Pilot Study on Webometric for Assessing User Footprint, Satisfaction and Experience on Academic Website: A Case of the University of Delta Agbor

Abstract

Webometric assesses the user convenience and experience while interacting with web-based
system. Businesses use websites to present their deliverables to a larger audience. The aim
of which is to refocus and reshape a user’s image of about a business. This has today, been
extended to facilitate activities like recruitment etc. We investigate usability of the
University of Delta Agbor (UniDEL) website with other select Nigerian varsities using
expert review guideline, and to compare the achieved criterion scores against the selected
varsities websites. The adopted methodology is the expert review guideline that is available
by the World Ranking of Universities. Result shows the overall performance with UniDEL
website performing poorly against the selected websites. These are based on the unique
strengths and unique gaps. Unique features showed that selected websites successfully
ensured that her trust/credibility section and homepages received highest scores. The
UniDEL's website was found to struggle for good search usability, and data entry criteria
among other flaws in her web design. Findings suggest UniDEL website needs to be
reworked with home-pages, search, trust and content features in mind to ensure greater
visibility and user experience.