What does Web Usability have to do with Higher Education?
When the average consumers fire up their Web browsers to do some power shopping online, imagine what would happen if they landed on your website and had trouble locating the products they were looking for? What would happen if your customers wanted to purchase $500 worth of merchandise but could not locate their “shopping cart” or, worse yet, they could not figure out how to log in to make a secure payment because the payment instructions weren’t clear?
Would your customers get frustrated and shop at another site? Would they find the necessary instructions or assistance on your web site in order to complete their purchase, or would they simply close their browser window and try another vendor? What if your customer is a student trying to register for a class, pay registration, or find financial aid information? They might miss out on deadlines or other valuable, time-sensitive information.
While Web site content and design is critical to all businesses today, it is equally important in Higher Education. An institution’s Web site is the virtual front door to the college or university, and, therefore, it must not only effectively communicate with students, faculty, and staff, but also with prospective students and their parents. Often, a Web site provides a visitor’s first impression of an institution and sets a precedent for how the visitor will be treated there. Are his needs being anticipated? Are your students stumbling around your website, blindly hoping to find information?
Creating and maintaining an institution’s web site is a challenging and complex task Many departments have a vested interest in the message and design of the Web site; Marketing, Admissions, Registrar, Student Services, Faculty and Staff, and Alumni, to name a few.
Providing clear information for perspective students is critical as students can access virtually thousands of institutions within minutes by simple clicks of the mouse. Positive first impressions are crucial to starting a strong relationship, and a few clicks down the wrong path can steer students to another site, another school.
Because students also expect to have electronic access to registration, classes, email and grades, proper design and testing is critical in order to support students’ needs.
Faculty and staff also depend on the institution’s web site to manage courses and promote programs, so the web site support their needs as well. In addition, Alumni and Advancement offices use the web site to collect donations and memberships. It should be easy for donors to give and simple for their orders to be processed—wouldn’t donors be more likely to give and wouldn’t the money get to its destination quicker if the process were as simple and efficient as possible?
Now consider this: How do you think your students would rate your web site’s usability? Dynamic Campus can assist your institution in evaluating how your students and perspective student percieve the functionality and usablity of your Web Site, contact us today for additional information.
Tags: Higher Education Websites, Usability, web design, web navigation