Evaluating the Architecture of Qom University Website from an Information Architecture Perspective

Purpose: The aim of this research is to assess the Qom University website using information architecture indicators to determine the website's status and conduct a qualitative review. Regularly reviewing and evaluating websites for their structural and content aspects, and then identifying their strengths and weaknesses, will provide a suitable strategy for policy and decision making.
Method: This research utilized a survey method to investigate the Qom University website, using the evaluation checklist optimized by Sediqi (1400) in June 1402. In this study, four
sub-systems of website organization — tagging, navigation, and search — were evaluated based on three fundamental aspects of information architecture: context, user, and content. The evaluation list included two parts: descriptive questions and yes-or-no questions, designed to assess the presence or absence of the investigated characteristics. Finally, the checklist was prepared by the researcher based on the indicators and evaluation criteria, presented in the form of tables, and completed.
Findings: The analysis of these lists revealed that Qom University's website achieved 22 out of 37 points in the information organization section, 30 out of 57 points in the labeling section, 42 out of 78 points in the navigation section, and 5 out of 78 points in the search section. He has obtained a total of 46. Therefore, compared to the ideal state, the website under study scored 64% in the organization section, 45% in the tagging section, 81% in the navigation section, and 10% in the search field. Good at organization and navigation, but very poor at search.
Conclusion: Websites are an effective tool for communication between organizations and their audiences. This research aimed to evaluate the Qom University website and to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Based on the research findings, the organization system of the website is in good condition. However, the weaknesses of the university website's organizational plan are primarily related to its structure. Specifically, it lacks an alphabetical organization plan and does not utilize an audience-oriented or social organization plan, as indicated by the organizational chart. While the website navigation system indicates the current page, it does not clearly display all the levels of navigation that the user has traversed. The website's main navigation system must be integrated with the local system. The website search system must be implemented. In addition, integrating a recommender system into the website search system is one method that can be utilized to enhance the performance of the search system.