44 (+6) Well Designed University Websites [Updated]
UPDATED: I’ve added 6 more universities to the end of this list. Leave a comment to suggest more!
Almost every university in the world has an online presence. Universities have to deal with a lot of information, and organizing all this information on a website in a reader friendly manner is not an easy thing to do.
What’s a good design?
As a prospective undergrad student, I’ve gone through many universities’ websites. And I think I know what the typical person (and a typical internet user) would want from a university website. Here are two points that I think cover it all:
- The homepage should have all the major kinds of information, for example, information about undergrad/grad/transer admissions, financial aid, academics, and so on. In short, the reader should be able to find a link to the information he/she needs.
- Don’t make it very confusing. Most visitors are average internet users who just need what they’re looking for. Don’t make it a treasure hunt for them.
During my applications season, I came across many university websites. Here are the 44 well designed ones (note that this isn’t a “top 50″ list. It’s just a plain old list. No competition).
1. Boston University [USA]
2. Brown University [USA]
3. University of Cambridge [UK]
4. Columbia University
5. University of Copenhagen [Denmark]
6. Cornell University [USA]
7. Dartmouth College [USA]
8. University of Denver [USA]
9. Duke University [USA]
10. Universität Erfurt (University of Erfurt) [Germany]
11. Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI) [Pakistan]
12. Georgia Tech [USA]
13. Harvard University [USA]
14. University of Hong Kong (HKU) [Hong Kong]
15. Johns Hopkins University [USA]
16. Imperial College London [UK]
17. Ithaca College [USA]
18. Lafayette College [USA]
19. Lehigh University [USA]
20. Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) [Pakistan]
21. Lynn University [USA]
22. University of Manchester [UK]
23. University of Michigan [USA]
24. Middlebury College [USA]
25. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) [USA]
26. Morehouse College [USA]
27. Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) [USA]
28. Southern Nazarene University [USA]
29. NHL Hogeschool [The Netherlands]
30. Northwestern University [USA]
31. National University of Singapore (NUS) [Singapore]
32. New York University [USA]
33. Oberlin College [USA]
34. University of Oxford [UK]
35. Rice University [USA]
36. Seattle University [USA]
37. Swarthmore College [USA]
38. Texas A&M University [USA]
39. University of Pennsylvania [USA]
40. Vassar College [USA]
41. Wellesley College [USA]
42. Williams College [USA]
43. College of Wooster [USA]
44. Yale University [USA]
Updates…
45. McMaster University [Canada]
46. Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay [India]
47. University of Toronto [Canada]
48. University of Mumbai [India]
49. Murdoch University [Australia]
50. University of Queensland [Australia]
You can learn
All the above websites are pretty well designed and easy to navigate. You can learn a bit about good and user friendly design if you visit some of these and have a look around.
If I’ve missed any websites you think should be added to this list, just drop a comment.
Share!
Thanks for taking the time to get this together. It’s a really useful list.
Swarthmore College also has a very well-designed website. (http://www.swarthmore.edu) I’ve found it much easier to use than ones whose menus rely on a lot of collapsing and expanding, like Brown’s does.
I believe the McGill University in Quebec Canada has a very well designed website and is much more user friendly than some of the other universities listed here above!
Amazing and HIGHLY researched post.
the first post should link to http://www.bu.edu/ instead of the current link…
hey Meg! Thank you for the heads up. corrected!