EVALUATION OF UNIVERSITY WEBSITES AS A MEANS OF INTERACTION WITH SOCIETY

Abstract

This article aims to discuss university websites as channels of interaction with society. To this end, the study was organized in order to highlight the importance of the university's performance in society and how university sites can contribute through interaction with its users. From the usability metrics proposed by Manzoor et al. (2019), which includes navigation, organization, ease of use (simplicity), design (layout), communication and content, a literature review was carried out and based on the related studies, evaluation criteria were adopted, specific to this study. Ten university sites were analyzed manually, corresponding to five international and five national universities, according to the classification by territories, of the World University Ranking 2020, of the Times Higher Education (THE). According to the evaluation instrument applied, the institutions' interest in making themselves known to society and including them in their activities, especially research, is evident. It is concluded, therefore, that university websites fulfill their function, as channels of interaction, capable of promoting the relationship between universities and the internal and external community.