By Elise Harmon, news editor 

NUGO, Northeastern University’s new mobile application, was launched over the summer and now, back at school, students are reacting with both frustration and satisfaction.

Northeastern launched NUGO on iTunes in July and Google Play in late August. It has replaced the previous Northeastern app, which was made unavailable from both stores last week. Students can log into the app with their Northeastern username and password and access information including their schedule, advisors, grades, Husky Card balances and directions to their classes.

NUGO is the first in a series of apps that will meet the needs of Northeastern students and faculty, said Makeda Keegan, the senior assistant director of enrollment systems at Northeastern.

“NUGO was created first because we wanted to put the academic and administrative needs of the students first,” she said.

The mobile application team is now looking for suggestions about possible future apps from students, faculty and staff through its Twitter handle: @mobile_nu.

Development of the app began last fall when the mobile team began reaching out to students, faculty and staff, asking for feedback on the previous app.

“In the older app it was a little difficult [to navigate],”Steve Duncan, director of enterprise application development for Information Technology Services, said. “You would have to navigate two or three levels deep to find your course schedule. With the new app, you really only need to go one or two navigations to find what you need.”

On Tuesday, the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs sent an email to students, informing them about the new app and notifying them that the old one would be removed.

Despite the new features, students are not impressed with the new app, which has a 1.5-star rating on iTunes and 1.9 stars on Google Play. Online, students complained of lagging, white screens and app crashes. Those who didn’t experience technical difficulty seemed positive about what the app offered.

“Compared to the monstrosity that was the NEU mobile app, this is much better,” wrote Google Play user Nick Jones in a review. “Organization is reasonable with a focus on useful functionality. Login seems to be automatic, which is something I’ve always missed. The one problem that is very obvious is the lag.”

Jillian Goeler, a senior theatremajor, agreed that the app had potential but wasn’t impressed with its functionality.

“It just didn’t work for me,” she said, explaining that the app crashed while she was trying to figure out where her first class was. “When it does work, it’s much better than the last one.”

Some students didn’t agree that this app is better on the last.

“I think that the only improvement is that it’s prettier, honestly,” Gabrielle Ulubay, a third-year film and history major, said.

The mobile app team is working to address complaints,Keegan said.

“Part of our charge is to constantly update the app,” she said. “We’re aware of the issues and trying very hard to resolve them.”

Photo by Elise Harmon