FACULTY OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA KEDAH
BACHELOR OF INFORMATION SCIENCE (HONS)
LIBRARY MANAGEMENT (IM244)
IMS556:
INFORMATION SYSTEMS INTERACTION AND CONSULTATION
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
PREPARED FOR:
SIR ZOOLHILMIE MOHAMED SAWAL
PREPARED BY:
NUR HAFZHAN BINTI MD AZANI
KIM2445D
TABLE OF CONTENT
CONTENT
PAGES
BACKGROUND
1-2
CONTENT
3-4
DESIGN AND AESTHETICS
5-6
DISCLOSURE OF AUTHORS, SPONSORS, DEVELOPERS
7
CURRENCY
8
EASE OF USE AND LINKS
9-10
ACCESSIBILITY AND AVAILABILITY
11-12
ATTRIBUTION AND DOCUMENTATION
13
INTENDED AUDIENCE
14
CONTACT ADDRESSES AND USER SUPPORT
15-16
CONCLUSION
17
REFERENCES
18-20
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to Sir Zool who gave me the
golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic and make me came to know about
so many new things. I am really thankful to him.
Secondly i would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in
finalizing this assignment within the limited time frame. And our class rep, Nur Hafizah for
compiling this assignment.
National University of Malaysia Website Evaluation
By Nur Hafzhan binti Md Azani (2019672668)
The National University of Malaysia (UKM) is a public university located in Bandar Baru
Bangi, Selangor which is at south of Kuala Lumpur. Its teaching hospital, Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) is located in Cheras and also has a branch campus in Kuala
Lumpur. It is the among the most prestigious universities in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.[citation
needed] There are 17,500 undergraduate students enrolled, and 5,105 postgraduate students of
which 1,368 are foreign students from 35 countries.
National University of Malaysia is one of six research universities in the country. It was
ranked number 259th in the world by QS World University Rankings in 2014. It is ranked 98th
place in the 100 best new universities established within the last 50 years in the world. It is the
only university from Malaysia that made it in the 2012 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Top 50
Universities Under 50 Years Old list ranked in the 31st place. It placed 56th and 56th in the QS
Top 500 Asian University Rankings in 2014 and 2015 respectively. It is ranked at 160th position
in world in the 2020 QS World University Rankings making it a top tier university internationally.
1
UKM
have its
own website like any other
universities. The address
is
https://www.ukm.my/portal/. This university website aim at providing up-to-date information and
services to students, lecturers, administrators and other users in efficient ways. Unfortunately, for
some of universities website building is often driven by technology, organisational structure, or
business objectives, rather than by its usability from the perspective of students in university
Website designers end up developing websites which do not meet the needs of the primary users
(students). Thus, this report will evaluate the university web site from various criteria. This aim is
achieved by analysing the website defined by 11 criteria which is ;
1.
Content
2.
Design and aesthetics
3.
Disclosure of authors, sponsors, developers
4.
Currency of information
5.
Authority of source
6.
Ease of use
7.
Accessibility and Availability
8.
Links
9.
Attribution and documentation
10.
Intended audience
11.
Contact addresses and user support
2
Content
I identified six specific usability problems on the UKM’s website regarding its content,
The first is related to the fact that old information was presented on the site's pages. The pages on
the website which commonly had this problem were: events and news (for eight faculties), the
announcements page (for seven faculties), and faculty members’ corner page (for two faculties).
The announcements page of the Faculty of Business, which displays an outdated announcement.
Secondly, number of problems with regard to incomplete information. Example of this
problem include:
•
There was missing information regarding the name of the current dean and current
chairman on the message from the dean and message from the chairman pages,
respectively, for three faculties and 30 departments on the site.
•
Few courses were displayed on the course pages of 18 departments. For example, the
course page for the Health Recreation Department in the Faculty of Physical Education
displayed information about only three courses
•
There were very few courses that had descriptions when selected from the course pages
covering 16 departments.
•
There was missing information about the faculty staff on the faculty staff pages of 75
departments; this related to all the faculties of the university.
The third problem related to empty pages. The pages which most commonly suffered from
this problem on the UKM’s website were: the photo gallery pages of 50 departments relating to
13 faculties; the vision and mission pages of 18 departments; the message from the chairman pages
of 16 departments; and the program pages of 11 departments.
3
The fourth problem is inappropriate content. Examples of these problems include: crowded
pages (e.g. the home page of the University website); repetition of content (e.g. the overview, and
vision and mission pages for the Faculty of Business); concise content; and irrelevant information
I also found the problem related to the written accuracy of the site’s content in term of
punctuation and grammar. Examples of pages with spelling errors were all the pages related to the
Department of Management Information Systems. The upper header and the upper path displayed
on the pages of this department had spelling errors in the name of the department.
4
Design and aesthetics
This website design is usable to their students and other staff. The websites contain all the
basic features/components in them. The following usability features were considered in the web
design category:
•
Sitemap: A sitemap provides an outline of all the resources of the website with navigation.
It is organised with pages information, arranged by topic or categories. Thus, it provides a quick
view of the website to the students. It also helps students to find the specific information path
under certain categories of web content.
•
Contact information: The contact webpage contains the contact information of the
university’s faculty. This information should be visible to students.
•
Print option: The printing facility enables the students to take prints directly from web
pages whenever they require.
•
Concise News and Events: The News & Events page provides the latest updates about the
university’s activities. The website should provide clear and concise news & events details on a
separate webpage instead of adding the complete description in the home page and provide the
link in the main menu also.
•
Multiple Language Support: The website can be translated in different languages to make
it more usable for its users. The international websites should contain web translator option in their
websites.
➢ Page Design Layout
The structure of the webpage is accurate. There is relevant information in each web page according
to web content, page heading, page titles and other features. The following usability features were
available in rhis website.
•
Accurate Page title: The web developer really considers these small issues occurring in the
websites and also provide an accurate page title which depicts the whole content of the webpage.
•
Page headings: The web developer also gave serious consideration to page headings. He
developed web pages with clear headings which portray the whole theme of their web pages.
5
•
Page scrolling: The Page Scrolling option is used to move the page up and down. The
website contain the “top” and “bottom” option which will provide the ease to access the web
content quickly.
•
Design Consistency: it is necessary to design a consistent web page in order to increase the
usability of the website. The web developer provide the same design layout and color scheme for
the entire website. It can prevents the user to distract his attention which causes frustration
•
Adequate text‐to‐background contrast: The website designed in such a way that there must
be an effective text to background contrast. The background colour also not sharp which not creates
an obstacle in reading the text.
•
Font size/spacing is easy to read: The font size and font spacing increase the usability of
the website by increasing the legibility.
Language translator
6
Disclosure of authors, sponsors, developers
This website was built by UKM’s information technology team. There is no much
information about the team but they seek to establish standards that will: support the vision,
mission, goals, and traditional academic values of the university; assist web publishers in
developing sites that comply with university policies, rules, and regulations, and local, state, and
federal laws; and facilitate the official business of the university and appropriate online
transactions.
This applies to: websites located on https://www.ukm.my/portal/, the official website of
the university, faculty, staff, and student pages on servers connected to the campus
network;websites conducting university business; and web pages located on servers within the
domain. Websites located on it computing and network resources are limited to official, course,
organization, and personal sites. These websites are prohibited from hosting pages on behalf of
individuals and organizations that are not affiliated with the university.
This website complied with all applicable laws and university policies governing personal
privacy and the confidentiality of information, to protect both on- and off-campus users. Service
agreements that outsource data processing activities to third-party vendors must ensure compliance
with appropriate privacy and confidentiality regulations. Sites collecting personally identifiable
information must link to the Privacy Statement.
Commercial activities on the web comply with all university policies, including those on
security, privacy, and financial business practices. Sites collecting personally identifiable
information must link to the Privacy Statement.
7
Developer’s name
Currency of information
Currency of this websites is up to date because there are many new information uploaded
in the news section. There are some older source but this source will help reader, especially when
reader want to establish historical context of what happen in the universities, but in many situation
you want to find the most recent information. It is easy to determine the date of publication on
some sources, Keep in mind that better sources will contain a date because the developers/person
in charge are concerned with giving their audience as much information as possible. This website
is an example of having a good person in charge. For example, many news publications will almost
always contain a date. It contain dates, even if it is just the year of publication. If you don’t see a
date at the beginning of the material you are examining, scroll to the absolute bottom of the page
where you will often find copyright information. Here you will normally find a year of publication
and/or update, too. On this website, All the news article have dates because the site publishes new
material frequently, so reader would be able to have an exact date.
8
Current news
9
Ease of use and links
A better navigation structure helps students to find their required data easily with less effort. The
usability features mentioned below were considered in navigation of the website:
•
Navigation Links connect web pages and other related information with each other and
from one page to another. The web pages can be connected internally or externally. The main
menu created up to a maximum of 3 levels’ hierarchy and the links are not broken.
•
Clarity in navigation/links labeling: The label of links shows that where you will be
directed after a click on it. The links are labeled with great attention and provide accurate labeling
for each link. For example, a link is labeled as “Contact Us” and after the click it directs you to the
page that have contact information the university.
•
Link logo to homepage: The website provide logo linked to the website’s home page for
quick access.
•
Home page navigation in the main menu: The website provide a link to the home page in
the main menu. It will help users to access the website’s main page easily. The reason behind this
is that, because most of the users are familiar with home page as the main page and they access it
more frequently.
Contact Us page
10
Accessibility and Availability
This website is fundamentally designed to work for all people, whatever their hardware,
software, language, location, or ability. When the website meets this goal, it is accessible to people
with a diverse range of hearing, movement, sight, and cognitive ability.
Thus, the impact of disability is radically changed on the website because it removes
barriers to communication and interaction that many people face in the physical world.
This accessibility is essential for developers and organizations that want to create highquality websites and web tools, and not exclude people from using their products and services.
This web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the Web, including:
➢ auditory
➢ cognitive
➢ neurological
➢ physical
➢ speech
➢ visual
This website accessibility also benefits people without disabilities, for example:
➢ People using mobile phones, smart watches, smart tvs, and other devices with small
screens, different input modes, etc.
➢ People with “temporary disabilities” such as a broken arm or lost glasses
➢ People with “situational limitations” such as in bright sunlight or in an environment where
they cannot listen to audio
➢ People using a slow Internet connection, or who have limited or expensive bandwidth
It is essential that the Web be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal
opportunity to people with diverse abilities. Access to information and communications
technologies, including the Web, is defined as a basic human right in the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD).
11
This website offers the possibility of unprecedented access to information and interaction
for many people with disabilities. That is, the accessibility barriers to print, audio, and visual media
can be much more easily overcome through web technologies.
Accessibility for disable user
For mobile users
12
Attribution and documentation
The sources in this website are reliable and current since it was managed by the university itself.
This website was checked to ensure that their content complied with the guidelines of disclosure
as stipulated by the university. It was ascertained that this website were fully compliant in
publishing essential information relating to strategic goals, for the following activities:
➢ teaching and learning
➢ scientific research
➢ continuous education/training.
➢ student admission and registration
➢ e-learning
➢ online discussion fora
➢ internet access to library facilities
➢ student-related social services, like counselling.
Intended audience
With the increasing usage of mobile devices (mobile usage has now surpassed desktop
usage), this website is responsive and mobile-friendly. The prospective students are likely
searching for college-related information via the Internet on their smartphones
This website make it easy for your students to find it. To do this, this website content is
optimized for search engines. Include keywords that their target audience might be using in their
search.Once prospective students land on this site, they provide them with an intuitive user
experience. This site’s navigation are logical for all of the target audience groups, but it easy-tounderstand for the prospective students. They shouldn’t have to dig to figure out how to apply.
13
Contact addresses and user support
This page have include all contact addresses and user support in their website. Having a
user page this website can save time. Just think about how much time it would take to resolve a
simple issue or a question that is very often asked? It might take up more than 15 minutes each
time.
Also, it increase the customer satisfaction level if they show them that this website care
about their time and struggles. Showing a customer that you value their time is very important. So
make sure you share not just the basic information about how to use a website but also some tips
that are not as obvious.
More to it, this will leave users with a better customer experience about this university
which is very important. As you know, reviews and recommendations between friends and
colleagues play a very influential role these days.
14
Conclusion
A university’s website now is an important tool in the information gathering stage in the
consumer decision making process. Potential students’ first impressions are influenced
electronically via the website. A university’s web presence is extremely important because
visiting the website first is found to be a precursor to visiting the campus. The need to enhance
the shopping tool for better navigation on the first page and the overall visual appeal is
paramount in website design. This website can improve in term of
1.
informational content
2.
transactional content
3.
website design.
Quality evaluation of university web portals has been demonstrated that the better quality in these
three areas of web portal engineering, the more likely it is that undergraduate student users will
have favourable impression of the web portal’s quality. Finally, it must be emphasised that
soliciting the feedback and interaction of the aforementioned stakeholders should be a continuous
exercise, so that the designers and administrators of university web portals are provided with the
most current pertinent information concerning best-practice principles for design and
implementation.
15
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