Results of the user survey of the tuas.fi and turkuamk.fi websites

During the survey, there were about 9000 impressions on the turkuamk.fi website. We received 1591 answers. Of these, approx. 450 were first-time visitors to our website. The largest respondent groups were students; 537, potential students; 372 and staff; 138. 

Of the website users, 70% were female, 25% male and 3% nonbinary people. The educational background of most of the student respondents was either vocational school, upper secondary school or a higher education degree. This was highlighted even more in potential students. In the staff member group of respondents, the majority had a higher education degree. 

Of the respondents, potential or current Turku UAS students aged 20–29 formed the largest group. The second largest age group was 30–39-year-olds and of the staff members, the majority were between the ages 50–59. Geographically speaking, most of the respondents were from Southwest Finland and among potential students, in addition to this, the second largest number was from Uusimaa. 

Of potential students, over 60% visited our website for the first time. Among our students, the website is used every week for the most part and among our staff members, even daily.  

Of potential students, many visited the site in earnest: a half had already applied to Turku UAS or were planning to apply in the future. We also asked them more specifically, what is the most important thing in picking the study place. An interesting field of study, high-quality teaching and an attractive location were pronounced in the answers. In several open answers, too, the mode of study, studies which utilize blended learning, and flexible possibilities for remote learning were emphasized as the selection criteria.
 

It was not a big surprise that for our students, both tuas.fi and turkuamk.fi websites provided a passage to other systems: the itslearning environment, Peppi, the intranet Messi or email.  

In the opinion of the largest respondent groups, the most important content on our website was quick links to different systems, information on Bachelor’s or Master’s degree education, the library, news or current information.  
 

Our survey included some statements regarding the usability, user experience, visuality and the related impressions. In terms of the open answers, it is useful to keep in mind that all answers are not necessarily targeted at our public website, but our other systems are mixed in the experiences. 

Navigating the website is easy 

Navigating the website divided the respondents. Wishes concerning clarifying the navigation were expressed and many things were behind too many clicks. The internal search of the websites was also in need of improvement.  

At the same time the colours were considered striking, the font size too small or the font old-fashioned.

 From the perspective of applicants, the website was considered functional.

The website contains all information/contents I need 

The respondents expressed wishes regarding more varied, current contents on our tuas.fi website. As for our Finnish turkuamk.fi website, the respondents considered the contents too plentiful: there is too much content, it is not up to date or we use too difficult educational jargon. 

The texts are in understandable format 

In terms of our text contents, more visualization or accessibility, with the opportunity to listen to a text instead of reading, were hoped for. Sometimes it was also experienced as difficult to guide stakeholders to the correct information. 

The site loads quickly enough 

Some of our website users considered the loading time of our website to be too long. The most logical explanation for this is supposedly the remote working period during the pandemic and the own network connections used. In terms of the connection speed to the tuas.fi website, there might be a lot of variation globally. 

The experience on the impressions created by our websites is often very subjective. This was shown in the open answers as opposite opinions. 

The page gives a professional impression of the organization 

On the one hand, our websites were considered clear, but on the other hand, a visual renewal was sought after to attract more applicants or to give a more competent impression of us as an organization. At the same time the images currently used were experienced as too picture-perfect by the staff. 

The website provides a reliable impression of the organization 

Based on our websites, we were considered a reliable and professional organization. The language of our contents was praised. On the other hand, more people-oriented communications were hoped for. 

Using the website is pleasant 

According to the respondents, the user experience of our websites was hampered by the difficult placement of the contents, such as the fact that there are little bits of information all around the website. Individual content pages also have too much content or at least the contents should be divided better. Wishes regarding simplification were expressed. 

I’ll be happy to return to the website 

It was considered that there is too much moving image on the website, which messes up the browsing of the website. The banners on the first page were also considered to take too much space from the actual contents. 

Turku UAS is modern 

In the open answers to this statement, opposite opinions regarding the visuality were emphasized. On the one hand our visual image was considered old-fashioned and meandering, on the other hand attractive and interesting. The elements which are considered as handy in using the website with a mobile device weren’t considered pleasant to use with a computer.  On the other hand, there are plenty of gorgeous photos and interesting articles, but more impressiveness was hoped for in terms of Arts Academy.  

Other impression statements in the survey included the following: high-quality, customer-oriented, innovative, working life oriented, competent, inspiring community, reliable cooperation partner, I could recommend Turku UAS as a study place / cooperation partner to my networks.
 

In the overall evaluation, our websites did better among potential students than among our own students or members of staff.

 It was hoped for that in the future, English content would cut through all contents. That is to say that on the tuas.fi website people hoped for an equal amount of new, up-to-date news content and more versatile permanent content entities, similarly to the current turkuamk.fi website.

We also got plenty of good tips especially on the websites of other higher education institutions, which we could benchmark for our future solutions. 

The overall grade of the tuas.fi website was 7.76 and 7.71 for the turkuamk.fi site.
 

Soon, the contents of the entity Tutkinnot ja opiskelu (Degrees and studying) on our Finnish-language website will undergo big changes as a part of the entity of continuous learning. In the future, we will present our educational contents based on the target group and need for education. In addition, the training entities directed at companies and organizations under the Työelämälle (For working life) entity will be reorganized.  We have wanted to understand customers’ needs for different educational options at different stages of their lives. 

Equivalent changes will possibly take place also on the tuas.fi website this autumn.

A bigger dream for the future is to renew our entire main website. Only with a bigger reform will we be able to meet the recognized, comprehensive needs for change. 

We would like to thank all those who responded to the survey!