LOUIE’s New Look

You’ll be able to access your LOUIE account as usual!  When you log in, you’ll see the new homepage and the tile menu for quicker access to much of your student information compared with the “old” Student Center.  If you need to see information about your classes, click on the “Manage Classes” tile for a list of related links.  Looking for your Financial Aid information?  Click on the “Financial Aid” tile for related information.  You’ll also see a “LOUIE Training” tile that will provide you with an overview of how to navigate in LOUIE.

If you don’t want to explore the new look and feel just yet, you can click on the “Classic Home” tile located on the Navigation Bar to bring up the “old” menu navigation in LOUIE.

You’ll notice that while using the “classic” navigation, the breadcrumbs that used to appear in the upper menu bar area are no longer available.  For this reason, we recommend using the “Navigator” tile that’s located on the navigation bar instead.

The new navigator menu is similar to the classic navigation, but it is better equipped to allow you to move up and down the menu tree.  The navigator is also very important because you’ll use it to access many other pages within LOUIE that are not included in the homepage/tile navigation.

Students will see a new “Student Home” and tiles when they login to LOUIE on Monday, November 22, 2021. 

For most students, this will be the only home page available to you in LOUIE.  Some of our students are also student employees at NAU – For those students, you will have an “HR Home” as well with tiles associated for payroll, time approvals, etc.  For our graduate students who may also serve in a faculty-type role, you’ll have an additional “Faculty/Advisor Home” with access to tiles to assist in those roles/responsibilities.

What if I can’t find what I’m looking for?

If you can’t find what you’re looking for in the tiles, you can always use the search feature (on the menu bar, magnifying glass icon) and enter a few keywords.  Several results will be returned relevant to your search criteria.

If you STILL don’t see what you’re looking for, don’t forget about the “Classic Home” tile on the navigation bar!  This will bring you back to the “old” menu and navigation.

What do I need to know?

If you are also a student employee, you will see your student home page when you login to LOUIE as your default home page.  If you look at the top navigation bar, you’ll see an arrow in front of the home page title.  By clicking on this down arrow, you’ll see a list of any additional home pages you may have access to within LOUIE.  Look for the HR Home page in that list and select it to view your HR-related tiles such as reporting time, payroll information, etc. based on your role as an NAU employee.

Please note – while this information appears in LOUIE, you can think of the HR Home page and the tiles on it as “hot links” that take you into NAU’s PeopleSoft Human Capital Management (HCM) or “HR” system.  In order to get back to your student home page in LOUIE, there will be a tile on the navigation bar that says “Take me to LOUIE.”  Click on this tile to link back over to LOUIE.

What do I need to know?

If you are also a student faculty/advisor, you will see your student home page when you login to LOUIE as your primary home page.  If you look at the top navigation bar, you’ll see an arrow in front of the home page title.  By clicking on this down arrow, you’ll see a list of any additional home pages you may have access to within LOUIE.  Look for the Faculty/Advisor Home page in that list and select it to change your home page.  You should now see tiles linking you to the faculty center and/or advisor center based on your role(s) at NAU.

I can’t find what I need and I’m in a hurry!  Where did my stuff go?

If you’re in a hurry – Select the “Classic Home” tile on the navigation bar and you’ll see the “old” menu that you’re used to.  You’ll be able to find what you need in the same place as you did before.  HOWEVER, we strongly encourage you to become familiar with the new homepage, tile and navigation tools when you have more time.  You can select the “LOUIE Training” tile for help how to use the new features.

In addition to the new look/feel and navigation, what else changed?

Nothing has changed “under the hood.”  Once you get to your desired page(s), they’ll function the same way as usual!  You may notice that some of the pages look a little different and are easier to use on your phone, but beyond that, you won’t notice much of a difference in LOUIE.

Can I get to everything in LOUIE from the home pages and tiles?

No.  There are thousands of navigations and pages within these systems, many of which are only accessed by a few employees as part of their day-to-day responsibilities.  The home page and tile navigation were created for quick access to the most commonly used, self-service features within these applications.  To access other pages, you should use the navigator tile located on the navigation bar.

What are the banner icons?

There are three main banner icons:

1. Home – this brings you to the main home page
2. Action List Menu (three, vertical dots) displays the following menu items:
   1. Add to Homepage, Add to NavBar, Add to Favorites.  This will add the current page to the selected destination.
   2. My Preferences.
   3. Sign out.
3. Compass (Navigation Bar) provides the following items:
   1. Recent Places.
   2. My Favorites.
   3. Navigator: new way to navigate the menu options.
   4. Classic Home: takes you to the classic LOUIE interface.

When I select a tile and click on a link, it looks like an “old” page that doesn’t work well on my phone and/or tablet.  Why?

In this first phase of updating LOUIE’s look and feel, we built the framework with new homepages and tiles reflecting the new navigation model.  Over time, we’ll be releasing more pages using the “new look” that work better on your mobile/tablet devices.

Have you downloaded our award-winning NAUgo App?  Remember, for many of the student center informational features, you can access them via the NAUgo App available for both Apple iOS and Android.

Who decided which tiles we have and how they are organized?

Project team members from across the institution held meetings with various user groups across campus, gathering feedback about tiles and navigation collections to help inform the design of the homepages and tiles.  Student focus groups will also be engaged to provide their feedback on the homepage and tile layouts.

Will my “Favorites” still be there?

Yes.  Favorites can be accessed by clicking on the navigation icon in the upper right hand menu bar.

You can also add NEW favorites by clicking on the three dots in the upper right hand menu and then clicking on Add to Favorites.

Where did my “Breadcrumbs” go?

With the new look and feel, breadcrumbs are no longer available.  The vendor has received so many requests for this feature to be restored that we do expect this to return in a future release.

Can the Navigator feature be alphabetized?

Unfortunately, the menu items in the Navigator feature can’t be alphabetized at this time.  The vendor has received so many requests for this feature that we do expect this in a future release.

Can I still “Open a New Window” while working in LOUIE?

Yes.  Currently administrative pages continue to have a link to open a new window in the upper right hand corner under the menu bar.  As more “fluid” pages are delivered, this feature may no longer be available.  We will continue to research this as changes are made to the system.