Northumbria University Website survey

1
Northumbria UniversityWebsite survey

• Michelle Anderson
• Marketing
• 22nd August 2005

2
Project background and objectives

• Objective of research
• The University wished to gather feedback from
  site users to assist in current and future site
  development
• Methodology
• In conjunction with the web team an online survey
  was designed to collect user feedback
• Questionnaire was live between 13th April 1st
  June 2005
• This presentation will discuss and summarise the
  findings of the survey

3
Respondent profile

• Number of respondents
• 2558 completed the on-line survey
• Type of Visitor
• The majority (68) were current students
• 17 Potential students

• Frequency of visits during the month
• 53 of respondents had visited more than 16 times
  in the past month
• Length of visit
• The largest group (24) spend 5-10mins on the
  site at one time

4
Respondent profile continued
5
Respondent profile continued

• Accessing from?
• 51 accessed the site from home
• 25 from NU
• 12 from work
• 9 from school/college
• Broadband?
• 73 reported having broadband
• Visiting from?
• 89 visited the site from the UK

6
Respondent profile continued
7
Reasons for visiting the site
8
Using the site

• Finding information
• 91 of respondents found all/most of what they
  were looking for (88-2004)
• 1 could not find any information at all
• Need to contact us
• 69 did not need to contact us (77 2004)

• Search facility
• 45 used the NU website search facility (66
  2004)
• Of those who used it 64 rated it as
  Excellent/Very Good (2004 score was exactly the
  same)

9
Key Performance criteria - summary

• 81 rated the site as Very Good / Excellent
• Less than 1 rated the site as Below Average /
  poor

10
Overall rating Key Users
11
Performance Criteria

• Range and detail scores the highest with 86
  rating Excellent/Very good
• Ease of finding information score the lowest with
  68 rating it as Excellent/Very good

12
Technical problems by User groups

• NU Admin Staff and Current Students are the most
  likely to experience problems
• Former students and Potential students are least
  likely to

13
Out-of-date information by user group

• Staff were most likely to experience out-of-date
  information (possibly due to the fact they will
  be more aware if information is out-of-date)
• Only 5 of Current Students reported this (17
  2004)

14
Comparison with other Uni websites
15
Particular dislikes/likes unprompted

• DISLIKES
• 14 stated there were aspects of the site that
  they dislike
• Missing exam timetables
• Design
• Slow sometimes
• Dated
• Often down for long periods
• Doesnt reflect the Unis high standard in
  design/art
• Email is complex
• Difficulty to find information

• LIKES
• 51 stated that they liked specific aspects of
  the site
• Modern look
• Speed
• Easy to use, navigate
• Blackboard, Desktop Anywhere, Library etc
• Layout, organised, user-friendly
• Very clear, well designed
• Colours
• A to Z

16
Summary

• Current students are the largest user group (68)
  
• visit more than 16 times a month and spend
  between 1 -13 hours a week on the net
• Are generally happy with the site
• Main gripes are when the server is down, issues
  with Blackboard/library/etc as these are the main
  reasons they access the site
• The majority access from home and do so with the
  use of broadband
• Only 40 use the search facility
• 17 reported experiencing problems as the main
  users they will do
• Slight issues with Ease of finding information
  and Speed of pages

17
Summary continued

• Potential Students are the second largest user
  group
• The number of potential students responding
  increased significantly to 432 (154 - 2004)
• 9 of all respondents accessed from
  School/College
• 33 of potential students used a search engine to
  locate us
• Links, Prospectus and Word-of-mouth are also
  significant
• Length of visit varied
• Generally spend less than 6hours a week on the
  net
• 35 of all respondents were looking for
  information about courses

18
Recommendations for future surveys

• Aim to increase the number of surveys completed
• Some slight adjustments to the survey reduce
  the length
• Consider surveying twice a year each survey
  live for 1 month maximum
• Consider communicating a summary of the results
  on the site this will encourage more responses
  and convey that we are listening to the feedback