no university offices would need to update their instructions to students about using the site.  

“One of our main goals of the project was to update the user experience while maintaining familiar pathways. We wanted to make sure the new site did not cause a disruption to how students are accustomed to operating or the ways campus offices direct students to use the site,” McBride said. 

Plenty of exciting new features are also available on the site, including a section of quick links for popular destinations, additional wellness resources and announcements to notify students of timely information they need to act on. Buckeye Link will also show the same news feed that appears in the Ohio State app to keep students up to date on what’s happening at the university.  

Read more about the updates from Ohio State News and view the redesigned site at buckeyelink.osu.edu.