>> Overview of the Initial Impressions from General Observations of the SJSU #iSchool Website for the Usability/UX Study...
“Usability is critical for any application, but for mass-market software, usability spells success or failure more clearly than any other feature.” -- Jerrold Grochowe.
Information is Everything:
>> The prominent “Find Your Program” drop-down #menu option gives an immediate overview of academic offerings – each providing highlighted information needs by outlining curriculum, individual program requirements, internship opportunities, student/teacher testimonials, and detailed course offerings.
>> Engaging alumni photos highlight #diversity and person-organization fit – both instrumental and social identity concerns are addressed right up front on the site.
>> Research by Ihme et. al. (2016) in this peer-reviewed study suggests that these important diversity cues articulate to potential students that they can “anticipate fair and #respectful treatment from other students, staff, and faculty.” Furthermore, showing commitment to creating a learning environment for “culturally and socially diverse student populations provides a basis for positive outcomes” ultimately leading to pride in the organization. (Anticipated Respect >> Anticipated Pride)
>> Verbal diversity statement in the decision-making process sends a message that all applicants are welcome. The psychological reaction from this perceived feeling of an #inclusive “person-organization fit” ultimately leads to encouraging program enrollment.
>> Drop-down menu requires some amount of #scrolling to access the multiple options provided on the site. (Needs additional mobile accessibility testing.)
>> “Learn more about our #MLIS Program” with a quick link for signing up to attend our online open house event provides an excellent “Call-To-Action” for prospective candidates.
Why Students Choose Us:
>> This section checks a lot of boxes to communicate confidence for potential students by providing proof of: 100% #online learning; quality and prestige of the program; career assistance; access to award-winning faculty; and, also hints at the overall affordability of tuition costs.
>> “Explore My Options” button once again provides quick access to individual programs, as well as a custom email form for future students to request more information with ease.
>> All of the information needs of #prospective graduate students outlined in Lampley & Owens (2015) website study for the most part seem to be well reflected here in this prominent section.
>> However, the link for “Affordable Programs” does not readily link to the expected financial information required to meet information needs. However, the page does direct to a future student email #webform at the very bottom.
Professional Opportunities and Networking:
>> More options to explore career #trajectories in the industry with links to: professional association student chapters; potential internships; SRJ publications; and Library 2.0 conferences.
>> “News & Events” section gives motivating “up-to-date” #happenings to further suggest institutional prestige and industry relevance in a dynamic fashion.
>> “Alumni, Spotlight, Trending” sections give more detailed coverage of various highlighted areas of interest – providing appealing options with attractive photos as well as additional “click-through” encouragement to delve more deeply into the website offerings.
>> Clicking on the “More #Resources” button leads to critical information on “Student Resources, Registration and Enrollment, Financial Aid, & Internships,” However, this information seems a bit out of place in this particular section on professional opportunities and networking. These important items should probably have more prominent real estate somewhere else on the home page that is cogent and clearly accessible.
A Career in Information:
>> Here once again, prospective students are provided with in-depth information on career pathways, networking, career guidance, self-assessment, internships, and culminates with the impressive “MLIS Skills at Work” PDF with career #trends in the “Career Direction Research” section which includes helpful and detailed information concerning additional professional development for various programs – showing job titles, duties, skills, technology, standards, etc.
>> Also includes strong affirmation with 100% alumni #recommendation (specifically for the MARA program) to encourage additional enrollment success across the board.
>> Winner of multiple #online learning consortium awards once again speaks to the quality and prestige of our institutional prowess.
>> Potential income #expectations for various career pathways are not always as readily accessible in all of the general information provided within these various program links.
Hamburger Menu:
>> Alternative #navigation option for accommodating information needs for prospective students.
>> Site needs to be further assessed for mobile engagement and accessibility with the included menu options. – Considering the fact that our 2020 analytics report from Digital Deployment suggests 38% of our visitors view the site on #mobile/tablet devices with traffic continuing to increase with each passing calendar year.
>> Nielsen & Loranger (2006) in “Prioritizing Web Usability” suggest that websites have as little as 25-35 seconds to convince users that the information they are looking for is available. User impact must be #immediate – and user menu selections should strive to be even more intuitive.
>> For providing quick assistance to accelerate the potentially waning interest of this significant user group, Prospective Students should also have a more prominent link alongside top hyperlink menu options at the upper right: “For Alumni, For Donors, For Employers, & For Faculty”.
>> Furthermore, an unexpected poor user experience negatively impacts the site’s overall #bounce rate… According to this “Website Usability Guide,” once a candidate leaves your site after a bad impression, they are 88% unlikely to ever return. Therefore, much attention needs to be paid to these primary information source menu options.
>> Application and Financial Information are found under “Student Resources” as the 2nd and 7th options respectively.
“The web is the ultimate customer-empowering environment. He or she who clicks the mouse gets to decide everything. It is so easy to go elsewhere; all the competitors in the world are but a #mouseclick away.” -- Jakob Nielsen
Footer Menu:
>> Another #alternative navigation option for accommodating information needs for prospective students.
>> “Contact Us” provides a request #form for making swift information queries – almost acting as an informal impulse buy-in without any worries of potentially failing to later draft a full email to make more formal correspondence with the school.
>> No clearly articulated links to readily find additional useful information for prospective students concerning admissions, application, financial aid, and/or tuition for the program. Should the recruitment need for prospective students have more dedicated links and overall real estate space in all of these various footer menu options?
>> ALA Accreditation is also a very important selling point for enhancing quality and prestige concerns with potential candidates; however, there is no working link to verify this certification with the school’s ALA Accreditation. The #iSchool Organization hyperlink is functioning.
>> Social Media icon links provide additional assistance to prospective students as a very important resource in successful student recruitment. Le et. al. (2019) point out in their peer-reviewed report on electronic “Word of Mouth” that 80% of this user group tend to utilize social media when researching university selections for info search and evaluation of alternatives. Peer testimonials and crowd-sourcing of information hold remarkable psychological weight in the overall decision-making process. Therefore, the #iSchool should consider employing a social listening strategy (also investigating college-aggregator sites, external search engines, as well as Quora and Yahoo Q & A) to better incorporate important questions and concerns that are addressed outside of the traditional website space.
>> Be certain that all of the various Subsites and Microsites for the #iSchool listed in all of these menu options have the same cohesive look and feel as the overall branded theme of the main website.
Search Function:
>> Having a robust #search function is extremely helpful in providing a break from being overburdened with heavy site resource navigation. Furthermore, a strong search functionality helps our users to find relevant content by specifying keywords or phrases without navigating throughout the entire website.
>> This functionality is not only useful for increasing overall #traffic to the site, but can also come to our advantage in other ways. If search algorithms integrate Google Analytics (alongside any dialogue from IT in better understanding universal requests for tech support help tickets), we can then potentially track how often people look for particular terms in search – and anticipate more common IT concerns. This rich analytical data can then be strategically utilized to modify our page content and overall hierarchy of design.
>> In a recent survey by Search Engine Journal, 40% of participants hold search box functions to be more important than anything else!
>> Since mobile devices generate about 51.53% of global website traffic (Source: Statista), it’s important to make sure that our web page design is #responsive and mobile-friendly. In addition, having a good search function can greatly impact our mobile user-experience by enabling them to directly find out what they need to know while on-the-go.
>> When searching the term “#Admissions” – Notifications precede Requirements for prospective students, which seems cognitively a bit “out of order” when wanting to first know the requirements for making application to the program before how the candidate might be notified.
>> With the query “#Application” – the first item in the list speaks to applications of “Blockchain for the Information Professional”. Then, more generalized application procedures are listed over on the second page of search results.
>> “#Financial Aid” brings up an excellent video presentation on better understanding financial aid and scholarships – as well as some helpful tips and FAQs in additional links.
>> “Salary Expectations” brings up out-of-date data for LIS #jobs from the years 2015 and 2018. This useful information should be updated to correspond to 2022 datasets for various professions.
Accessibility Concerns:
>>We need to keep these challenging #needs in the forefront of our usability studies as well.
>> To better accommodate prospective students with a wide array of potential physical and/or cognitive #disabilities, as well as older candidates with possible technical challenges, perhaps we should implement a few “Extreme Users” into the mix of Nielsen’s “five users principle” for broadening our ongoing, iterative research. Understanding the unique needs of this particular subset of the population will ultimately benefit all users in the long run.
>> A basic WAVE Accessibility Analysis of the #iSchool home page produces the following impactful results: 173 Alerts and 97 Structural Elements.
“Form follows function - that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.” -- Frank Lloyd Wright