Comparative Analysis and Graphic Design Elements to Enhance the Usability of a University Website

The university website is deemed the main web presence channel for a higher education institution. Thus, the university's identity, programs, research, activities, partnerships, and achievements must be presented on the website in an attractive fashion to draw the attention of prospective stakeholders. In that regard, the number of sites referencing the website's pages is utilized to evaluate the university's reputation. Based on that, the graphic design of the German Jordanian University website has been modernized to keep up with the latest web design trends and enhance the website's social visibility. This paper highlights how a comparative analysis approach has been conducted to identify the needed graphic design elements to update the university website. Accordingly, it was found that the design can be improved based on factors related to pages' layout, elements' style, UI improvements, strong visuals, design responsiveness, and internationalization support. Also, the website development process phases and project management steps that were adopted while redoing the design are covered in this work. Further, the results of a user satisfaction survey to measure the effects of the new design on the website's usability are presented and discussed.