Showcase of Academic and Higher Education Websites
College and university websites have a lot of roles to fill. They need to provide information for prospective students (both new and transfer), parents of students and prospective students, current students, and alumni. In many cases, they’re also the gateway to the school’s intranet and the public face for both academics and athletics. They often need to include reams of information in a way that makes everything easy to find. It’s a huge challenge.
And the truth is: most college and university websites are horribly designed. Either they look like they were designed fifteen years ago and then forgotten about, or they’re so overloaded with information that it’s almost impossible to find what you’re looking for.
But not every college or university website is horrible. There are some excellent sites out there, and below are some of them. If you know others, please share them in the comments to this post!
General Colleges & Universities
Appalachian State University
Appalachian State University has a simple color scheme and makes great use of icons in their header.
Ball State University
Ball State University uses a sophisticated color scheme and typography combined with plenty of negative space.
Bates College
The bold header and grid-based layout work well on the Bates College site.
Bennington College
Bennington College uses a unique layout and design.
Berea College
Berea College uses a clean layout, and the cutout in the navigation bar for the logo really sets it apart.
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University uses a unique layout and color options.
Champlain College
Champlain College uses a sophisticated, muted color scheme and excellent typography.
Colby-Sawyer College
Colby-Sawyer College has a simple layout with plenty of negative space.
William & Mary
The bold header image and excellent typography set the William & Mary site apart.
The College of Wooster
The College of Wooster uses an interactive, animated header.
Denison University
Denison’s website makes great use of negative space and a simple layout.
Dickinson College
Dickinson College’s site has a great color scheme and a subtle background image.
Elon University
Elon University’s site includes a lot of details that make the site look really polished.
Hamilton College
Hamilton uses a simple color scheme and straight-forward navigation.
Hampshire College
Hampshire College uses a unique, sophisticated color scheme and typography.
Lenoir-Rhyne University
Lenoir-Rhyne University has a clean layout and bold header slideshow.
Marlboro College
Marlboro College makes good use of a simple layout and color scheme.
Middlebury College
Middlebury College has a completely unique layout with excellent typography.
Minot State University
Minot State University uses plenty of negative space and clean typography.
Nebraska Wesleyan University
Nebraska Wesleyan has one of the best-looking college sites out there, with a fantastic background image and excellent typography.
Northland College
Northland College uses unique typography and grunge elements to stand out.
Oglethorpe University
Oglethorpe University uses a modern color scheme and typography.
Ohio Wesleyan University
Ohio Wesleyan uses a bold color scheme and graphics.
Simmons College
Simmons College uses a clean, grid-based layout and sophisticated color scheme.
Sweet Briar College
Sweet Briar College steps outside of the norm for a college website and uses a more relaxed, feminine design (appropriate for a women’s college).
Syracuse University
Syracuse University has a fantastic grid layout and modern color scheme.
Thomas Edison State College
Thomas Edison State College has a great illustration in their header and a sophisticated color scheme.
Tufts University
Tufts has a unique layout and excellent typography.
The University of Alabama
The University of Alabama uses a grid layout and plenty of negative space.
University of Connecticut
The University of Connecticut’s site has a simple layout and navigation.
University of Maine Farmington
The University of Maine Farmington’s website uses a basic grid layout and great typography.
University of Miami
The University of Miami uses a muted color scheme and simple, horizontal navigation.
University of Minnesota Morris
The University of Minnesota Morris’s site incorporates a number of small details that give the site its polished look.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
A simple color scheme and clean, grid-based layout give the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s website a polished and sophisticated look.
University of Portland
The University of Portland uses a simple layout and color scheme with plenty of negative space.
University of Rochester
The large background image and non-standard navigation set the University of Rochester’s website apart.
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
The University of Sciences in Philadelphia uses a fantastic bright color scheme and clean typography.
Ursuline College
Ursuline College has a simple layout, good typography, and lots of negative space.
Vancouver Island University
Vancouver Island University uses a grid layout and fantastic, monochromatic color scheme.
Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University’s site has clean typography and a simple layout.
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University uses a grid layout and sophisticated color scheme.
Westmont
Westmont utilizes a slideshow header and great color scheme.
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen has a fantastic grid layout.
Bournemouth University
Bournemouth University uses bright accent colors and tabbed navigation.
University of Bradford
The University of Bradford uses bright accent colors and a grid layout to stand out.
University of Chester
The University of Chester uses an obvious grid layout, an animated header, and simple navigation.
Edge Hill University
Edge Hill University has a header slideshow, minimalist color palette, and lots of negative space.
University of Hull
The University of Hull has a unique layout, simple navigation, and great accessibility features.
Kingston University London
The Kingston University London’s website uses bright accent colors and simple navigation.
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds has a simple layout, minimalist aesthetic, and good typography. They also make excellent use of icons to simplify navigation.
University of Oxford
Oxford uses a simple color scheme and clean layout and makes good use of negative space.
University of Southampton
The University of Southampton has a bold header and simple color scheme.
Community Colleges
Salt Lake Community College
Salt Lake Community College uses photorealistic and grunge elements, combined with a unique layout.
Passaic County Community College
Passaic County Community college uses an obvious grid layout and a great color scheme.
Anoka-Ramsey Community College
Anoka-Ramsey Community College has a unique color scheme and a good use of negative space.
Columbia State Community College
Columbia State Community College has a simple layout and color scheme with clean typography.
Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising
FIDM uses an excellent bright color scheme and a prominent slideshow.
Jamestown Community College
Jamestown Community College’s site has a simple layout and navigation.
Joliet Junior College
Joliet Junior College has a simple layout with a good use of icons.
Hagerstown Community College
Hagerstown Community College has a good color scheme, clean typography, and simple navigation.
Lone Star College System
Lone Star College System makes good use of transparency.
Washtenaw Community College
Washtenaw Community College has great hand-drawn elements, and a unique layout and color scheme.
Northland Community & Technical College
Northland Community & Technical College has a sophisticated layout and color scheme.
Northwest Iowa Community College
The Northest Iowa Community College site uses a mix of collage, photorealistic, and hand-drawn elements.
Art and Design Colleges & Universities
The Art Institute of Boston
The Art Institute of Boston combines a simple layout with bold header graphics.
Kansas City Art Institute
The Kansas City Art Institute uses bright colors, a collage-style background, and loose grid layout.
Memphis College of Art
The Memphis College of Art site uses bright bright pink accents combined with a simple design and clean typography.
Minneapolis College of Art & Design
The patterned background, animated header, and clean typography set the site of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design apart.
Moore College of Art & Design
Bold graphics and a textured background makes the Moore College of Art & Design site stand out.
The Ontario College of Art & Design
The Ontario College of Art & Design uses a grid layout and modern orange and white color scheme.
Pennsylvania College of Art & Design
The Pennsylvania College of Art & Design uses a modern color scheme and bold header.
California College of the Arts
The California College of Arts uses a unique color scheme and animated header.
University College Falmouth
University College Falmouth’s site has bright accent colors, lots of negative space, and simple layout and navigation.
Maryland Institute College of Art
MICA uses a grid layout, muted color scheme, and excellent typography.
SCAD
SCAD’s minimalist light-on-dark design sets it apart.
Corcoran College of Art & Design
Corcoran’s mix of minimalist grid design and bold colors is fantastic.
Emily Carr University of Art & Design
Emily Carr University of Art & Design has a wonderful minimalist layout and clean typography mixed with bold accent colors.
Oregon College of Art & Craft
Bold background, great typography, excellent navigation.
Ringling College of Art & Design
The grid layout and bold background give the website of Ringling College of Art & Design a unique look.
Other Institutions, Colleges & Universities
Asian University for Women
The Asian University for Women’s site has an excellent gold and maroon color scheme and plenty of negative space.
California Institute of Integral Studies
The bold typography and great color scheme of the California Institute of Integral Studies sets it apart.
Rochester Institute of Technology
The orange and cream color scheme, simple navigation and clean typography make the Rochester Institute of Technology’s site unique.
Conclusion
While the vast majority of college and university websites out there are in need of serious overhaul, there are some fine examples of sites if you look hard enough. If designing a site for a college or university, remember that simplicity and negative space are both important, regardless of the amount of information a site needs to contain.
Tom
March 19th, 2010 4:09 amExcellent, comprehensive review. As you mentioned, academic sites are often really bad (especially middle school ones) and these examples show how it is easy to present important information in a professional format. Lovely!
Andrew Sipe
March 19th, 2010 4:29 amI have to add my alma mater, Kutztown University to the list. Specifically, the Communication Design department’s website.
http://www.kutztown.edu/acad/commdes/
Ward O.
March 19th, 2010 4:50 amImpressive collection. Websites of educational institution are usually quite nice and there are some in here that really do stand out. Some are a little outdated, but still OK.
Would’ve liked some more websites from European institutions.
Some Dutch websites would be:
http://w3.tue.nl/en/
http://www.ru.nl/english/
http://www.universiteittwente.nl/en
User
March 19th, 2010 4:55 amhttp://www.edustyle.net makes this post obsolete.
Matt
May 7th, 2010 6:44 amI use edustyle all the time but still love to browse through this post when I’m looking for inspiration. Edustyle is nice but it doesn’t have a very good “hand-picked” section.
Jen
March 19th, 2010 4:58 amVery attractive sites! Kudos to Berea College–my former employer–and its webmaster for making this list!
I would add that however attractive the design is, even more essential to higher ed sites is that the content be kept up to date. Worse than not finding the information needed on a site is finding it but then discovering that it’s old information.
liebesiche
March 19th, 2010 4:59 amI like the article and I’m really amazed how important it seems to be to have a big picuture on the frontpage. I’m looking for a similar collection of site of dance schools (ballet etc.).
dave miers
March 19th, 2010 5:00 amhere’s a grungier, edgier academic site:
http://moore.edu.au/
(i got this this college)
what do you think?
Gemma
August 3rd, 2010 11:24 amNot that keen on it to be honest.
Michael Sawicki
March 19th, 2010 5:00 amI love colleges and universities that understand that having a great web site is so important. It’s one of the very first things a prospective student sees when they are looking for a school. You MUST impress them right away.
Dmitriy Plekhov
March 19th, 2010 5:09 amThank you Cameron. Very intresting post.
Another great examples:
Princetone University, USA http://www.princeton.edu/main/
Howard Florey Institute, Australia http://www.florey.edu.au/
Ollie
March 19th, 2010 5:16 amI couldn’t be any less satisfied with my own universities website. It has always bugged me. They feel the need to add in irrelevant photo’s (most likely from istock) everywhere I look. It’s impossible to navigate, I can never get to what I need.
So I’d add to the conclusion that comprehensible navigation, tooltips, and consistency of design are also important.
Jason Zipperer
March 19th, 2010 5:16 amI am the Webmaster (read Web Designer) for the University of South Florida’s College of Behavioral & Community Sciences (quite a mouthful, I know), and we are working on a redesign of our departmental sites. We have finished two of 8. Critique is welcome!
http://csd.bcs.usf.edu/
http://rmhc.bcs.usf.edu/
Carlos Chiari
March 20th, 2010 12:48 pmHi Jason:
I entered in both sites, and there are some suggestions:
1. The header has a liquid construction, so it spread across my screen while the rest of the page seems to be of a fixed at a width of 700 px. I would suggest to let the header be fixed as well.
2. At the header search tool, the phrase “All BCS” breaks into a second line. A little bit confusing.
3. I would suggest enlarging the main content box from 700 px to something like 980px. I don’t know if your stats advise for a 700px width layout, but my sites have less than 5% of users with a screen resolution of 800px.
Regards.
Carlos
Marie
March 19th, 2010 5:21 amThe Ontario College of Art and Design is actually a university with its old name. Not a community college.
Carol Cox
March 19th, 2010 5:25 amI would also add Full Sail University (entertainment, media, and arts school) – http://www.fullsail.edu.
Cesar Mujica Castro
March 19th, 2010 2:24 pmDefinitely
Nicole
March 24th, 2010 1:31 pmI completely agree with Carol. Full Sail University has a great website.
Anthony
April 5th, 2010 11:17 amCan’t believe Full Sail didn’t make it on the list, they are massive in media! I don’t know anyone that has ever attended there, but have been to the site on a few occasions over the past few years.
Cameron – amazing list. Seriously nice work.
Steve
March 19th, 2010 5:28 amIt’s great to see my Alma Mater Ball State University second on this list. That’s where I learned my trade, but no University of Evansville, where I currently work. Make sure to check out http://www.evansville.edu.
Sean Langlands
March 19th, 2010 5:30 amYou forgot one of the best new technology schools in Canada!
The Center For Arts and Technology
Blake Stevenson
March 19th, 2010 5:33 amI love this list BUT I feel you missed a big contender University of Guelph it got number 8 on CommandShift3 http://commandshift3.com/tag/university not complaining. I just was sad not to see it. :) GREAT POST.
check out my site:
jetpacksandrollerskates follow me on twitter: @blakestevenson
Chris Thompson
March 19th, 2010 5:34 amDana College out of Blair Nebraska has a good site also.
http://www.dana.edu/
Josh Sadler
March 19th, 2010 5:50 amFull Sail University has an excellent website:
http://www.fullsail.edu
Aaron
March 19th, 2010 5:55 amI’ll be homer and suggest this one too: North Carolina State University http://www.ncsu.edu/
Some of these are quite impressive. Dickinson’s stands out.. it seems a bit more clean and polished that many of the others. Some seem to be trying a little too hard, but I think DC nailed it.
Aaron
March 19th, 2010 6:37 amthan** many of the others.
self-imposed grammar police
Katy, don’t get too upset. I don’t think Cameron meant anything personal, and she certainly didn’t say anything against the institution or its alumnae.
Matthew Moran
March 19th, 2010 5:57 amhttp://www.virginia.edu makes great use of ajax and jquery as well as icons and interactive features.
Katy
March 19th, 2010 5:57 amI don’t even know where to start:
“Sweet Briar College steps outside of the norm for a college website and uses a more relaxed, feminine design (appropriate for a women’s college).”
Subtle, backhanded sexism pervades many people’s perceptions of women’s colleges. Do some research about the remarkable alumnae of these institutions before you pass judgment.
Ben Overmyer
March 19th, 2010 7:50 amWow, Katy… that’s like saying that oreos are racist. You won’t get far on the Internet with oversensitivity like that.
The author was just saying that a relaxed design fit the theme of a women’s college. He didn’t mean to imply anything other than that.
dedide
March 19th, 2010 8:36 pmHey Ben,
I totally concur with Katy about the implications of the site design – yuck, a big turn off and pretty much anti real women.
BTW, the author is female, not male as you seem to assume.
Lionhart
March 22nd, 2010 6:23 amI’ll just paste this here from above:
Katy, don’t get too upset. I don’t think Cameron meant anything personal, and she certainly didn’t say anything against the institution or its alumnae.
Let’s keep things in perspective guys.
Jenn
March 23rd, 2010 7:22 amI have to agree with Katy and will go a step beyond what she said—the site shouldn’t even be on this list. The graphics are terrible and outdated. It looks like a poorly designed web site for a pre-school or daycare. It should not be complimented on its “more relaxed, feminine design”. A serious college deserves a serious web site, be it a women’s college or not.
Chris Raymond
March 24th, 2010 11:42 amJenn, I concur with you wholeheartedly. This site reinforces the stereotypical view of women and is not worthy of being showcased. And I am a female.
Minimalistix
April 7th, 2010 2:27 amYou are always complaining, god…
Nick Green
March 19th, 2010 5:58 amConcordia, up here in Moorhead, just launched a very cool virtual tour. It’s fullscreen HD video bringing you along the trails on campus from classroom to the stadium to the res halls…
http://www.concordiacollege.edu/experience
And
March 19th, 2010 6:01 amAlways nice to see a big showcase of similarly themed sites. It’s good to see a few of these establishments breaking away from the grid-based layout – which is the norm for sites with deep navigation.
Nathan
March 19th, 2010 6:05 amFeel like this list is a mixed bag. A bunch could’ve been left off and have a shorter quality list. Lone Star College System? Marlboro College? Not well polished by a long shot.
Joni
March 19th, 2010 6:09 amSome nice sites are listed here! This can be used as inspiration for corporate web design.
Pedro Lopes
March 19th, 2010 6:13 amUniversity of Aveiro
http://www.ua.pt
S.
March 19th, 2010 6:34 amI really like – http://pugetsound.edu/
michael
March 19th, 2010 6:37 amIs it just me or do The University of Alabama and Elon University’s websites look STRANGELY similar??
Thanks for the article, SM!
JD
March 26th, 2010 1:17 pmElon’s Web Dev here – Yep, we thought the same – but ours was released 6 months before… :-)
Phil Franks
March 19th, 2010 6:38 amGreat showcase. Missed one for the Art & Design schools, check out the Columbus College of Art & Design. http://www.ccad.edu
Shelby Moulden
March 19th, 2010 6:47 amI’ve been looking for a resource like this for a while. Thanks. In my search for well-designed college sites, one good one I found was Biola University (http://www.biola.edu/).
Travis
March 19th, 2010 6:49 amSeriously? While I will agree that there are some good sites here, I think over half could have been left off.
George
March 19th, 2010 6:56 amGreat list Cameron. Good food (:
Just sad that Stone Laboratory didn’t make the list http://stonelab.osu.edu
Mary Makowsky
November 15th, 2010 2:34 pmI agree! Stone Lab is a very cool design!
timmyp
March 19th, 2010 6:56 amThanks for the Big Ups SM! —Elon University Web team!
Travis
March 19th, 2010 7:40 amDefinitely one of the better sites. Congrats
Blaise Terranova
March 19th, 2010 7:02 amhttp://www.bgsu.edu
Visitor
March 19th, 2010 7:05 amhttp://www.dis.dk just got redesigned.
nate
March 19th, 2010 7:07 amAnother issue is that there are tons of subdomains for every college/university that are built/designed differently than the main site. Here’s a good example: http://aux.uncc.edu
Tamixes
March 19th, 2010 7:35 amThanks for the roundup.
I enjoyed the vibrant the colors used in University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. Great to see how some are not afraid to break the out of the paradigm that defines education.
Some sites live up the quote by Socrates “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel”
Umut Uygar
March 19th, 2010 7:36 amI had some serious doubts about the cosmetics of my university’s site, until I see the others you put here. Check http://www.yesevi.net to see what i mean.
Thomas
March 19th, 2010 7:43 amThank you so much, been wanting an education round up for ages.
Mugros
March 19th, 2010 7:48 amVerdict: Put a big picture on your homepage and it is listed in a showcase article on smashing.
David Hutchison
March 19th, 2010 8:57 amCome on @Mugros, more than a little cynical. How about this? Verdict: Put a big picture on your homepage and people will notice you! There is so much emotion in choosing a school, and great photos do a better job of stirring them up than any amount of text.
Lee
March 19th, 2010 7:51 amStrange that Washtenaw would be considered in the group. Lots of issues with the design, including:
1. most visitors don’t know the audience navigation on the left side is clickable
2. news articles are highlighted – who cares if you just want to apply to the college?
3. there’s no apply option on the home page – isn’t that a main goal of the college?
Too bad the Washtenaw Community College website doesn’t provide a usable calendar. Students and staff find the features on the calendar frustrating (no way to bookmark an event or day), consider it a joke, and call it the “polka dot calendar”.
Nick Winters
March 19th, 2010 7:57 amhttp://www.wsu.edu
One of the best I’ve browsed through. Super clean, interactive, and always changing. Really easy to find stuff.
Will Syrett
March 19th, 2010 8:13 amThe Anglia Rukin website is amazingly well coded:
http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home.html
Have a browse through some of the pages!
Batfan
March 19th, 2010 8:20 amASU is a great one as well
http://www.asu.edu
Nolan
March 19th, 2010 8:21 amThanks so much for this post! I didn’t think I’d ever see this topic when I emailed the request/suggestion a couple weeks ago, but Smashing did it again and surprised the heck out of me!
On a side question for the other university/college web masters out there, what type of CMS do you guys use and why?
Thanks again!
Roger Skalbeck
March 19th, 2010 8:22 amThaks for this list of attractive higher-ed web designs. It’s good inspiration and nice to see things from a range of schools. One danger I see with focusing on just the visual design is that it doesn’t reveal whether these sites conform to best practices in web standards, let alone present a usable or accessible site. It’s still great visual food for thought.
For a recent study, I surveyed 195 law school home pages, to record which use certain elements like carousel displays, hierarchical content and CSS layouts. Read it here if anybody wants the data: Top 10 Law School Home Pages of 2009 http://ssrn.com/abstract=1544368
Michael Warf
March 19th, 2010 8:30 amHave you considered the University of Lethbridge?
http://www.ulethbridge.ca
Oggy
March 19th, 2010 8:32 amNot bad, but most of the ones on the list I didn’t think were that great. Many of them look out-dated or simply boring. I liked the Leeds one a lot.
Chris Molitor
March 19th, 2010 8:32 amVery nice collection of school websites. I recently put together a premium theme called WordPress University. It was a challenge when you consider all the different needs of a school/university website. You can check it out at http://tinyurl.com/y996r5p
anon-mouse
March 19th, 2010 8:58 amNice but you left out a lot!
Almost every one of those sites is a clusterflock of too many links and design by political bargaining.
Simplify! Standard navigation is typically a link to every fracking area or program with a web page.
Some, while they may have great this or that, simply have way too much going on, too many focal points, too much stuff to click or unclick.
There are about 5 things anyone looks at on a site, figure them out and let that be the site. Yeah sure, the rest of you on campus can have some pages but they won’t get top billing, or even secondary billing.
Bram
March 19th, 2010 9:00 amHere is another one : http://www.kdg.be/
David
March 19th, 2010 9:06 amPerhaps I’m biased, but my alma mater, Brigham Young University, has a pretty decent site.
http://www.byu.edu
Mark N
March 19th, 2010 9:38 amRecently, I too was doing some research on college and university web sites. I ran across this site which I thought was pretty cool, especially for their size. They did a nice job of segmenting their audiences, serving up a dedicated page just for prospective undergrads.
BIOLA University – undergrad microsite: http://www.biola.edu/undergrad/
Nice use of video and social media.
Steve
March 19th, 2010 9:51 amSaint Louis University – http://www.slu.edu #gameover
Chris Leibing
March 19th, 2010 9:58 amAwesome list!
Here is another outdoor education site: http://colt.bc.ca/
Kali
March 19th, 2010 10:20 amExcellent review. To add to the list http://friends.edu/
Timothy Scahill
March 19th, 2010 10:46 amNebraska Wesleyan University
http://www.nebrwesleyan.edu
They have an amazing virtual tour and design created by local Nebraska firm’s “Bozell and Roundscapes”
–Tim
Chris Sanders
March 19th, 2010 10:55 amI think it’s great to see that schools have finally started to realize that they need to pay more attention to online, and this a great list showcasing that. I remember back in the day when it was painful to use the web to preview class schedules and programs,etc. I guess it finally clicked that a school is a business and they need promote themselves as any business does.
Thanks for sharing this list.
watcher
March 19th, 2010 11:05 amI think the address should be:
Showcase of Academic and Higher Education Websites in USA
to be more specific
i `d like to see about other countries too
Thanks
Roger Flynn
March 19th, 2010 11:07 amI too have to include Biola – http://www.biola.edu – very good site design and custom artwork. I also have to include Crown College – very well designed undergraduate site: http://www.crown.edu/collegebound
Noah Hendrix
March 19th, 2010 11:20 amI think KU’s homepage is an amazing mesh of information and style.
http://ku.edu
Greg Johnson
March 19th, 2010 11:25 amHands down, my personal favorite: http://exploretamuq.com/
sayan mukherjee
March 19th, 2010 11:45 amWao….great collection & thanks for sharing.
John
March 19th, 2010 12:08 pmMy University just went through a complete redesign, and I think it looks 110% better than it did. All the information that was sitting there has been presented in a really nice way!
http://www.phoenix.edu
AJErixon
March 19th, 2010 12:16 pmI think what impresses me most is how well the community colleges are doing with their MUCH smaller web departments. Washtenaw Community College, FDIM, and Northland Community stood out to me. BTW the Northland site looks better live then in screenshot. Must have made some updates.
Nolan
March 24th, 2010 11:56 amTell me about it, I’m by myself at our community college as the only web designer. I’m in the middle of a redesign but can’t get any work done because of all the requests, fixes, and non-web related tasks that are thrown my way by upper management.
Mike
March 19th, 2010 1:29 pmOur site was revamped a few years back. The homepage is very simple which I like.
UW-Milwaukee – http://www.uwm.edu
Steven
March 19th, 2010 2:16 pmWhere do the designers get the photos for these sites? Does the design firm hire a photographer to take new photos or are these just stock?
Ben
March 19th, 2010 6:09 pmI worked on a couple of the sites in this showcase and in both cases many of the photos were taken by photographers hired by the University specifically for the website. Many of the Universities also have large photo archives on hand for marketing purposes.
Nolan
March 24th, 2010 11:59 amOur college usually hires a photographer once per academic year for studio shots. Other than that we resort to myself, or other people that are some what trained in the marketing department for the pictures. You might have to sift through some crap to get something usable, but it’s not too bad.
Paul O'Mara
March 28th, 2010 4:50 amSteven, many colleges use photographers like myself who are able to help institutions tell their story. Personally, the great mistake many colleges make when hiring a photographer is asking he/she to make their images look like another institution they admire. Each college or university has their own unique personality and that needs to be tapped.
Ashwin
March 19th, 2010 3:19 pmHey!! Check out http://www.poly.edu
They changed it sometime in august last year. It looks good.
DGM
March 19th, 2010 6:52 pmRecently redesigned CSU Northridge website is at http://www.csun.edu
Hugo
March 19th, 2010 10:45 pmThe Oxford one is fantastic, good collection though.
alice
March 19th, 2010 11:33 pmWhy isn’t Harvard, MIT listed?
cristi
March 19th, 2010 11:54 pm“alice March 19th, 2010 11:33 pm
Why isn’t Harvard, MIT listed?”
two reasons:
1. all articles are subject to a personal point of view
2. to avoid legal issues with large institutions, companies, that would cost the website money :)
JN
March 20th, 2010 12:46 amCome on, yet another list? I found this article had very little actual content and anyone could have easily found a bunch of college websites by finding a list of universities.
Also, I find most of the sites here to be not spectacular. Sure they’re a lot better than other academic sites out there, but they’re just not high quality enough to really add any sort of value to the thousands of lists that already exist. So this one was worse than the usual random list I find here.
Anybody else getting tired of lists?
Defifee
March 20th, 2010 1:22 amComparing university websites is a really good idea and there are some good looking sites. But I agree with some other comments, this is an American showcase only, it might be interesting what it looks like in other parts or the world.
Also I think you show too many examples, after the 10th website I grew tired and scrolled to the end because I thought there would be some more content. But there wasn’t. Maybe it’s better to use only about 10 websites and analyze them in more detail.
loop26
March 20th, 2010 3:16 amnice article but there are more highschools , universities etc. on this planet.
arnold
March 20th, 2010 4:16 amstanford website is great also http://www.stanford.edu/
Jeremy Buff
March 20th, 2010 4:52 amOh noooo! You’re forgetting Full Sail University!
http://www.FullSail.edu
Bram Huirne
March 20th, 2010 5:27 amThe worst academic website is that of the RuG – http://www.rug.nl
Bram Huirne
March 20th, 2010 5:28 amNot to mention Blackboard!
John Miller
March 20th, 2010 6:12 amI’ve checked on Full Sail University floated by Josh Sadler, Carol Cox and Jeremy Buff. It has an outstanding website. The interiors well designed and organized. Easy to find info. It’s a pleasure reading. Their major draw back is the heavy use of flash. Their first page requires complete re-drawing. Too much animation will always help the user to loose focus. Funny, first page actually not offering any perspective (focus).
Chris
November 1st, 2010 5:47 pmYou talk about the major draw back of Full Sail’s site being Flash. But that argument is kind of mute when you like at SCAD’s website. Their entire home page is written in Flash. Even the navigation elements. I think Full Sail has done a great job of moving away from a Flash heavy site and focusing more on the user. The push the limits in design and technology on their site, they deserve a little more love on this list….
phongptdesign
March 20th, 2010 7:57 amThank you for this roundup,
I’m going to design a website for a school next month, this can help me really a lot.
suresh
March 20th, 2010 8:32 amasfasfasf
Sky Davis
March 20th, 2010 8:43 amAnother example of a fine layout of a college site:
http://www.hws.edu/
Linh Pham
March 20th, 2010 8:45 amGreat list of examples
Laura
March 20th, 2010 10:06 amAuburn University is nice – http://www.auburn.edu
Chykalophia
March 20th, 2010 10:21 amGreat list, and I love it everytime seeing the art college ones, so obvious :)
Thanks for the list
Arda
March 20th, 2010 10:27 amGreat showcase Cameron! I don’t live in U.S but one of my favorites is the web site of Niagara University. http://www.niagara.edu/
Dan
March 20th, 2010 12:02 pmWhoa, you should’ve heard the complaints we got at Nebraska Wesleyan when they changed our site! Although still a little hard to navigate around it I agree with it being “one of the best looking with excellent typography”.
Asnake Gizachew
March 21st, 2010 1:00 amgreat collection .. at least she have tried to throw a stone …. even if it show sites of US universities …. hope to see other countries experience …
thanks a lot
Wawan
March 21st, 2010 2:56 amGreat for inspiration
Corné
March 21st, 2010 6:35 amWhat about Hanze University Groningen? http://www.hanzeuniversity.eu/home/international
DanielV
March 21st, 2010 10:23 amSome of the websites from the list still look like they were from the 90′s… Leeds is a personal favourite though.
Nicest looking educational website I’ve seen so far is of the Tallinn English College: http://www.tik.edu.ee/ , ironically/unfortunately only available in Estonian.
Brad
March 21st, 2010 1:00 pmAll too often Education sites can be among the least attractive or even the least purposeful, so great to see the list.
I’d suggest this site would be a worthy contender as well: http://qaci.eq.edu.au
Melissa
March 21st, 2010 2:44 pmAnother site worthy of consideration. Very modern for an economics department. http://econ.duke.edu/
Gianpaolo D'Amico
March 21st, 2010 4:08 pmNice list, I would like to add http://www.mmm.unifi.it/ , the Master in Multimedia Content Design website from the University of Florence, Italy, in which we proposed a magazine-style concept in order to promote digital media giving voice to teachers, ex-students and others professionals, by means of interviews and dedicated articles about life in the classroom
Mat
March 21st, 2010 5:26 pmGreat collection you have put together. I have been waiting for a post on academic websites. I would like to see a post go into more detail about the process in developing a website for an educational institute. I have designed and managed 3 education website one being http://www.stmarg.qld.edu.au .
A site i think would suit your list is http://www.griffith.edu.au
Ilanit
March 21st, 2010 5:35 pmWhat about http://www.utoronto.ca? I think it’s very well designed. I’m also fond of the website for one of the university’s colleges, http://www.newcollege.utoronto.ca
Bird
March 21st, 2010 5:45 pmThis kind of post is useful. I hope you do similar posts for websites from other industries (construction, governmental, natural resources, shopping malls, etc).
——
My only critique of this website is the over-usage of words like “amazing”, “fantastic” and descriptions like “excellent typography”. Most of the websites showcased throughout the posts of Smashing Magazine are not amazing and most do not have excellent typography. They are “pretty good” and “not bad” and occasionally “better than most”.
Please sit your writing staff down, and tell them they are allowed to use the word “fantastic” once a day, “amazing” once a month, and “incredible” once a year.
Jacob Bixler
March 21st, 2010 6:52 pmFor a High School website: http://wilmothighschool.com
designed by Josh Betz
simon
March 21st, 2010 8:07 pmwow really unimpressed with these designs.