Evaluating the Usability of Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology and the Regional Information Center for Science and Technology websites from the Shiraz University postgraduate student's point of view

The research aimed at evaluating the usability of Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (IRNADOC) and Regional Information Center for Science and Technology (RICST) websites from the Shirarz University postgraduate students‘ point of view 5 The statistical population consisted of 5300 students from which a sample of 368 ones was extracted by random stratified sampling method whose categories were consisted of various educational areas students, including Humanities, Social Sciences, Basic Science, Agriculture Sciences, and Engineering. Then, the proportion of each category of any area was chosen by random systematic method. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to gather data which its content validity and reliability was calculated by the specialists and users 5 The findings showed that generally in the users‘ opinion, the application of the usability components in the two research centers‘ websites was in ―good‖ state (between 068-008). There were significant differences between the mean scores of the users‘ judgments and the usability of an ideal state (080), the means of various age categories, female and male user's means, and the means of various educational areas students. There were no significant differences between the mean scores of the postgraduate's judgments with different experience in Internet use, and the ones of the freshmen and elder postgraduates 5Originality: The results can help mush to understand the importance of the usability of research Center's websites and to pay more attention to their various components 5