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Published in the Slovak Republic Media Education (Mediaobrazovanie) Has been issued since 2005 ISSN 1994-4160 E-ISSN 1994-4195 2020, 60(3): 549-559
DOI: 10.13187/me.2020.3.549 www.ejournal53.com
Site Usability as an Indicator of the Educational Institution Media Culture (On the Example of Basic Schools of the Kirov Region)
Vadim Timshin a , *, Olga Kolesnikova a, Tatyana Plotnikova a
a Vyatka State University, Russian Federation
Abstract
The article discusses the concept of the site "usability" as an indicator of educational institution media culture. Being a multicomponent concept, usability (the level of accessibility, simplicity and comfort for a visitor to work with the site) includes not only objective aspects affecting operational comfort, but also subjective aspects of perceiving the web interface. The user should easily find the necessary information without getting lost in the functionality and numerous pages, and at the same time enjoy working with the resource. The criteria matrix proposed by the authors allows to study the level of the site usability of a general educational institution and evaluate its success. The research results based on the sites of 37 basic schools of the Kirov region included in the Basic School Project showed that focusing on user-friendly web-interface parameters is poorly developed. Educational organizations do not pay due attention to the proper development of the header (the "head" of the site), the footer (the "basement" of the site), and of the site content usability as a whole. Despite the fact that the resources analyzed clearly demonstrate complying with legal requirements to the structure and content of the site, at the same time, the user convenience parameters are taken into account insignificantly. All this reduce the work efficiency, leads to site visitors' dissatisfaction. It is emphasized that usability plays an important role in the effective interaction of students with the institution, affects the formation of the school image and loyal public attitude. The research results are of practical importance and can be used to increase the level of information work and media culture of educational institutions in the Internet.
Keywords: usability, usability criteria, media culture, basic school, school website, image, information transparency
1. Introduction
Modern communication system strongly highlights corporate Internet resources, which are the virtual representations of organizations. The amount of information posted on official sites is growing rapidly, so it is important that the user can easily navigate it. It is vital that the site fully satisfy user requests both in terms of structure and content, and in terms of usability. According to the standard GOST R ISO 9241-11-2010, usability (usability - suitability for use) is «a product feature which enables a specified consumer to use the product in a quantified context of use to achieve quantified objectives with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction» (GOST, 2018). In other words, site usability is the level of its accessibility, simplicity and operational comfort for
* Corresponding author
E-mail addresses: va_timshin@vyatsu.ru (V.A. Timshin)
the visitor. The user should easily find the necessary information without getting lost in the functionality and numerous pages, and at the same time enjoy working with the resource.
In this regard, focusing on the site usability can be considered as one of the indicators of media culture manifestation, which in turn is a most important component of the modern information society life. Understanding this process is increasingly attracting the attention of researchers. Thus, A.V. Fedorov draws attention to the fact that in the 21st century, the selection and processing/reasoning/analysis of media texts is the main personal media competence. Supporting U. Eco's opinion on the division of society into two parts with respect to the perception of information from the media - critical and non-critical, the scientist emphasizes that if people are not taught to choose important and useful things, access to all information will be simply useless. The scientific heritage of V. Propp, Y. Lotman, and U. Eco can help in understanding this process (Fedorov, 2019). In addition, the basis of media education should not be ideological, but sociocultural concepts, including analytical and practical components that allow to master the media culture world comprehensively (Fedorov, Levitskaya, 2018). The results of experimental studies of media perception of the content of information web portals and identification of culture-forming factors in the reader's interpretation of news media texts allow us to talk about the reasons for the destruction in the communication process: the lack of connection between the news headline and its text, distortion of meaning leading to negative reader effects. Studies of the media perception culture focus on the problem of resolving the conflict of meanings while finding logical and semantic relationships between the headline and the main text of the news (Kolesnikova et al., 2018).
When interacting with the site, the visual aspect is very important. Russian researchers E.A. Markova and E.L. Markova introduce the concept of visual cognition, when a person is more inclined towards the visual cognitive style of processing information, rather than verbal. They identify here such aspects as object recognition, attention, search, recognition and reading of words, eye movement control and active vision, short-term and long-term memory. Considering several strategies in processing visual data, special attention is paid to the phenomenon of media literacy and the potential of visual messages in modern media (Makarova, 2019).
The importance of media education as a cultural transfer in society, which initiates upbringing and training a person from the first steps and accompanies him/her throughout life, is highlighted by L. Bykasova, N. Vovchenko, M. Kryusoun. Thanks to this, when implementing an educational strategy, it becomes possible to evaluate the media, develop understanding in the use of new media, and explore the architectonics of modern transmedia products (Bykasova et al., 2019).
N. Iogolevich, S. Vasyura, M. Maletova draw attention to the fact that the demand associated with the Internet convenience and functionality inevitably transforms. Thanks to the Internet, the personal communication boundaries are expanding, and those with communication barriers but media literacy can take advantage of the Internet connections to learn and create new images (Iogolevich et al., 2019).
V. Muzykant and O. Shlykova consider digital literacy as a cornerstone of electronic culture and modern education. The authors use the criteria proposed for assessing the social effectiveness of media competencies to compare the dynamics of electronic culture of different regions with national indicators, and media competency methods to create an original information product in the library space (Muzykant, Shlykova, 2019).
A number of works are aimed at studying the marketing aspect of usability. This tool is actively used by commercial companies that not only create their sites, but also strive to promote them on the market by observing usability parameters, which increases the economic effect (Teplyakov, 2018). Operational comfort of an electronic resource as a technology for solving user problems with benefits for the company is discussed by M.D. Tverdokhlebova, V.V. Nikishkin, and T.M. Zinovieva. The authors analyze the most effective methods for evaluating usability; give recommendations for their use in relation to different stages of resource development, as well as for the use of specific marketing metrics to assess the resulting usability effect (Tverdokhlebova et al., 2018).
Only a well-thought-out and planned school policy on creating its own image can allow it to have high marks from the educational process participants and demonstrate competitive advantages (Yakovleva, 2015). The same picture is typical for a higher educational institution. In modern conditions, the university image is formed partly owing to its website. Information
dominants represented there, the way of their implementation determine how long the attention of the target audience will be attracted and, ultimately, its attitude to the organization. In the competition for attracting attention to the university and its positive image, the winner will be the one who will be able to optimally present all the necessary informational dominants and at the same time fully take into account the interests and requests of the potential audience to receive such information (Timshin, 2017).
J. Nelsen's works are devoted to the necessity to choose a usability strategy that can take into account both the results of studies of users' behavior and the ideological compromises between comfort, quality and cost-effectiveness (Nielsen, 2005). Clarity, authenticity, transparency - this is what users expect to find in the "About Us" section of the corporate websites as before working with it they compare corporate content with third-party reviews and form a holistic view of the company (Kaley, Nielsen, 2019).
Speaking about the importance of usability in general, it should be noted that this concept applies not only to objective navigation parameters, but also to a number of other subjective features that are perceived individually by each user. So, if the page is not able to state clearly what the organization is doing, and explain what the target audience can get using the web resource, users "flee away". The same reaction can be caused by inconvenience in reading text content, its location on the site, evasive, inconclusive or incompetent answers to key questions. Similar problems can often be found on the sites of educational organizations. Budget institutions pay less attention to the convenience of users of their resources. One can trace the following trend: there is an institution website, information is posted, and this in accordance with the legal requirements, however, finding the necessary information is either difficult or even impossible at all. At the same time, the school official website and its official pages in social networks are the leading forms of positioning the institution on the Internet. These are the most accessible and understandable means of communication for the public, demonstrating and shaping media culture of the educational process participants.
This raises the problem of developing usability criteria for the site of an educational organization. It is necessary to take into account that such usability parameters as learning ability (ease of use), efficiency (task execution speed), memorability (speed and ease of reproducing the necessary steps on the site after a long absence), errors (the number of wrong actions performed), satisfaction (how pleasant and comfortable it is to use this site) only generally describe the concept of "usability" and do not take into account the factor of the personal user's perception of the space and content of the organization's site. In this regard, the authors attempted to develop a criteria matrix covering the entire array of the site of an educational institution, its structural component, adaptability, content, navigation, and overall satisfaction of the resource operational comfort. This allowed us to analyze sites of a number of educational institutions, assess them objectively and identify the main shortcomings.
2. Materials and methods
While developing usability criteria for the site of a general educational organization, it was necessary to take into account the multifaceted nature of the concept "operational comfort". This includes both objective aspects faced by any user, regardless of his personality and role, and subjective aspects, which affect the personal perception of information. Such a systematic approach has allowed to develop a criteria matrix that can be applicable to assess the site not only of a general educational institution, but of any other organization. The analytical method used by the authors made it possible to distinguish the following main blocks of criteria: structural features of the site, with an emphasis on the psychological aspects of perceiving the site sections; navigation components of the site in all their diversity; image elements and the level of interaction with the audience, demonstrating institutional transparency; technical aspects of the site that allow any user to access it from any device; content components of the site, showing the development level of the organization's information work; visual components of the site, due to which it becomes convenient, useful and interesting for the visitor. All of them are consistent with the general usability parameters, but they characterize the site more "pointwise".
The developed usability criteria matrix was tested during the study of the sites of 37 basic schools of the Kirov region. In the course of comparative analysis, it was possible to identify the main problems of usability and typical shortcomings of the sites of the educational institutions under consideration.
3. Discussion
Usability, as an interdisciplinary field of knowledge, has attracted the attention of researchers for decades. Here we can highlight the methodological aspect, where the debatable issue is the strengths and weaknesses of the usability construct and its application (Borsci et al., 2019). On the one hand, there is a discussion about the need to create a universal usability system (Shneiderman, Hochheiser, 2001), and at the same time the slow changes taking place in this area (Sauer, 2018).
The site operational comfort, as one of the specific manifestations of the organization's media culture, can be clearly seen in medicine-related works that actively explore the possibilities of usability for effective communication between a doctor and a patient. The agenda includes issues of the user's self-configurating the mode of presenting text, visual, and audio-visual information on medical sites that contribute to reducing the cognitive load on the user and increasing his involvement in the site content (Nguyen et al., 2020). Scientists' attention is drawn to the influence of high-quality content of health sites on the formation of greater confidence in the doctor's recommendations (Sivakumar, Mares, 2017), the role of medical consultation sites in forming a personal image of a medical worker (Mao, Zhao, 2019).
The situation is different in the field of education, where the topic of usability research is not so widespread. Despite the fact that in some cases the websites of educational institutions meet the minimum usability standards (Bray, Sweatt, 2018), at the same time, there are cases when the websites of educational institutions do not fully meet the parents' information needs (Gilleece, Eivers, 2018). Parents are given little opportunity to participate in the discussion of pedagogical issues, and the sites of non-state schools are more attractive than the sites of most public schools in terms of information saturation, freshness, diversity and friendliness (Gu, 2017).
A number of scientists, the authors of this article are among them, associate usability with the aesthetic side of the site content perception (Chevalier et al., 2014). The results of some studies show that well-organized visual information (high complexity of design) and rich content (high complexity of functions) are perceived by people as more attractive and dynamic, more useful and convenient to use (Lazard, King, 2020), and these two aspects of visual complexity are interrelated (King et al., 2020).
Separate discussion concerns evaluation mechanisms and usability parameters. Attention is drawn to the SUS - System usability scale developed in the 1980s, which as some researchers believe can still be used not only now, but also in the foreseeable future (Lewis, 2018). New methods of the usability assessment system are proposed, in particular for library sites (Ramanayaka et al., 2019), and the possibilities of using usability methods to improve access to library resources are discussed (Hill, 2020).
At the same time, we note that not enough attention is still being paid to the development of criteria and evaluation of usability of educational institutions' websites. Taking part in solving this problem, it is possible, on the one hand, to expand the concept of usability as a kind of indicator of the school's media culture, and on the other hand, to contribute to its development. It was these circumstances that gave rise to this research.
To evaluate usability of the site of a general educational institution, the authors used a combined technique that allowed us to develop the following 30 criteria. All of them are combined into six key blocks: A, B, C, D, E, F which have a direct relationship to the main usability parameters and also cover the structure, content and visual components of the site:
A. Usability of the header ("the head" of the site). This block is of key importance, because this is the first section where the users get when they enter the site. It should contain the most important information from the point of view of the visitor, which will give him an understanding of what site he is on, what information can be found. The main criteria for evaluating the usability of this unit are:
1) the full name of the educational institution;
2) the name of the founder of the educational institution;
3) availability of an active link to the founder's website (if any) in the title;
4) availability of institution contacts;
5) presence of image elements (awards, victories in competitions, etc.);
B. Usability of the footer ("the basement" of the site). This element, like the header, is cross-cutting on the site, that is, it is present on all pages of the site. This is the lowest point of the page where the user gets after having viewed the entire page from start to finish. Therefore, it is important that the visitor should be able to return quickly from this point to the necessary section,
to find out where he is and what other pages can be visited. Based on this, the usability of this unit can be evaluated by the following criteria:
6) availability of a site map;
7) availability of buttons leading to important sections of the site (addressing to the headmaster, frequently asked questions, useful links);
8) availability of links to the school social networks;
9) availability of contact information of the educational institution, its headmaster, location
map;
10) availability of additional links to resources useful to the user;
C. Site adaptability. This parameter is extremely important because it takes into account the personal features of each visitor. It is necessary that the site should be convenient for any user at any time. Given this, we can distinguish the following criteria for assessing the site adaptability:
11) availability of a version for visually impaired users;
12) simplicity and clarity of the domain name;
13) availability of a mobile version or a version adaptive for mobile devices;
14) availability of search engine optimization of the site (whether it is found by keywords in search engines);
D. Usability of space and navigation. This block of criteria characterizes the convenience of the site structure, the simplicity of information distribution into sections, their structure and classification, logic, availability of navigation aids. All these tools accelerate the user's learning when working with the site, increase the efficiency of the visitor's actions and determine his satisfaction with the work. This block includes the following criteria:
15) availability of a horizontal menu in the header (in the most accessible and noticeable place);
16) availability of the main side expanded menu;
17) availability of interactive banners (to go to other useful third-party sites);
18) presence of mandatory (in accordance with the law) sections with information about the educational institution;
19) availability of mandatory sections (located on the general panel of sections or inside);
20) availability of navigation buttons (up, down, back, "breadcrumbs" - links at the top that show which section or subsection the user is in);
E. Usability of the site content. This block of criteria evaluates the structure of the content, its classification according to the source of information, the quality of the content and its relevance. The criteria for this block:
21) availability of a news section;
22) news priority (news from the founder is separated from school news);
23) relevance of the content (news not older than 10 days);
24) regular content updating (at least twice a week);
25) availability of internal links in the site materials (clickthrough to other site pages);
26) availability of photo gallery;
F. Usability of design (visual design). This block includes criteria that determine the convenience, quality of the graphic design of the site, marking-out site sections, style, image quality, etc. The block includes the following criteria:
27) graphic highlighting of the site sections (color, font differ from the usual ones used in the main part of the page);
28) stylistic uniformity (the same font, corporate colors are used everywhere, headers and body text are highlighted everywhere);
29) the quality of visual content (the quality of photographs and illustrations should be over average);
30) availability of identity elements (logo, coat of arms, school anthem, etc.).
The presented criteria, according to the authors, most fully reflect the concept of "usability" and can be used to assess the sites of educational organizations. To confirm the stated assumptions, a study of 37 sites of basic schools of the Kirov region was conducted in spring 2019 in order to determine the level of their compliance with usability parameters according to the criteria set out. "The Basic School" is a project of the Ministry of Education of the Kirov Region. According to the project program, the basic school is "the Kirov regional state educational institution, which is a material, technical, personnel, and methodological resource center in
relation to municipal educational institutions that are part of the school district" (Order, 2018). At the beginning of its implementation 18 state schools were included in the project and their number subsequently increased.
4. Results
The following methodology was used to assess the site usability of basic schools in the Kirov region. Each site of 37 basic schools was examined for compliance with each of the 30 above criteria, based on the condition - 1 (yes) if the criterion was implemented, and 0 (no) if this criterion was not implemented.
The results of the study showed that only 35 % of basic schools implement half or more usability criteria. Basic schools demonstrated to a greater extent, the following three blocks of criteria (Fig. 1): criteria block C - site adaptability - 85 %, criteria block F - design usability (visual design) - 69 %, and criteria block D - usability of space and navigation - 67 %. The following blocks are implemented to a lesser extent: criteria block E - site content usability - 44 %, criteria block B - footer usability ("the basement" of the site) - 15 %, and also criteria block A - header usability ("the head" of the site) - 14 %. Let us stop and examine the results of the study in more detail.
Fig. 1. Complience of the site usability of basic schools in the Kirov region to usability criteria
Today it is imperative that the site can demonstrate its adaptability. Such technological capabilities are in demand by the Digital Generation, their availability allows not only to keep the audience, but also to claim to be an advanced organization. Basic schools show rather good results in this block of criteria: availability of a version for visually impaired users (criterion No. 11) is 95 %, simplicity and clarity of the domain name (criterion No. 12) is 58 %, and availability of a site mobile version (criterion No. 13) is 98 %, availability of search engine optimization (criterion No. 14) - 100 %.
The next block of fairly well-formed criteria (criteria block F) is represented by the following components. Graphic (color, font) marking-out sections (criterion No. 27) is present in 93 % of the analyzed sites. The stylistic uniformity of the content, which means the use of a single format, font, color for news, announcements, texts, the use of photographs of the same size (criterion No. 28), is observed in 75 % of sites. 73 % of the analyzed sites have average and higher than average quality of visual content - photos, illustrations (criterion No. 29).
Identity elements are represented to a lesser extent - the school emblem, corporate color and font, coat of arms, anthem (criterion No. 30). This criterion is met by 31 % of the sites analyzed. The lack of these elements reduces the ability to identify the organization's site, the user can confuse it with another resource. Such banality does not create conditions for user satisfaction, as well as for the pride of students, teachers, parents for their educational institution.
In general, sites of basic schools in the Kirov region meet the criteria for usability of space and navigation (criteria block D). Thus, availability of the main side menu on the site (criterion No. 16) was noted in 80 % of the analyzed sites. block of criteria D). Links to all available sections are placed here. Many sites (75 %) use interactive banners linking to other useful third-party sites
(criterion No. 17) here, for example, to the State Services Portal. This demonstrates the relationship of the school with other public institutions.
Only 50 % of the sites of basic schools have a horizontal menu in the header (criterion No. 15). The absence of this section in the header of the site is fraught with a slowdown in user experience, increases the chances of errors, and ultimately reduces satisfaction with the use of the site as a whole.
The presence of mandatory sections with information about the educational institution (criterion No. 18) on the site is 100 % implemented. This legal requirement is fulfilled by all basic schools. Most of them (95 %) have a criterion for the availability of mandatory sections of the site (criterion No. 19), which means that the user don't have to take additional actions to gain access to the data. In other words, this is the speed of obtaining the necessary information. All schools have grouped compulsory information in the section "Information about the educational institution", as regulated by law, and placed it in the form of a root section in the menu.
The criterion of navigation buttons (up, down, back, "breadcrumbs" - links at the top that show which section or subsection the user is in) (criterion No. 20) is poorly implemented - only 13 % of basic schools' sites have it. It is worth noting that each of these schools has only one of the analyzed types of navigation.
Let us dwell on criteria block A - usability of the header ("the head" of the site). The full name of the educational institution (criterion No. 1) is used only by 28 % of the sites analyzed. In this case, the name of the educational institution means the full official name of the institution. However, this information is often placed only in the form of an abbreviation without its decoding. This format is incorrect from the point of view of usability and reduces such parameters as user learning, site memorability, as well as overall satisfaction. In addition, 85 % of basic schools forget to indicate the contact details of the educational institution in the header (criterion No. 4).
Only 8 % of the sites of basic schools cite the name of the founder of the educational institution in the header (criterion No. 2) and almost no one gives an active link to the founder's website here (criterion No. 3) - the Ministry of Education of the Kirov Region. Avalability of such a link can demonstrate the openness of the department and its involvement in the life of the school, the willingness of this authority to conduct a dialogue, and it gives information for the user who is responsible for the work of the educational institution, who can be contacted if necessary. Despite the fact that this information is mandatory in accordance with the legal requirements and can be found in the section "Information about the educational institution" the user is required to take additional actions (open the tabs, find the necessary section, etc.) to obtain it that does not meet usability parameters.
In criteria block B - usability of the footer ("the basement" of the site), the majority of basic schools (92 %) ignore criterion No. 6 - the presence of a site map. At the same time, this is one of the most important factors of usability, since it is interconnected with all parameters. Navigation criteria directly affect the success of the site, and if users can not find the necessary information, they simply leave this Internet resource.
A footer is one of the key elements of the site along with a header. This is so because the user often pays attention to the data placed at the very beginning and at the very end of the site. Therefore, from the point of view of usability, it is worth leaving the most important and frequently requested information here. For this reason, many organizations duplicate contact details, links to social networks and travel directions in the footer. However, 85 % of the sites of basic schools forget to indicate links/buttons in the footer leading to the most important and frequently visited sections of the site (criterion No. 7). Only 13 % of the sites of basic schools have links to official pages in social networks (criterion No. 8), and only 18 % provide contact details of the educational institution, its headmaster, and provide travel directions (criterion No. 9). At the same time, easily accessible contact information located in the "stereotypic" section of the site could greatly facilitate the user's work and create a favorable impression of the site and the school as a whole. 71 % of the sites analyzed do not duplicate additional links to useful resources (criterion No. 10) in the footer. At the same time, a link, for example, to a list of upcoming events in a city (district), could help the school demonstrate its involvement in extracurricular life and the current agenda. This would enhance the status of the educational institution for site visitors.
When implementing criteria block D - usability of the site content, it is worth saying that almost half of the sites of basic schools of the Kirov region (42 %) does not have a separate section "News" (criterion No. 21). News is posted directly on the main page, which is not entirely correct
and inconvenient in terms of content perception. The news feed, which occupies most of the area of the main page, can prevent the visitor from concentrating on finding the right information and cause irritation. First of all, a site user should understand what kind of resource he is viewing, where and what important information he can find, and only then pay attention to news announcements.
Further, we note that the majority of basic schools (91 %) do not pay due attention to structuring news information and does not allocate a section for the information of the founder (criterion No. 22) separately. At the same time, the news itself (70 %) is relevant for the most part (criterion No. 23) and regularly updated (criterion No. 24), which indicates that educational institutions understand the importance of this factor.
Most of the sites analyzed (82 %) do not have hyperlinks to other pages of the site (criterion No. 25), for example, to their own YouTube channel, to the news page, to tagged materials, although this is one of the most important navigation usability parameters.
More than half of the schools (60 %) do not have a photo gallery (criterion No. 26), and either there is nothing in the available section or it has not been updated for a long time. On many sites, photos are posted in the News section and attached to each individual news item. This creates inconvenience, for example, when viewing the chronicle of the year. In this case, the visitor has to view all the news for the year, while opening photos in a special section, this would be possibly done much faster.
The general diagram of implementing usability criteria of sites of basic schools in the Kirov region is shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. Implementation of usability criteria of sites of basic schools in the Kirov region
Summarizing, we can highlight the drawback that occurs on many sites of basic schools in the Kirov region. First of all, this is a low informational transperancy of the general educational institutiton, some indifference towards the site visitor. For example, the headmaster's address to public groups is available on the websites of only a few schools. At the same time, the headmaster is the face of the institution, and his greetings on the main page of the site could demonstrate not only the level of culture, but also create a mindset towards a positive attitude to the educational institution as a whole. In addition, availability of a special section or link on the site enabling to contact the headmaster directly is missing in almost all the resources analyzed. In the best case, the site contains personal contacts of the headmaster - the phone number, the email address. However, from the point of view of the user's convenience, it would be much more efficient to make a link or a special form on the main page to contact the headmaster. Information on the consideration of citizens' petitions not found on the sites of basic schools.
Photographs of the school staff have a positive effect from the point of view of the educational institution image. Unfortunately, the schools studied rarely use this tool on their sites. It is difficult to find a section devoted to acheivements and victories of students and teachers of the school in various competitions and grants. If it is, it is most often placed at the end of the menu list. However, it is advisable to present this information in the header, because this section attracts
attention most when you open the site, which allows the educational institution to express itself with the best immediately.
5. Conclusion
1. The concept of "usability", being a multi-component concept, includes both objective factors affecting the site operational comfort and subjective aspects of perceiving the web interface. Therefore, to assess the institution's site usability, it is necessary to approach the development of criteria comprehensively. The criteria matrix proposed by the authors allows to study the level of the site usability of a general educational institution and assess the success.
2. The study on the usability assessment of the sites of basic schools in the Kirov region showed that focusing on the user's operational comfort parameters of web interfaces is underdeveloped. Secondary educational institutions do not pay due attention to the proper development of the header ("the head" of the site), the footer ("the basement" of the site), and the site content usability. The site overload in various sections and blocks leads to the fact that the user still lacks sufficient information or content. At the same time, the sites of the basic schools under study clearly show targeting at fulfilling legal requirements on the structure and content of the site, however, without taking into account the user-friendly parameters, it is sometimes difficult to find necessary information.
3. Usability plays an important role in the effective interaction of the user with the institution and ultimately affects the perception of the educational institution image and public loyalty to it. Here you can meet a number of problems and features. Firstly, this is the lack of media competence of the educational institution employees, which does not meet modern demands of the audience and reduces the effective interaction. Secondly, the unidirectional communication flows (from top to bottom), which affects the nature of perceiving information with a possible negative connotation. Thirdly, the lack of consistency in information work, as a result of which each school demonstrate news activity independently, without taking into account ranking of incoming information or events, which can introduce dissonance in the educational information agenda.
4. To overcome the shortcomings, it can be proposed to develop a single site template for a general educational organization at the level of the founder that meets usability criteria. In this case, it will be possible to ensure uniformity in the structure and content of sites of all subordinate schools, which can increase the control level over the sites performance and the speed of information correction.
5. Attaching greater importance to the official website usability, educational institutions could thereby demonstrate a higher level of media culture and help increase the degree of participants satisfaction in the educational process.
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