Usability Review of UC Website

Dr Jeff Johnson and Ken Beatson

UI Wizards Inc and University of Canterbury, respectively

Fri Oct 20 15:10:00 NZDT 2006 in Room 031, MSCS

Abstract

Students in COSC225 (Human-Computer Interaction), were given an assignment to describe a usability problem on the UC website and suggest how to resolve it. The 80 students scrutinized pages and user-tasks, covering much of the UC website and its related sites. They reported a large number of usability problems - usability design flaws as well as implementation bugs - and proposed many improvements.

The UC website clearly has been designed and implemented with care, commendable goals, and high production values. Nonetheless, the site has many usability problems that hinder students, prospective students, staff, and others in their attempts to use it to obtain information and perform tasks.

In the spirit of constructive criticism, we offer our findings and suggestions to the University. Attending to the problems identified and recommendations offered in this report would help improve the UC website significantly.

Ken Beatson, UC Web Manager, will conclude the presentation by describing ongoing initiatives that address some of the problems identified by the students.