USABILITY STUDY FOR FORMAL AND DISTANCE EDUCATION STUDENTS: MARMARA UNIVERSITY WEB PAGE

Web sites provide various contents to users for specific purposes. In terms of content and design, it is important that the web sites address users or attract them. Accordingly, it is important to recognize the deficiencies of the web sites and to make improvements in parallel with user experiences and comments. Because it is important for the user to be able to access desired information on the site and make it without obstacles. In this study, the Marmara University web site has been examined in order to examine user experiences from the perspective of the students of formal and distance education. The aim of the study is to determine the difficulties faced by formal and distance education students while searching the information they need, to examine the behavioral differences between the two groups and to determine whether the university has designed effective web sites for two groups of students. Participants consist of a total of 10 graduate students, who did not visit Marmara University web site before. These participants fulfilled their assigned tasks on the web sites of two formal and distance learning programs. User experience in study is observed according to screen records and survey results. According to the findings, statistically significant difference was found between the time spent by each participant for the tasks. No significant difference was found in the analysis of the average time spent by the two groups for the tasks and the results of the questionnaire. It is hoped that the results of the study could be beneficial for the university in terms of the development of the sites for formal and distance education