Usability Assessment of a University Academic Portal using Eye Tracking Technology

Abstract

The distribution style for university academic services has undergone a significant paradigm shift toward electronic services over the past ten years. Services offered by Zayed University (ZU) are not distinctive. The students might access a sizable variety of services and information online with just a few mouse clicks or finger touches. However, several obstacles still prevent students from taking full advantage of these services because of serious usability problems with the way portals were created. This paper presents a usability assessment study of e-services provided to students through the academic portal of Zayed University. It explores the viewing, searching, and navigation behavior of young Arab female students as they engage with the university academic portal and factors that affect their searching behavior using an eye tracking methodology and analysis. The study focuses on the visual and viewing behaviors of the students as they make their initial decision to use an e-service (click). To gather data on students' navigational patterns, an eye tracking experiment was created and carried out utilizing the current designs of several e-services accessible to students. It has been recorded, gathered, and analyzed how the participants navigated the list of e-services and interacted with it. The study's results suggest that, on average, students spent more time checking the e-services homepage for the appropriate link to the desired service. Surprisingly, a large percentage of students had never used the university's online services which affect the usability rate of ZU web portal. From the viewpoints and expectations of the students, a set of recommendations were made to enhance the usability aspect and design of the ZU main portal.