Assessing usability of University websites in meeting the expectations of students: a survey of literature

Abstract

University websites are gateways to display resources offered by an institution (Mentes, 2012). As such first impression, attractiveness, controllability, helpfulness, efficiency and learnability as defined by Website analysis and measurement inventory (WAMMI) (Jabar et al., 2013) is critical in the design of websites. Unfortunately, most Universities Websites design are often driven by technology, organizational structure, or institution's objectives, rather than by its usability from the perspective of students (Undu & Akuma, 2018). This reduces chances of converting a prospective student into a current student after failing to get inquiries into enrollment opportunities in the university. To increase the usability of University websites it is necessary to increase the visibility and accessibility of all website related content. This result into the need of evaluating university websites a process that is very vague and a times usually unknown to most developers, which adversely then impacts the student experience when visiting such websites.  To address this problem, standard usability metrics need to be considered to examine the university websites to analyze whether these websites are able to meet the requirements of customer number one who is the student. These metrics comprise of ease of use (simplicity), design (layout), navigation, organization, communication and content. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used by different researchers to evaluate processes involved by analyzing questionnaires responded to by students after browsing several university websites. In addition, various technological innovations aimed at increasing and improving the web presence were used which involved re-designing of websites using the latest state of the art technologies so as to improve its usability as well as use of automated tools like Web Accessibility checker, HERA and WAVE. After reviewing different literature a valuable insight on key Usability, attributes for websites are noted to be of essence in designing website to meet students’ expectations.