Summary

We tested the way college students use real sites designed for students as well as their use of mainsteam websites. The report contains 86 design guidelines that will make websites more suited for students and easier for them to use.

The guidelines are based on usability tests and ethnographic observation of 217 websites.

Richly illustrated with 222 color screenshots, showing designs that worked well for students as well as designs they didn't like or that caused them usability problems.

Table of Contents

259-page report

1. Executive Summary
   • User Research
   • Myths about Student Use
     • Myth 1: Students Are Technology Wizards
     • Myth 2: Students Crave Multimedia and Fancy Design
     • Myth 3: Students Are Enraptured by Social Networking
   • Teenagers vs. College Students
     • Play vs. Work
     • Reading
     • Age-Appropriate Content
     • Skepticism
     • Multitasking
   • No International Differences
2. Research Overview
   • Procedure
   • Websites Studied
3. College Students on the Web
   • Usability Trends
   • Advice from College Students
   • Websites That College Students Like
4. List of Usability Recommendations
5. Visual Design
6. Writing for the Web
7. Navigation and Interaction Design
8. Multimedia
9. Search and Filters
10. Credibility
11. Promotional Content
12. Social Media
13. E-Commerce
14. Forms, Registration, and Sign-Up
15. "Careers" Sections of Corporate Sites
16. Websites That Students Particularly Like
17. Methodology
    • Study Overview
    • The Participants
    • The Tasks
    • The Websites Studied

Who Should Read This Report?

• Anybody who is responsible for the design or strategy for websites that are targeted at college students or where students form an important part of the audience. This includes university sites, commercial sites, and government sites, all of which were included in the research.

Running a similar international usability study yourself to collect comparative design lessons from a large number of websites would cost about $120,000. You get the findings at 0.1% of the cost.

Please help us continue publish low-price reports by buying a site license if you have colleagues who will read the report. If somebody "gives" you a copy, then please buy a download anyway to keep prices down in the future. Remember that we don't get any grants or outside support for our independent research, so we depend on your honesty in buying the report to generate the funding for further work.

Download Report (from eSellerate) $128 for the PDF file (259 pages), single-user license. $248 for a site license that allows you make multiple copies and distribute within your organization.

• Children
  (age 3–12)
• Teenagers
  (age 13–17)