Encontrabilidade da informação: análise dos menus do portal institucional da Universidade Federal do Amazonas

Abstract

The Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM) portal is a channel for accessing information to different publics, both internal and external to the university, and to serve them it’s necessary to compile an extensive volume of information. Each user has a behavior profile and understanding of the informational environment, which determines facilities or difficulties in the tasks. According to the literature, the search for information represents one of the biggest problems in the digital environment, and findability is the object of study for improvements. With the premise that there was no previous study with the user for the current creation of the portal model and in view of the amount of information presented, the objective of this research is to analyze the state of findability of information within the UFAM portal, focusing on the navigation menus, from the perspective and mental model of the university's students and professors. The research question is how interaction design can contribute to the findability of information on institutional sites through user search techniques, in order to help users complete their tasks more efficiently. First, there was the contextualization of the scenario through the application of semi-structured interviews with 12 professors and 12 students, which revealed the general expectations and needs of the groups regarding academic activities and the use of the university's portal. With the relevant content mentioned by the respondents, 6 tasks were generated (for each group) in order to simulate usage scenarios that would assess the findability of information. Cardello (2019) indicates four techniques for assessing findability, two of which were selected for application: the tree test and the usability test. 130 respondents contributed to the tree test and 18 respondents participated in the usability test. The result is a structural and visual analysis of the portal, whose data confirmed the hypothesis of findability problems, as well as indicating the areas that affect the execution of tasks. The findings of this research guided a series of improvement recommendations which can be applied to the standard template used by the university.