Bridging the Gap Between Universities and Alumni: A User-Centered Evaluation of a Digital Alumni Engagement Platform

Universities face an ongoing challenge in fostering meaningful connections with their alumni communities. This paper presents the development and evaluation of the Alumni Tracer and Engagement Hub, a web-based platform designed to bridge the gap between universities and their alumni. The study employed a comprehensive approach, utilizing McCall's Software Quality Model for technical evaluation during the development and testing phases. Following deployment, a user-centric evaluation assessed the platform's effectiveness in achieving its objectives. This evaluation leveraged the ISO/IEC 25010 model and gathered feedback through surveys and interviews with alumni, administrators, and staff. The evaluation results revealed a strong technical foundation, with high marks for security, self-documentation, code clarity, and user-friendliness (McCall's model). User feedback (ISO/IEC 25010 model) indicated positive experiences with core functionalities like functional completeness, performance, and learnability. However, areas for improvement were identified in the user interface aesthetics, clarity of element purpose, and user perceptions of data security. This paper discusses these findings and proposes recommendations for optimizing the platform's user experience, strengthening data security measures, and ensuring long-term technical maintainability. By implementing these recommendations, the Alumni Tracer and Engagement Hub has the potential to become a valuable tool for universities to strengthen alumni connections and build a thriving alumni network.