Emotional Design, User Experience and Usability on Public Universities’ Websites in Mainland Portugal

Universities’ online presence is essential in today’s digital age, and the Internet is a fundamental intermediary with universities’ various audiences. This study aimed to assess the usability, user experience (UX), and emotional impact of the 11 websites of public universities in mainland Portugal to determine if they met users’ expectations. A mixed-methods approach was employed to analyse the usability, user experience and emotional responses of 220 university students who interacted with these websites and subsequently completed an online questionnaire. To the best of our knowledge, this work provides the first comprehensive evaluation of all public university websites in mainland Portugal, establishing a benchmark for their UX quality and identifying opportunities for improvement. The results showed that although most of the websites demonstrated good usability, there were significant gaps. The highest usability ratings were given to the University of Beira Interior, ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon and the University of Lisbon, while NOVA University Lisbon and the University of Minho had the lowest ratings. User satisfaction requires improvement on all platforms, particularly in navigation, information structure and organisation. UX was considered negative for all universities when compared to industry standards, underlining a discrepancy between user needs and current implementations. Universities requiring urgent UX improvements include the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, the University of Minho and NOVA University Lisbon. The ‘Novelty’ metric received the lowest scores, indicating that users consider these websites non-innovative, with low creativity and limited ability to capture interest. However, the emotions generated were generally positive, especially for the University of Beira Interior, the University of Lisbon and the University of Aveiro. Based on these findings, key recommendations were formulated – for example, simplifying menu structures, improving information architecture, and incorporating more engaging content – in order to optimise usability, user experience and emotional impact on each platform. Implementing these improvements is expected to offer a more effective and positive online experience across all the universities’ websites.