Website review

Introduction

Bournemouth university website is an information gateway used by students all around the world to apply for different courses offered by the university which is based in the United Kingdom. Bournemouth University has an excellent reputation for creating employment opportunities thus anchoring the economy while offering learning opportunities to many students all around the world (Blakiston, 2015). The current Bournemouth university success has been stimulated by world-class research, inspirational teaching, and use of the latest technology to share knowledge to enhance critical thinking and creative thinking. The university’s strategic plan (2012-2018) is based on four major themes which are;

• People- both the students and the staff are encouraged to network in order to share knowledge and enhance research.
• Finance- the university launched a yearly $3 million budget to fund a wide range of activities that are geared towards the delivery of quality services for both staff and students.
• Inspiration- the students are exposed to a variety of learning platforms that involve professional guidance to create a unique experience academically (Blakiston, 2015).
• Environment- the university has created the conducive learning environment which is friendly to students from all walks of life.

Executive summary

The usability test was done onsite at Bournemouth university campus in the United Kingdom where three users of the university website were interviewed on their user experience. The main purpose of the usability test was to identify the various challenges that students encounter during choosing a course choice offered by Bournemouth University. This test was carried out on 11th November 2016 around the campus (Barnum, 2011). Each test session took about an hour where questionnaires were issued to the individuals. According to the information provided by the participants, the majority of the students have experienced difficulties while accessing the university website. Some of the main challenges experienced are caused by lack of a pamphlet sheet section, the absence of location index, and lack of classification of news articles on the news folio.

This essay covers the respondent’s feedback, the rates of completion, approval ratings, struggle or the easiness of completion ratings, time per task, the inaccuracies, and how to improve the user experience. Details of the questionnaires issued to the individuals are included in the report.

Methodology

The test proprietor recruited random students who were walking around the campus. He explained the test logistics to users before recruiting the most resourceful participants for the usability test. The test proprietor made use of the hallway user test design methodology to administer questionnaires to participants. In each individual session, the respondents were asked to provide their views about the Bournemouth university website access and information flow including the challenges, course definition, and effectiveness of the website to outside users. Thereafter the test proprietor provided the respondents with questionnaires to fill out (Blakiston, 2015).

After the respondents completed the task, the proprietor asked them to rate the university website on a 5-point scale (strongly approve to strongly disagree) using the following parameters.

• Site access time
• Organization of the site
• The content of the site
• The sites look and feel appeal
• Ease of finding information
• How frequent the website is accessed
• Difficulty in navigation through the website
• The ability of the user to learn to use the website

The above parameters were used to test for effectiveness, efficiency, learnability, and satisfaction of Bournemouth University website.

In addition, the test proprietor asked the participants what they liked most about the website and the recommendations they would give for enhancement of the website.

Issues found

User complexity

Bournemouth University website has many design elements which contain numerous subtitles with diverse background information. The site users find it complex to retrieve specific information on the site (Wilson, 2014). A load of information present on the website also makes the user lose focus of what had initially made them access the website. This problem was classified as a trivial challenge.

Lack of user engagement

For a website to be effective there should be maximum engagement between the user and the website. Such engagements create user-friendly environments that enable the user to enjoy full benefits of their user experience (Chisnell et al., 2013). Bournemouth University website lacks a one on one level of engagement where a user can contact the university directly through a working dialogue platform which response timely. This problem was classified as critical by the respondents. 

The site takes time to load

Bournemouth University website takes a lot of time to load creating a frustrating user experience. While the user waits for the website to load, they might give up on accessing the website therefore, the university loses potential students. For instance, when a user applies for a course and the website delays to respond the user opts for another effective option. This challenge was classified as significant by the respondents. 

Learning difficulties for first time user

Bournemouth University website has a difficult first time learning user experience due to its many designs that make the user navigation challenging. It is difficult for a first time user to find a course of choice from the university website since it does not provide brief first-hand information linking the course code and its details. This challenge was classified as trivial. 

Inadequate information on course application procedure

The information provided on the university website for course application is inadequate. For a complete course application procedure, the user must contact the University to get full information about an application (Wilson, 2014). This process presents dozens of challenges especially for the international students since the charges are high through the telephone services. When a user contacts the university through the email address, it takes a long time to get a response, therefore, making the user opt for another close university where access is simpler and timely. This challenge was classified as trivial.

Lack of efficient contact information

Bournemouth University website provides telephone contacts details that the user can communicate to the campus. Some of these telephone details are inactive while others are kept on hold for a long time than usual (Chisnell et al., 2013). This creates a bad user experience, therefore, making the user feel frustrated and discouraged to further pursue their goal of applying for a chance into the university. This challenge was classified as significant.

Remedies on the issues facing the website

Less complexity

Bournemouth University website should contain fewer design elements which make the users stay on focus to find their intended information timely.

Effective user engagement

The website should have a dialogue platform where the user can engage on one on one with the university to enhance maximum information delivery.

Effective contact information

Bournemouth University contact information provided on the website should be active for the user to contact them easily (Chisnell et al., 2013). The campus phone communication personnel should not put users on hold for a long time as these increases the chances of a user becoming a student at the university.

Provision of adequate information

When a user needs to apply for a course at Bournemouth University, the application process should be simple and clear to reduce time wastage as he/she navigates to find the right choice. All the information regarding the user’s choice of career should be available for guidance and inspiration purposes.

Less loading time

Every user needs a fast to load the website in order to reduce on time spent while accessing any information they need. Bournemouth university website is slow therefore it discourages users from accessing it often. Necessary changes should be made to increase the speed of accessing information from the website (Barnum, 2011). The login details should only be used by the current students since a user does not have to struggle while he/she is not even a student in the university. Users become discouraged when one is asked to provide details of him/her by a site in order to view what is expected. 

Conclusion

Most of the respondents found the website to be effective in nature considering its looks and appeal to the general users. This in a way attracts various users to the website but on accessing it the user becomes discouraged by the many unattractive details provided in-depth. For every website, the users should find it easy to navigate through the content thereby making it effective to find the information needed (Wilson, 2014). Bournemouth University should improve on their website in order to increase the service delivery to the users all around the world.

References

Barnum, C. M. (2011). Usability testing essentials: Ready, set-- test!. Amsterdam: Morgan Kaufmann      Publishers.

DUXU (Conference), Marcus, A., & International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. (2013).      Design, user experience, and usability: Web, mobile, and product design : second international               Conference, DUXU 2013, held as part of HCI International 2013, Las Vegas, NV, USA, July 21-26,               2013, Proceedings. Berlin: Springer.

Goldacre, B. (2010). Bad science: Quacks, hacks, and big pharma flacks. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.

Dawson, A., & Beasley, K. (2009). Getting startED building websites. New York?: Friends of ED.

Lee, I. (2016). Encyclopedia of e-commerce development, implementation, and management. Hershey:    Business Science Reference.

Chisnell, D., Rubin, J., & Spool, J. (2013). Handbook of usability testing: Howto plan, design, and conduct effective tests. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.

Wilson, C. (2014). User interface inspection methods: A user-centered design method.

Blakiston, R. (2015). Usability testing: A practical guide for librarians.

Reilly, P. A., & Williams, T. (2006). Strategic HR: Building the capability to deliver. Aldershot: Gower.

In Leal, F. W., In Brandli, L., In Kuznet︠s︡ova, O., & In Paço, A. M. F. (2014). Integrative approaches to            sustainable development at university level: Making the links.