Reports
The following publications are in-depth usability studies into specific research areas.
A usability assessment of New Zealand university websites (June 2004)
Summary
This 61-page report compares the usability of New Zealand university websites when measured against 155 general and university-specific usability criteria. Using a large number of examples (including 49 images) we explore what universities do wrong and what they do right and list practical recommendations for improvement.
Target Audience
This report is essential reading for any tertiary institution in NZ or overseas. It also provides valuable information for website owners with sites whose pages number in the tens of thousands.
Executive Summary excerpt
...our research shows that New Zealand universities are only complying with about half of today's best-practice usability guidelines. Even the best sites in the country score no higher than 67% when we measure their compliance against 155 usability checkpoints.
General aspects on which the sites scored poorly include:
- excessive use of pop-up windows
- lack of design consistency
- basic mistakes with forms (such as error messages, examples, help, setting expectations)
- use of university jargon
- a non-intuitive site structure
- lack of indication of the user's current location in the site
The results of the analysis are shown in the graph below.
Figure 1. The combined totals for general and university-specific usability scores.
Table of contents
- Executive summary
- Positive findings
- Negative findings
- Methodology
- Method
- Limitations of this study
- Findings and recommendations
- Overall
- Sites we tested
- Functionality
- Additional functionality
- Design
- Content
- The future of university websites
- About the author
Appendix A. General usability ratings
Appendix B. University-specific ratings
Appendix C. Student intranet functionality
Appendix D. Online learning systems
Appendix E. Bibliography and references
Appendix F. Contact information
Cost
NZ$800 (excluding GST)
