This means participating in discussions and analyzing data to glean insights into who is using our sites and what their goals are. Over the past months we've been involved in a number of related projects and initiatives:Â
- UX testing in the Faculty of Engineering:
- Usability testing, December 2016
- Focus group testing, February 2017
- In-depth statistics analysis, February 2017
- Usability testing in the Faculty of Arts, February 2017
- Focus Group testing the Faculty of Arts, March 2017
- Focus Group testing on the UG Skills website, April 2017
- UX testing on Desautels Programs web pages, upcoming
While we're still in the early stages of gaining a better understanding of UX on our WMS sites, there are a few patterns that are beginning to emerge.
Note: As we've focused on faculty sites so far, these observations mainly pertain to faculty audiences, other kinds of sites may have very different audiences and behaviours.
Who is visiting our websites?
It should come as no surprise that the primary audience for most faculty sites is prospective students. When analyzing faculty sites' analytics, we commonly find that the largest percentage of site traffic is from first time visitors who are viewing content geared towards prospective students. These visitors are often looking for information about departments and programs, as well as admissions information. Another audience of key importance is current students, though this audience tends to navigate site content very differently. Additional significant audience groups include faculty and staff, alumni, and external audiences.
Current students' use of search
Unlike prospective students who might browse your web pages looking for information using your site menus, current students often tell us that they access information mainly by searching Google or other search engines. What's more, current students usually visit faculty and department sites infrequently, mainly going to specific pages at certain times of year - e.g. to view course and program information during registration, to obtain support information during the exam period, or to get details about specific upcoming events.
What's the "About" section about?
Although prospective students may be very interested in learning all about your faculty and the programs it offers, they don't necessarily expect to find this information in the "About" section of your website. Unfortunately, as the "About" menu item frequently appears in the far left of the horizontal menu, the position of highest visibility, it sometimes devalues menu items of higher relevance. In most of our recent web projects, we've had to carefully consider the position of this menu item and assess the content located under "About", removing or re-locating information that may be of little relevance to our key audiences.
UX testing on your WMS website
University websites are often filled with complicated information that is difficult to organize. There's no magic bullet for addressing all the user experience issues that may surface on our WMS sites, but we can establish processes for evaluating and improving site UX on an ongoing basis.
Interested in getting to know your site visitors better? Want to restructure your site to provide your visitors with a better user experience? To request assistance, contact the .
