Education is the key to a successful future, these days big corporate companies would much rather hirer a qualified younger person with no experience than a person with years of experience, yet without the necessary formal qualifications. As the saying goes, you are never too old to learn and with discipline and hard work you can get the qualification you have always wanted.

The Website Under Review

This document is dedicated to the website of the University of South Africa (Unisa), South Africa’s premier institution for distance education, unisa.ac.za. Finding the website is easy, whether you search for their full name or acronym it is the first result under a global Google search.

The Target Market

Because of their place in the South African education landscape, their target market is wide and varied, from scholars straight out of school who wants to further their studies to older individuals who wants to complete a degree, whether as a lifelong dream or to further their career.

Overview of the Website

The home page of the website is very short with very little graphic elements and it because of this it loads in an instant. You also have the option of selecting a ‘text only’ version of the website which makes the site even faster if you have a slower internet connection.

The colours are very soft and pleasing on the eye and there are no flash animations or scrolling banners that can distract you.

Considering their varied target market, they might want to consider increasing the size of the text on the website by a fraction, or give visitors the option to increase the text size as one finds on certain websites.

The home page is broken up into blocks with various headings that will service the need of any of their students, current, prospective and alumni. The home page doesn’t contain any other information at all which makes it very attractive.

Website functions and website features

One of the most valuable website features is the ability for visitors to go into a ‘community’ where they will find everything they need. For example, the home page has a link for “Study at Unisa” which takes you to another page where there once again only is links to other pages. These pages cover the entire spectrum of what both current and prospective students might want to know about student life at Unisa.

However, what does seem a bit strange is that there is additional information on the top of the page on a banner. The text here is very small and with it being on a darker heading, it is a bit difficult to see. The information contained in this bar is not part of the page contents itself and may result in people not getting all the information they need.

The Unisa website (unisa.ac.za) look and feel is very understated and professional with a single image on each page. These pictures mostly depict younger people which may put off prospective students who are a bit more mature. The search function on the website also requires some work. If a first time student wants to search for their dream study field, they would have to know in which faculty it will fall as well as the encompassing degree that would make that qualification possible.

However, their contact details are on each page which makes it very easy if you need to call them for assistance.

Conclusion

With more than 200 000 registered students, Unisa is the market leader in distance education and their website delicately shows their place in the market. With a few tiny adjustments the good website can become even better.

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