Contents and Architecture of Nigerian Universities’ Websites

Abstract

The study adopted information needs analysis theory to carry out analysis of the content of websites of 50 Nigerian universities. Two broad categories of possible website contents-official and everyday life information contents were identified and analyzed. It also adopted the Watson Addy Web Architecture test to carry out architecture analysis of the websites in the following areas: language syntax, style, spelling accuracy, down speed, file types and search engine compatibility using meta tag availability. The study was motivated by the growing interest of researchers in the role website content and architecture play in achieving high web usability. The findings exposed salient weaknesses like wrong domain name adoption, errors in syntax, poor style, spelling mistakes and non-availability of meta tags in the websites. In addition, the websites did not contain most of the official and everyday information expected to be in a university website. Based on the outcome of the study, Nigerian universities' websites can be generally categorized as having meager content and defective architecture. The paper presents recommendations for the improvement of contents and architecture of the websites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]