Eye Tracking Method to Compare the Usability of University Web Sites: A Case Study

Web sites are one of the main source which enables human computer interaction, also widely used for receiving and transmitting information. University web sites are frequently visit by their students to get some information. In today's fast life cycle these web sites has great usage, many people prefer to use them. University web sites are extremely important for the students of that institution. In the last years, usability has become a highly important research subject. Designing usable web sites is considerably important factor for the user satisfaction in our case for university students. In this study, a new design is proposed for the engineering faculty web page and eye tracking method is used to compare the usability of it with the original design. Participants were observed while trying to finish specified tasks. In evaluation period, fixation count, fixation length and heatmaps of each website are taken into the consideration. At the end of the study showed that proposed design is more effective and efficient. Participants required fewer fixations and less time to complete the given tasks.