Usability of university websites: A systematic review

Abstract

Usability of web sites has been a research area that has been investigated in many genres such as e-commerce, e-government or education. University web sites is one of the specific genres, which requires special attention in terms of usability since they are considered as virtual gateways to students from all over the world. The aim of this study is to evaluate the work done in this specific area to determine the general trends in the usability of university website research and provide useful insights for researchers and practitioners that develops websites for universities or academic institutions. Therefore in the scope of this study usability research conducted on university websites over the last decade, from 2006 to 2016, has been systematically reviewed. 53 papers in total were accessed and investigated. Major findings include that generally studies adapted user-based usability evaluation methods and the most frequently used user-based methods were usability testing and questionnaires. Many of the studies just reported the usability problems rather than providing recommendations for the reported issues. In addition to general usability issues, the most frequently mentioned usability issues were navigation, UI design and information/content quality.