25+ of the Best College Websites & Why They Stand Out

Allison Manley

University websites are more engaging, user-friendly, and innovative than ever before — and it isn’t going unnoticed.

According to the most recent E-Expectations Trends Report, college and university websites are the resource current high school students turn to most often for information about an institution. That means your college website matters — a lot.

If you’re considering rebuilding or redesigning your college website, you’ve come to the right place! The expert web designers and developers at Kanopi Studios have extensive experience with optimizing higher education websites to drive traffic and engagement.

We’ve helped higher education clients increase user engagement by 71%, exceed user experience and accessibility standards, and break the mold with vibrant design. 97% of our clients return year after year, demonstrating our commitment to long-term website success.

Leaning on our experience, we’ve compiled top college website examples and tips to improve your university’s online presence. We’ll cover:

Why is high-quality college website design essential?
6 Effective Features of Higher Ed Websites
Best College Websites: Our Top Picks
How to Build the Best College Website with Agency Help

First, let’s clarify why having a well-designed college website is so important.

Why is high-quality college website design essential?

A college website needs to meet the needs of many different users. It must provide vital information to current students, staff, parents, and alumni. At the same time, it must empower new students and donors and help recruit staff.

A high-quality, user-friendly website design is key to helping you meet the needs of your diverse audience and communicate your core message.

Also, your university’s website is often the only informative resource used by “stealth applicants,” or students who apply without first inquiring or connecting with your marketing team. That means your website carries a lot of weight in these prospective students’ decision-making process.

6 Effective Features of Higher Ed Websites

These elements in particular help capture your audience’s attention and deliver need-to-know details:

The six essential elements of top college websites (listed below)

1. Compelling design

A well-designed website not only attracts potential students but can also provide a positive user experience that encourages prospects to explore the rest of the site and engage with more content.

When designing your own website, remember that less is more. Instead of cluttering the website with information, focus on clean, organized pages that are easy to navigate. Leave ample white space around important elements like calls to action (CTAs) to make them stand out. Doing so will help potential students find the information they need quickly and easily.

2. Accessibility

Under Section 504 and Title II, educational institutions must provide all individuals, including those with disabilities, equal access to important information and opportunities online. By making your website accessible, you avoid legal issues and demonstrate a commitment to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Check if your site adheres to accessibility and compliance laws, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. If it doesn’t, use Kanopi’s favorite tools and tech to meet these standards.

3. Engaging virtual tours

Virtual tours provide an immersive experience that can include panoramic photos, videos, and student-led tours that help prospective students better understand the campus. This insight is particularly important for students who cannot visit in person due to distance or other limitations.

Several of the following universities partner with YouVisit to add virtual tours to their websites. Consider whether working with an external partner is the best option for creating your own.

4. Mobile-friendliness

Members of Gen Z spend an average of over six hours on their phones daily, and you must meet these current and potential students where they are. Mobile optimization ensures your website is accessible on mobile devices and provides a positive user experience for all visitors.

To make your website mobile-friendly, adjust the layout and content to fit the screen size and resolution of the device on which it is being viewed. This can include reordering content, resizing images and videos, and adjusting font sizes. Other strategies for mobile optimization include simplifying the navigation menu, reducing page load times, and optimizing images and videos for mobile devices.

5. Detailed admissions pages

A comprehensive admissions page is a critical tool in a college’s recruitment strategy. It provides a clear path for potential students to navigate and ultimately submit their applications.

When crafting your admissions page, include information on how to apply, application requirements, deadlines, and important dates. It should also provide details on tuition and fees, scholarships, and other financial aid opportunities.

6. Individuality

A unique website helps distinguish your college or university from the competition. It can also leave a lasting impression on potential students, making it easier for them to understand your mission and values.

As you build your website, think about what makes your institution special. To differentiate yourself from other institutions, showcase your college’s unique and compelling aspects, such as programs, student life, or notable alumni.

Best College Websites: Our Top Picks

We’ve compiled our picks for the best college websites to explain what they are doing right and how you can replicate those best practices in your own website strategy. We’ve grouped each website based on the strategies they execute particularly well, including:

Best College Website Designs
Best College Websites for Accessibility
Award-Winning College Websites
Best Virtual College Tours
Best Mobile College Websites
Best College Website Admissions Pages
Most Unique College Websites

Best College Website Designs

McGill University

Embracing minimalist design

McGill University is a public research university located in Montreal, Canada. It is one of Canada’s top universities and is known for its prestigious academic programs and research. The McGill website provides a wealth of information about the university, including its history, faculty, student life, and research initiatives.

What’s excellent about McGill University’s web design:

Minimalist look: McGill’s homepage is clean and minimalist while still providing essential content to its users.
Inclusive language: The homepage call to action (CTA) uses second-person, inclusive language to help prospective students visualize their place on campus.
Simple but engaging typography: The McGill website maintains simplicity throughout its typography, but did you notice the switch between serif and sans serif fonts? This creative choice offers more visual intrigue without being distracting.

Loyola University Maryland

Dynamic visuals

Based in Baltimore, Loyola University Maryland is one of the oldest Jesuit institutions in the United States. The Loyola Maryland website promotes the school’s Catholic values while providing plenty of information and opportunities for prospective students, donors, and faculty alike.

Standout features of Loyola University Maryland’s web design:

Straightforward navigation: The main navigation menu is streamlined with three CTA buttons — “Visit,” “Apply,” and “Give” — that link to high-demand pages.
Helpful white space: White space is used effectively to improve readability, enhance visual clarity, and draw attention to important information.
Dynamic homepage video: A professional, compelling video at the top of the homepage makes the website more dynamic and memorable.

Flagler College

Bold branding and engaging scrolling

Flagler College is a small private institution located in St. Augustine, Florida. The university’s website promotes its historic roots while providing easily accessible resources for students, faculty, and other stakeholders.

Why Flagler’s web design exceeds expectations:

Homepage video: The homepage features an engaging video showcasing the campus, complete with a pause button to improve accessibility.
Bold colors: Flagler’s bold and eye-catching branding is on full display with colors that shift as you scroll down.
Streamlined user pathways: Flagler worked with Kanopi’s web designers to simplify user pathways, helping visitors find what they need quickly. For example, the First Year Applicants page includes all the steps interested students need to follow to apply to the college in an easy-to-understand list.
Simple navigation: The homepage also includes a convenient menu, allowing users to jump to different sections on the page. As a result of the structure and navigation updates supported by the Kanopi team, the Flagler site won two w3 Awards last year.

Roosevelt University

Interactive user interface

Roosevelt University is a private institution with campuses in Chicago and Schaumburg, Illinois. Roosevelt’s website prioritizes a highly engaging, interactive experience that makes it easier for current and prospective students, alumni, and other university community members to find opportunities that align with their interests.

What makes Roosevelt one of the best college websites:

User-friendly sign-on: With the help of Kanopi’s development experts, Roosevelt migrated its website to a more user-friendly Drupal instance that offers a convenient single sign-on for all user accounts.
Welcoming homepage: Roosevelt’s inviting homepage CTAs offer simple pathways for common user intentions, such as requesting more information, scheduling a visit, or completing a virtual tour.
Inclusive pricing structure: Roosevelt emphasizes its relatively cheaper price tag when compared to other private universities, as well as its financial aid opportunities. This makes the website more inclusive for prospective students from all financial backgrounds.

University of Pennsylvania

Timely, relevant content and unified branding

Founded by Benjamin Franklin, the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) is one of the nine colonial colleges established before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The UPenn website offers a straightforward, clear view of the school’s priorities, including sustainability, diversity, and inclusion commitments.

What we like about the University of Pennsylvania’s web design:

Bold hero image: As soon as users arrive on UPenn’s homepage, they are greeted with an engaging hero image related to current events at the school.
Consistent design: Each page maintains a consistent visual style, color scheme, and typography to create a unified and professional appearance.
Dynamic content: The homepage is frequently updated with the latest news, events, and ways to keep in touch with the university on social media. This lends a dynamic, active feel to the university’s web presence, letting visitors know this college is serious about informing its audience about the latest happenings.

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Clear calls to action and convenient digital calendar

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) offers a world-class education for musicians, helping students prepare for long-lasting careers in the music industry. The website for this arts and culture institution spotlights information for prospective students and those looking to attend upcoming performances.

What stands out on the SFCM website:

Performance calendar: SFCM worked with the Kanopi team to enhance their online performance calendar, allowing users to filter by department, event category, month, and year.
Straightforward CTAs: The top-level menu offers simple and clear CTAs, including “Study,” “Discover,” and “Experience,” helping visitors navigate with ease to achieve their goals.
Robust giving options: Donors have a wide array of giving types to choose from to show their support, including monthly giving, legacy donations, corporate gifts, and more.

Oberlin College and Conservatory

Site-wide visually engaging content

Oberlin College, located in Oberlin, Ohio, has a rich history of progressivism and student activism. The university’s website features diverse academic offerings, from a music conservatory to a strong liberal arts focus.

What we love about the Oberlin website:

Informational homepage video: The homepage automatically plays a reel highlighting the college’s campus, facilities, and student life.
Engaging visuals: The site uses high-quality images to give users a glimpse of what the college offers.
Hierarchical page structure: Content is arranged with visual hierarchy in mind, guiding the user’s eye to the most important elements on the page first.

The University of Texas at Austin

Robust navigation

The University of Texas (UT) at Austin is a public research university in Austin, Texas, with over 51,000 students enrolled. The university’s branding and visual identity are evident throughout the website.

Here are the most effective elements of the UT Austin website design:

Detailed navigation: A comprehensive drop-down navigation bar helps visitors find exactly what they’re looking for.
Engaging imagery: High-resolution images and engaging graphics enhance the overall look and feel of the website.
Aesthetically pleasing use of color: UT Austin’s burnt orange brand color contrasts stylishly with the effective use of white space and bold text.

Best College Websites for Accessibility

Cornell University

Compliant and welcoming website

Based in Ithaca, New York, Cornell is a private Ivy League university offering seven undergraduate and seven graduate divisions. As a land-grant university, Cornell’s website keeps its research focus front and center while offering vital admissions and other academic information for current and prospective students.

What we like about Cornell’s accessible website design:

Strong color contrast: Vibrant, bold colors pass accessibility contrast requirements.
Useful alternative text: Images include concise and accurate alternative text for visually-impaired users.
Welcoming language: The content features first-person language, such as “we are a diverse community of scholars,” to promote inclusion.

Adelphi University

Adept at accepting accessibility feedback

Adelphi University is a private institution located in Garden City, New York. According to its website, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs in various academic disciplines, including social work, nursing, education, business, psychology, and more.

What makes the accessibility approach excellent:

Captioning: Transcripts and closed captions are available for audiovisual content, enabling individuals with hearing impairments to access the information.
Descriptive alt text: Images are backed by descriptive alternative text, making the site accessible to people using screen readers.
Accessibility feedback: The site includes an accessibility form, where users can report questions or concerns related to individuals with disabilities and their experience accessing content. The responses help the university stay accountable and further improve its accessibility standards.

University of Notre Dame

Simple, logical, accessible design

Powered by a Catholic mission, the University of Notre Dame is located in South Bend, Indiana. It serves 8,000 undergraduate students and is noted for its football team as much as its prestigious academics, with both elements reflected on its robust website.

Why the University of Notre Dame’s accessible web design impressed us:

User-friendly navigation: A clear and consistent navigation system makes it easy for all users to find and access various website sections.
Keyboard-navigation-friendly: All interactive elements, such as buttons and forms, can be accessed and activated using only the keyboard, which is vital for individuals who cannot use a mouse.
Logical page structures: Headers are organized logically and hierarchically, helping screen readers navigate the content easily and improving overall readability.

University of Iowa

Engaging, accessible user experience

A screenshot of the Iowa homepage, one of the best college websites.

The University of Iowa (UI) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa. Its website boasts renowned academic programs, including those in medicine, engineering, business, and the arts.

How the University of Iowa’s accessibility commitment makes an impact:

Simple keyboard navigation: Although the website lacks an accessible name on the search button and has a miss-coded background video, its functionalities can be operated using a keyboard alone, without requiring a mouse. This is a crucial aspect of website accessibility.
Adjustable fonts: Users with low vision can adjust font size according to their needs without breaking the website’s layout.
High contrast: Sufficient color contrast between text and background enhances readability for people with visual impairments or color blindness.

Award-Winning College Websites

Some college websites are so effective, engaging, and visually appealing that they’re recognized on a larger stage. One such form of recognition is the Webby Awards, an annual award ceremony recognizing the top websites of the year.

In the list below, we’ve compiled a few top examples of higher education websites honored with Webby Awards or nominations in recent years. These websites use exemplary audience engagement and visual design strategies, so note which elements you could borrow to improve your university’s website.

Moore College of Art & Design Digital Viewbook

Distinctive and creative visual look

Homepage for the Moore College of Art & Design Viewbook

The Moore College of Art & Design is a private Philadelphia art school for women, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming students. The college’s online promotional viewbook provides a unique and visually engaging resource for prospective students to envision their place at the school. We can honestly say we don’t see many college websites as unique and colorful as this one.

Here’s what caught our attention in the Moore College Viewbook:

Unique comic-book-style design: The viewbook offers an engaging user experience reminiscent of reading a comic book. Bold colors, flashing elements, and unique microinteractions feel like walking through an animated world.
Helpful user pathways: Visitors can select their own pathways using CTAs designed to provide tailored information for each educational path.
Heavy visual emphasis: A variety of photos from different events and programs give prospective students a realistic look at what life in the program is like.

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Unique microinteractions and branding

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school considered one of the top art schools in the United States. The school’s website offers a veritable visual feast, with dynamic content and bold branding.

Standout features of this website include:

User-focused navigation: The “Resources for” menu item speaks directly to the needs of different user groups, with convenient links to relevant informational pages.
Microinteractions: The “Why SAIC?” section on the homepage features creative microinteractions — when users hover over each photo, they turn into dynamic videos that bring the content to life.
Captivating colors: The site uses bold, eye-catching colors to create a more playful experience.

University of San Francisco

Showcasing value to prospective students

The University of San Francisco (USF) is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California. The USF website highlights the university’s diverse student body, quality of education, and value. Prospective students can easily access information on every program available, from undergraduate and graduate degrees to research programs.

Why we like this higher ed website:

Compelling hero image: The primary image on the homepage is a striking solo shot of a student with a university building in the background. The photo is simple yet effective, allowing prospective students to envision themselves on campus.
Effective use of statistics: The homepage spotlights key statistics related to the university’s success, including information about campus diversity, social mobility, and lifetime earnings. These statistics are presented clearly so prospective students can easily understand how the university will support them.
Pop-out menu: The website uses a pop-out hamburger menu that keeps the header uncluttered.

Best Virtual College Tours

Rice University

Unique illustrations

Rice University is a private research university located in Houston, Texas. It is noted for its high level of research and strong academic reputation, with a 6:1 student-to-faculty ratio. The Rice website highlights upcoming events alongside statistics about the university’s rankings and student population.

Here are the standout features of the Rice virtual tour:

Engaging visuals: The site offers a fun twist on the typical virtual tour with an unexpected graphic layout that is still intuitive to use.
Interactivity: An interactive map allows users to explore different areas of the campus, including academic buildings, residence halls, sports facilities, and more.
User-friendly search functionality: A search bar encourages users to quickly look up landmarks and destinations, perfect for new and prospective students finding their way around campus.

University of Pittsburgh at Bradford

Accessible use of virtual reality

Screenshot of the Pitt Bradford virtual tour.

The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford is a regional campus of the University of Pittsburgh. Nestled among the Allegheny mountains, this school offers 115 academic programs to its 1,500 students. Its website showcases the variety of outdoor activities available while giving prospective students a glimpse into what life at the university is like with a carousel of homepage images.

Why the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford’s virtual tour caught our eye:

Effective VR use: The website features a virtual campus tour that uses virtual reality (VR) to provide users with a 360-degree immersive experience.
Student insights: The tour features video testimonials from current students, providing insights into their experiences, campus life, and extracurricular activities.
Accessibility: The virtual tour is accessible to users with disabilities, providing keyboard navigation options, captions for videos, and alt text for images.

Morehouse College

Morehouse College is a private, historically Black men’s college located in Atlanta, Georgia. The school is noted for playing an important role in the civil rights movement in the United States and for its robust alumni network, known as “Morehouse Men.”

Why the Morehouse College virtual tour stands out:

Interactive elements: The virtual tour for Morehouse College includes interactive elements that users can click on to read more about notable landmarks, alumni, and programs.
Immersion: 360-degree photos and videos provide an immersive view of key campus locations, giving prospective students a sense of being physically present.
Opportunities to connect: The tour includes links to the college’s social media accounts, allowing prospective students to explore campus life further and stay updated on current events.

Best Mobile College Websites

Stanford University

Responsive, convenient mobile experience

Screenshot of Stanford's mobile-optimized website

Another prestigious American university, Stanford enrolls over 17,000 students. Its campus, located in Stanford, California, occupies 8,180 acres, making it one of the largest university campuses in the country. The Stanford website covers multiple aspects of the school’s mission, including events, academics, research, healthcare, campus life, and admissions, with different headers throughout the homepage.

What we like about Stanford University’s mobile design:

Responsive layout: The website layout automatically adjusts to fit various screen sizes and resolutions, ensuring the content is easily viewable and accessible on mobile devices.
Convenient forms: Forms are simplified for mobile use, with responsive input fields and easy-to-select options to enhance user engagement.
Appropriate tap-target layout: Buttons and interactive elements are designed with sufficient spacing to accommodate tapping with the thumb.

University of British Columbia

Optimal mobile performance and load speeds

Screenshot of UBC's homepage, showing why it's one of the top college websites for mobile-friendliness.

The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a top Canadian university located in Vancouver. Its website is simple and clean, spotlighting campus news alongside a strong research focus.

What makes UBC’s mobile design great:

Performance optimization: Images and videos are compressed for faster loading times on mobile devices.
Readability: Text is legible on smaller screens without users needing to zoom in.
Lack of pop-ups: Pop-ups are limited to avoid disrupting the mobile browsing experience, as they can be challenging to close on smaller screens and lead to user frustration.

Brown University

Facilitating mobile connections

Screenshot of the mobile version of Brown's website.

Brown University is a private Ivy League research university located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1764 and is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the United States.

Why Brown University’s mobile approach stands out:

Mobile-optimized video: The video on the homepage automatically adjusts to a static image in the mobile version, which is much easier to view.
Simple contact options: Click-to-call options are prevalent throughout the site, allowing users to contact the college directly from their mobile devices.
Streamlined content: Content is easy to read on smaller screens, with concise paragraphs and legible font sizes.

Best College Website Admissions Pages

University of Arizona

Convenient information for a wide range of user groups

The University of Arizona is a large public land-grant university located in sunny Tucson, Arizona. Its website covers all the academic information that prospective students are curious about and provides a thorough overview of the culture and experience of living in Tucson.

Why the University of Arizona’s admissions page is effective:

Tailored content for different user groups: The admissions overview page for the University of Arizona has dedicated sections for each type of applicant, including prospective first-year, graduate, international, transfer, and online students.
Convenient contact information: The page highlights clear contact details for the admissions office, allowing visitors to reach out for inquiries.
FAQs: There are also answers to frequently asked questions about the admissions process and college life.

Northwestern University

Helpful prospective student information

Renowned for its journalism, management, and music schools, Northwestern University stands apart as one of the most prestigious schools in the United States and the world. The school’s website highlights its prominent research focus and its commitment to fostering a diverse, inclusive, global community.

Why Northwestern’s admissions page made our list:

Welcoming tone: The website features a warm and inviting admissions page that welcomes prospective applicants with second-person, inclusive language, saying, “Your Northwestern Direction starts here.”
Helpful information: The page provides a concise overview of the college, highlighting its mission, values, and unique selling points. It also provides clear and detailed information about the admissions process, including application deadlines, requirements, and steps.
Convenient touring options: The website offers multiple ways to explore the campus, including in-person tours and virtual info sessions.

Georgetown University

Inclusive and informative content

Screenshot of the Georgetown admissions page.

Georgetown University is a private research university in Washington, D.C. This highly selective school is also the oldest Catholic university in the United States. The Georgetown website offers information for its broad audience, including students and parents, alumni, faculty, and staff.

Here’s what’s exciting about the Georgetown admissions page:

Diversity commitment: Georgetown’s admissions page features a diversity and inclusion statement, ensuring prospective applicants that this is a welcoming environment for all.
Testimonials: The page includes a personal testimonial from a current student to showcase the university’s impact.
Touring options: The page also links to the tour page, where users can either schedule an in-person visit or view the campus using virtual tour technology.

Washington State University

Focus on financial accessibility

Washington State University (WSU), located in Pullman, Washington, is a renowned public research institution with a rich history spanning over a century. Its easy-to-use navigation guides visitors through academic programs, campus life, and research initiatives.

Why Washington State University’s admissions page stands out:

Financial accessibility: The WSU admissions page features two calculators that prospective students can use to estimate their total cost of attendance and need for financial aid.
Engaging video: A visually pleasing video walks students and their families through the process of paying for college and applying for scholarships.

Region-specific information: A clear section explains how to apply to each regional campus.

Most Unique College Websites

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Western Washington University Department of Design

Uniquely engaging interactivity

This is a screenshot of University of Western Washington's Department of Design website.

Western Washington University (WWU) is the northernmost university in the contiguous United States and is frequently ranked as one of the best public universities in the West. The university’s Department of Design offers graduate students the opportunity to expand their skills holistically. Its website takes an interactive approach that helps inform and engage visitors.

What we like about Western Washington University Department of Design’s website:

Unique interaction opportunities: This school’s imaginative homepage hero allows users to move and position design imagery around the page with their mouse, perfectly reflecting their values and mission and engaging prospective students.
Specific CTAs: They bring the impact of donations to life by including images and details of what users’ money goes towards under their “Give” CTA, from a new Riso printer for their production lab to scholarships and field trips.
Casual vibe: The conversational and friendly tone of voice hooks users in and makes them want to read every last word of their content.

Kenyon College

Idiosyncratic homepage image structure

Kenyon is a small private liberal arts college based in Gambier, Ohio. Although Kenyon’s student population is a mere 1,660, its website’s unique and streamlined design puts it head and shoulders above many larger schools’ sites.

Why the Kenyon College website made the list:

Eye-catching hero image: The homepage takes a bold, minimalist approach, with a standout quote and a unique, compelling image of everyday campus life.
Dynamic event calendar: The site features an engaging and up-to-date event calendar showcasing campus initiatives, lectures, and other activities.
Student success: The rest of the site highlights current student and alumni accomplishments and stories, showcasing their successes and experiences at the college.

Rhode Island School of Design – Alumni

Simple but effective design

The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) is one of the most prestigious fine arts schools in the United States. The school’s alumni website reflects its design-driven mission, showcasing unique and interactive elements that offer visual intrigue and engage visitors.

Here’s what’s exciting about the RISD Alumni website:

Animated microinteractions: The clever use of animation, including the news and events scroll in the middle of the page and the hashtag scroll at the bottom, adds interest and serves a clear and useful purpose.
Success stories: The website highlights alumni stories, showcasing their successes and experiences at the college.
Simple but effective branding: The stark black-and-white design maintains a streamlined look without feeling boring.

How to Build the Best College Website with Agency Help

Website design agencies like Kanopi can help you optimize your college website by organizing content in an intuitive and visually pleasing way. Our team of specialists also offers a website growth plan once your website launches to help you stay on track toward your goals.

We offer a robust catalog of services to help support university websites at any stage of their development, including:

List of Kanopi’s services that support higher ed websites (explained below)

User research and persona development: We study your audience to understand their needs, preferences, and interests. Services include stakeholder workshops, competitor analysis, content and user experience audits, and technical planning.
UX blueprint creation: Using personas, we map out your website’s content to help your users navigate your site more efficiently and achieve their goals.
Content strategy: Effectively telling your university’s story is key to driving audience engagement. We help refine your unique voice and style to captivate your audience with a compelling, unified message.
Website design and development: Our design and development services are focused on ensuring your website’s front-end look and back-end structure are optimized to support your goals. Our services are built to boost conversions through accessible, interactive design and high performance.
Ongoing support: We provide ongoing assistance to adapt your site to shifting audience needs and maintain security and high performance over time.

Working with Kanopi could give your university website redesign project the structure and expertise needed to be successful. Contact us if you want to take a continuous improvement approach to your college or university website.

Additional Resources

For more information on how to create the best college website, check out these additional resources:

Higher Ed Website Design: Tips and Trends. Keeping higher ed web design trends in mind is an effective way to meet your audience’s needs. Explore this year’s most important trends in this comprehensive guide.
4 Simple Steps to Migrate from Drupal to WordPress. Interested in transitioning your college website from Drupal to WordPress? This guide covers the key steps to follow.
The ROI of Great Website Design. Are you after more donations? More enrollment? More memberships? This post makes the case for a well-designed website.

Nonprofit Website Design: 11 Expert Tips to Drive Engagement

For nonprofits, having a strong online presence is more important than ever. Many people will meet your organization for the first time online, and online revenue is on the rise—it increased by 2% in 2024. Plus, 31% of online revenue took the form of monthly giving, demonstrating a potential for creating long-term relationships with online donors.

Whether you’re creating an entire new website for your nonprofit from scratch or refreshing an existing web page, it helps to see how fellow nonprofits’ websites use web design best practices to improve user experiences and advance their own credibility.

This guide will guide you through the basics of nonprofit web design, share real examples of excellent design, and help you align your website with your digital strategy. We’ll explore:

Nonprofit Website Design: FAQs
12 Nonprofit Web Design Best Practices in Action
Additional Nonprofit Website Design Considerations
What Kanopi Brings to Web Design for Nonprofits

Nonprofit Website Design: FAQs

What are the benefits of strong nonprofit website design?

Your nonprofit’s web design is more than just another formality—it’s an important investment in your organization’s relationship with its supporters and its future success.

First, an easily navigable and aesthetically pleasing site gives your organization an air of legitimacy. A well-designed, thoughtfully-constructed site can boost users’ confidence and secure their decision to support your cause.

Credibility is important to individual supporters and institutional funders alike. For individual users, a top-quality site builds their trust in your organization and makes new supporters more likely to engage with your message—either by making a donation or by simply remembering your site the next time they’re looking to support a good cause.

Corporate sponsors, grantmakers, and foundation donors are also more likely to consider your organization a worthy candidate for funding if you have a professional-looking website. Your web design can communicate to funders that your nonprofit is well-organized and make it easier for them to access important information about your organization.

Web design is also helpful because it improves user experience (UX), which is important not only for showing supporters that you’re willing to put in the time and effort to improve their giving experience, but also for attaining higher retention and engagement rates. Your website gives supporters an easy way to get involved, whether that’s through donating online, finding and signing up for volunteer opportunities, or getting involved with fundraising.

What key information should every nonprofit website have?

Any user who comes across your website should be able to easily find basic information about your organization’s operations. These key details reassure users of your organization’s honesty and can inspire or reinforce a decision to contribute to your cause. Here are the resources every nonprofit should offer:

Resources for services and programs. Many nonprofit organizations have offerings available to all community members. If this is the case for your organization, you should have information about your services and programs clearly listed on your site so that potential beneficiaries can access them.
Fundraising information. Giving basic information on your current funding needs and disclosures regarding how your organization uses donations gives online donors the confidence to follow through with their gift.
Proof of impact. Users want to see just how much of a difference your organization makes. Demonstrate your impact by including testimonials, case studies, and statistics that reflect your organization’s greatest successes. Having real-life examples helps users connect with your mission and see the critical need for your nonprofit in your community.
Accreditations. Assure users of your credibility by sharing any relevant certifications your organization has earned. These might include a high Charity Navigator rating or a Candid Seal of Transparency.
Annual reports and other key data. These reports reinforce your organization’s impact, demonstrate financial transparency, and celebrate your supporters for their generosity.
Contact information. You may leave connections and donations on the table if users cannot easily get in touch with someone from your organization. Even if you think you have all the necessary information available on your site, users may have more questions, and it’s important to be there to address them.

How much does nonprofit web design cost?

In short, the cost depends on a lot of factors. Different nonprofits have different site needs and require varying levels of design support. Some organizations with the skill and bandwidth may be able to create inexpensive DIY websites, but most will need to invest in more professional website development. Some key considerations for cost include:

Refresh vs. full build: Are you building a website from scratch, or just looking to give your old one a makeover? Creating a totally new site will require more time and money, while refreshing an old one may be relatively more straightforward.
The level of customization your site requires: Larger nonprofits with diverse target audiences they need to impress will likely need a more distinctive branded website with robust custom functionality. Customization costs more than using basic templates, but for certain organizations, this cost is well worth it.
Ongoing support and maintenance costs: Your organization should budget for certain recurring costs associated with having a website. These include rights to your domain name, hosting fees, a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate, and ongoing maintenance costs for updates, security, and troubleshooting. These costs, too, can vary, depending on factors like your hosting provider or site size.

Typically, it’s worth it for nonprofits to invest in a web design partner. Expert designers can give your site the strong foundation it needs to reach a wider audience and share your compelling mission with the world. Working with a designer can also increase your return on investment (ROI) as a better website advances your organization’s authority and inspires more donations.

Learn how to build a website that lasts

12 Nonprofit Web Design Best Practices in Action

1. Simple Online Donation Process

Why it matters

Did you know the average donation page conversion rate is just 19%? The fact is, many donors will consider giving to your cause and then change their mind. This can happen for any number of reasons, some of which are not within your control. However, one major reason donors may turn away from your organization is a complicated giving process.

Hard-to-find pages, convoluted donation steps, or excessive form fields are frustrating and complicated, resulting in donor drop-off. A streamlined process, on the other hand, encourages more donations and inspires generosity.

Who’s doing this well?

charity:water’s site has a clear and simple donation process. Their homepage immediately prompts visitors to make a donation with minimal steps to complete the process; donors only need to provide their name, email, payment information, and donation amount.

They also offer suggested donation amounts, with options for both recurring and one-time donations clearly accessible. Take note of the number of payment options available; charity:water accepts card payments along with PayPal, stock, and even cryptocurrency. Their assurance that each donation is secure also lets donors know their site is legitimate and their gift protected.

Screenshot of the charity:water donation form

2. Clear Calls to Action

Why it matters

Your nonprofit’s website should do more than educate users on your mission and activities—it should invite and inspire each visitor to become more involved in your cause. Whether that’s by donating, volunteering, or subscribing to your newsletter, users need guidance on how to take the next steps in their involvement with your organization.

Good CTAs clearly explain to enthusiastic supporters how they can help promote your cause, increase your conversion rate, and encourage engagement across the board.

Who’s doing this well?

Feeding America’s site invites users to engage in a wide variety of ways. The homepage asks visitors to give before they even have to scroll, and the navigation bar on the top menu offers the opportunity to “Take Action.”

The “Take Action” page first impresses upon the reader a sense of urgency, sharing Feeding America’s mission and its progress towards its goal of ending hunger in the United States. Scroll a little further, and you’ll find these CTAs. These messages are concise, visually appealing, and action-oriented.

Screenshot of the Feeding America Take Action page

3. Consistent, Aesthetically Pleasing Visual Branding

Why it matters

Like it or not, your branding is a significant part of what users will remember from their interactions with your site, so make it count. Cohesive branding communicates your organization’s professionalism and builds trust with users, which is especially important for mission-driven organizations.

If your branding is clear enough, users are more likely to remember your organization and return to it later, even if they only interact with your site briefly. This recognition can boost donor retention and loyalty by helping supporters understand what makes your organization unique.

These benefits ultimately result in increased engagement with your organization and growing revenue.

Who’s doing this well?

The Malala Fund exemplifies branding that is both aesthetically appealing and cohesive across the site. Certain colors, shapes, and fonts repeat across the site, which provides a consistent experience for a user navigating through different pages. There are also graphic elements throughout, including pictures and videos. However, the page doesn’t look overcrowded, and the branding isn’t distracting. The overall look is distinctive, and doesn’t appear to have come from a template or to emulate any other organization.

Even when presenting statistics, the graphics follow the same color scheme. This consistency keeps the content aesthetically pleasing and allows the reader to focus on the information.

Screenshot of a bar chart on the Malala Fund Why Girls Education Page.

4. Compelling Storytelling

Why it matters

You likely already know the value of stories when communicating with supporters—stories humanize your impact and emotionally engage your audience, increasing the likelihood that they’ll choose to give. When you can’t directly communicate with a potential supporter or funder, your stories speak for you, showing users why your cause matters and how your organization makes a difference.

Who’s doing this well?

To Write Love on Her Arms makes storytelling a core part of its site. Using multiple media types, including writing, videos, and podcasts, it tells stories of hope. While most of its stories do not directly discuss TWLOHA’s services, it speaksfor itself by telling individual stories that demonstrate the importance of seeking help for mental health.

Screenshot of the To Write Love on Her Arms Blog.

5. Streamlined Navigation

Why it matters

Forcing users to traverse the entirety of your website just to find the one piece of information they need will create frustration and cause drop-off. Ideally, visitors should be able to find what they are looking for in just one or two clicks.

Creating a website with intuitive navigation encourages users to engage more deeply with your site, guiding them along a path to your desired outcome. A strategically organized website also improves your search engine optimization (SEO), allowing both users and search engines to browse your site more efficiently and access key information about your mission.

Who’s doing this well?

Doctors Without Borders streamlines its navigation by limiting the number of headers and consolidating them in a single collapsible menu bar. It prioritizes key pages and groups similar pages so that users can quickly find basic information.

Once you navigate to a new page, the site offers breadcrumbs—visual aids at the top of the page that show a user’s journey through the site—that help users retrace their steps. The site also provides a search bar, which enables users to find more specific information.

Screenshot of the Doctors Without Borders menu bar.

6. Mobile-Friendliness

Why it matters

These days, most people will be viewing your website from their phone or tablet. If your site is slow, difficult to navigate, or unattractive on mobile devices, they’re unlikely to stick around or switch to a different device. Plus, a sizable number of donations come in through mobile devices, meaning performance is key.

Improve your user experience—and your SEO—by creating a site optimized for mobile use. The more concise your mobile forms are, the better.

Who’s doing this well?

The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) has a site ideally designed for mobile devices, but that wasn’t always the case. COTA used to have an inaccessible site with slow loading times until they chose to work with Kanopi Studios to rebuild it.

Today, COTA’s site has all of the features of a great mobile site. The written content and photos easily adapt to different screen sizes, the pages load quickly, and the navigation buttons are large enough for touchscreen users. It also has a collapsible menu and short paragraphs, which both prevent cluttered screens.

Screenshot from a mobile device of the Children’s Organ Transplant Association homepage.

7. Accessibility

Why it matters

Over 25% of Americans live with disabilities. Creating an accessible site demonstrates that you care about your supporters, builds trust with all users, and ensures that anyone can engage with your mission. While building your site, ask yourself how each aspect would help or hinder a user living with disabilities.

Who’s doing this well?

Humane World for Animals, a nonprofit focused on animal protection, used Kanopi’s services to create a highly accessible website for all users. The result is a user-friendly online resource that offers high color contrast between foreground and background colors, optimizing the site’s legibility, particularly for users with dyslexia and/or visual impairments. Images on the site also include alternative text, which allows users with screen readers to understand exactly what each graphic element includes.

The project won a Web Excellence Award for Accessibility.

Screenshot of the Human World for Animals website homepage

Explore how Kanopi’s holistic accessibility approach can make your site inclusive to all

8. Trust Signals

Why it matters

Your organization can give users confidence to invest in it by demonstrating transparency and providing proof of its legitimacy. Logos from your partners, security badges, financials, and testimonials can all build your credibility with new visitors and reinforce established supporters’ decision to remain involved in your organization.

Building trust with users can have a big impact on your organization’s funding potential. 59% of donors consider trust to be the most important factor in their decision to give to a nonprofit. If you invest in earning their confidence, they’ll invest in you.

Who’s doing this well?

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) has trust signals in the site’s footer, where they’re clearly visible but not distracting.

The site provides links to its four-star rating from Charity Navigator and the Silver Transparency seal from Candid to prove that it earned these accreditations. The Silver Transparency link offers access to financial information, such as the organization’s revenue and expenses over the past year.

Additionally, listing the brand partnerships, especially with a reputable company like Subaru, signals to users that ASPCA has been well-vetted.

Screenshot of the footer of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals site.

9. High Performance

Why it matters

No one wants to deal with a site that never seems to load. Page speed tries users’ patience, resulting in a higher bounce rate and damaged conversion rate. Small delays can have big impacts; the bounce rate can almost double if users have to wait three seconds rather than two for a page to load.

Furthermore, a slow site will negatively impact your SEO ranking, making it harder for users to find your site.

Who’s doing this well?

Kanopi’s work with PEN America boosted their performance rating to a whopping 98. This indicates that their speed has increased through image optimization, browser caching, and enabling compression.

Screenshot of the PEN America homepage alongside a Lighthouse performance testing score of 98.

10. Strong Visual Imagery

Why it matters

Images are a surefire way to grab users’ attention. However, not all images are equally effective. Original, emotionally resonant photos enhance credibility and visual engagement far more than stock photos.

Who’s doing this well?

Girls Who Code has a wide variety of relevant images on their site. Pictures of volunteers and beneficiaries adorn their site and humanize their mission. Even their blog’s feature images are unique because they feature recurring colors and shapes as visual motifs.

Screenshot of the Girls Who Code homepage.

11. Clear Value for the Community

Why it matters

Demonstrating the value that your organization brings to its community is crucial for recruiting long-term support. When visitors see that they can solve a problem or access a vital resource directly on your site, they’ll start to view your nonprofit as much more than just a fundraising organization. They’ll see you as a credible digital location for information that improves their lives.

Who’s doing this well?

The San Francisco Opera website is a great example of a site that serves both as a digital tool for collecting donations and as an educational resource to help people find reliable information about “the oldest surviving opera company on the West Coast.” Specifically, the organization’s online archives are a user-friendly resource that helps visitors find information about past performances and notable people.

This arts and culture organization worked with Kanopi to ensure the archives are also secure and less prone to outages, providing an enhanced user experience and greater site protection.

The San Francisco Opera archives web page

12. Ongoing Maintenance and Performance Enhancement

Why it matters

Creating a website isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it venture. Nonprofit websites need regular updates, testing, and refinement—especially during campaign seasons or platform updates. Practicing good site maintenance is vital to your website’s continued success.

Who’s doing this well?

Since Kanopi helped build their site, First Tee has maintained its content and sleek look, as demonstrated by its consistent content updates and strong performance score. Remember to continually update your security, back up site data, and ensure all links are functioning properly.

Additional Nonprofit Website Design Considerations

A graphic of a woman sitting at a computer with thought bubbles asking questions, listed in text below

Before you start building or redesigning your site, ask yourself these questions:

Which CMS platform will you use? Popular platforms include WordPress and Drupal. Both platforms have their benefits; while WordPress offers ease and flexibility, Drupal offers more customization options and security measures for larger nonprofits.
How will you integrate your website into the rest of your digital marketing efforts? Using digital marketing tactics like email and social media to direct users to your website is a great way to drive engagement and increase donations. In addition, improving your SEO will bring more viewers to your site.
How will you incorporate AI and personalization into your website? Viewers love to feel like your website speaks directly to their wants and needs. AI can help make this a reality with technologies like chatbots that answer users’ questions or personalized call-to-action buttons based on users’ browsing habits.
How will you continually test your website to identify issues and opportunities? Using a variety of testing methods—including performance checks, manual and automated accessibility tests, user heat maps, and A/B testing—will help you stay on top of your game and address any issues that should arise.
What security measures will you take to keep your website (and visitors’ data) safe? For example, tools like Drupal can keep your site safe by enabling two-factor authentication, setting a password policy, and encrypting sensitive information.

What Kanopi Brings to Web Design for Nonprofits

Our website designers and developers have extensive experience working with nonprofits like yours. When you use Kanopi, you gain access to offerings like:

Deep audience research and persona development
Drupal and WordPress expertise
Baked-in accessibility
Interactive design
Mobile-first approach
User and content testing

Our services can help your organization create a brand new website, or we can work with your existing code to refresh or rebuild an old site. Even if your site has custom or complex code, we’ve got your back.

Final thoughts

Your nonprofit’s website is one of the most important points of contact between you and your supporters. It tells the story of your organization, demonstrates the importance of your work, and invites users to become a part of your story. Making your site as user-friendly and professional as it can be is a step towards your organization’s future, so take advantage of this chance to expand your reach and build your impact.

Want to learn more about creating a successful site for your nonprofit? Check out these additional examples:

The 30+ Best Nonprofit Websites to Look to for Inspiration. These top-tier examples will teach you more about what makes a great nonprofit site.
UX for Nonprofits: Best Practices for Clearer Communications. Use these tips to create the best possible user experience.
Drupal for Nonprofits: Is This CMS Right For You?. If you’re looking for a new CMS, use this guide to figure out if Drupal is the right fit.
Using WordPress for Nonprofits: The Ultimate Guide. WordPress is one of the most common CMS platforms for a reason—find out what it can do for your organization.

Website Navigation Patterns (and the Future of Navigation with AI Search)

Cliff Persaud Director of Strategy and Creative

If you manage a website for a nonprofit, university, or healthcare organization, chances are your audience isn’t just browsing for pleasure. They’re looking for something important: how to donate, how to register for classes, or how to schedule care for themselves or a loved one.

That’s why navigation is so critical. It’s not just about design, it’s about helping people find what they need quickly, clearly, and confidently.

In this post we’ll break down the most common website navigation patterns, along with a look at how AI-powered search is changing and how website owners and editors should think about navigation.

1. Top Navigation Bar

The navigation bar for San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Source: sfcm.edu/

What it is:

A horizontal menu across the top of the page, often with your logo on the left and links like “About,” “Programs,” or “Donate” on the right.

Why it works:

It’s familiar and expected
Keeps the most important pages of your website experience front and center
Easy to use on desktops, tablets and larger mobile devices (depending on the number of options)

Things to watch:

Too many items can clutter the user interface (UI)
Not suitable for websites with dense or complex information architecture

Where it fits:

Perfect for mission-driven websites with clear, high-level goals, which use a simple, action-oriented top menu like: Donate, Get Involved, Refer a Patient.

2. Sidebar Navigation

An example of navigation from the UCSF Department of Surgery, where the navigation menu is a vertical list on the left.

Source: surgeryeducation.ucsf.edu/people

What it is:

A vertical menu, often used on the left side of the screen.

Why it works:

Ideal for content-heavy sections, like articles or staff directories
Lets users see where they are in a hierarchy (e.g., Admissions → Graduate Programs → Apply)

Things to watch:

Can eat up valuable screen space on desktop
Doesn’t always translate well to mobile unless adapted
Better for secondary navigation, not primary navigation

Where it fits:

Great for internal portals, academic department pages, or patient resources where structure matters.

The mega menu navigation from Humane World for Animals

Source: www.humaneworld.org/en

What they are:

Hovering over a main menu reveals sub-pages. Mega menus take it further, organizing many links into columns, often with headings.

Why they work:

Help users browse complex topics (like academic programs or service offerings) without getting lost
Group related items for easy scanning
Opportunities to include richer content

Things to watch:

Need careful organization to avoid overwhelm
Don’t rely on hover alone, make sure they work well on tap interfaces too

Where they fit:

Larger institutions, like universities or hospital systems, that have complex information architecture or diverse audience groups.

4. Hamburger Menus

A navigation bar with a "hamburger" menu on the far right, which is indicated by an icon of three short lines stacked on top of each other

What it is:

The 3-line icon that hides and reveals the primary navigation, common on mobile devices.

Why it works:

Keeps mobile screens clean
Makes room for other important content like content call to action (CTAs)

Things to watch:

Some users don’t recognize or notice it
Always test it for clarity and make sure key pages are still discoverable
Ensure it works on tap and click
Should not be used on desktop or larger devices

Where it fits:

Every site should have a mobile-friendly version — hamburger menus are a reliable standard, but don’t hide everything if it’s critical.

5. Footer Navigation

The footer navigation for Flagler College

Source: www.flagler.edu/

What it is:

Links placed at the bottom of every page.

Why it works:

Offers a second chance to guide visitors
Good place for contact info, careers, privacy policy, and internal links

Things to watch:

Avoid cramming it with too many items
Keep it visually simple and organized
Consider including key items from your main navigation to create a secondary point for users to traverse your site

Where it fits:

All websites benefit from a helpful footer, it’s the safety net for people who scroll all the way down looking for answers.

The Next Shift: AI-Powered Navigation

Now for what’s coming next, and is already starting to show up on forward-looking websites … instead of clicking through layers of navigation, more and more visitors want to just ask a question:

“How do I apply for tuition assistance?”

“I need directions to the clinic.”

“How can I get involved beyond just donating?”

AI-powered search tools, including chat-style interfaces and natural language search are making this possible. It’s like giving your site a smart assistant that understands questions and points people to the right answer instantly.

Why it matters for your mission:

Saves time for visitors (and staff)
Reduces friction points, especially during stressful moments (like seeking care or emergency help)
Helps users find specific, deep content without navigating complex menus

AI tools can supplement your menus, not replace them. For example, a donor might browse your navigation, but a returning volunteer could just ask the chatbot “Where’s the login page for last year’s volunteers?”

As more people expect intuitive experiences everywhere, organizations that invest in smart search tools, especially on high-traffic or information-dense sites, will have an opportunity to stand out.

Choose the right navigation pattern for your needs.

Good navigation helps people find what they need with the least amount of friction. Whether someone wants to make a donation or explore academic programs, choosing the right navigation pattern is critical for making it easier for users to connect with the content that matters most. It’s all about removing friction and guiding people in the right direction.

Designing for Healthy Aging: Crafting Inclusive Digital Experiences for Seniors

Cliff Persaud Director of Strategy and Creative

When designing for healthy aging, it’s important to look beyond just the visual experience. We need to consider how content, user experience, and functionality come together to shape the digital experiences of seniors navigating the web.

One of the biggest shifts is generational: Gen X is now entering its senior years. These individuals are in their late 40s, 50s, and early 60s. (Sorry if it shocks you to see this in black & white, fellow Gen Xers, but there it is… we just report the facts.) As this shift occurs, website owners and content creators need to adjust how they present information online.

To understand this change, let’s look at how Gen X compares to previous generations. Seniors are typically seen as the least tech-savvy of all demographics. But over the last decade, as web technologies have matured and prioritized user experience over visuals, we’ve seen that seniors are adapting.

After all, Gen X has grown up with technology. They’ve evolved alongside it. They are more technologically sophisticated than Boomers. They already use the web in powerful and meaningful ways and expect a dynamic and evolving experience, not a static one. In other words: they’re ready to engage with changing digital landscapes.

Now let’s compare Gen X with Millennials (Gen Y). Both generations want ownership over their digital experiences, but how they define that ownership is different. Millennials want to personalize their experience. They want control over the interface to change colors, reorder layouts and adjust settings.

Gen X, on the other hand, seeks mastery. They’re more willing to take the time to learn how an interface works, even if it’s not perfectly optimized for them at first. They understand that websites evolve and are ready to adapt.

As Gen X and Y are entering their senior years and make up 46% of the US population, they will soon be the largest segment of supporters for most non-profit and educational organizations. Traditionally seniors donate more consistently, contribute higher dollar amounts, and often share causes with friends and family. Crafting intuitive and inclusive experiences for this newly senior demographic is a strategic opportunity to build lasting relationships and boost the impact of your mission over the next decade.

A chart showing how seniors 65+ are the largest donors for charitable organizations over any other younger age group, with an average of $1567 per 65+ donor.

This leads into how we can design effective websites for seniors so they can get the information they need, and you can get the conversions you want. At Kanopi, when we talk about design, we mean more than just visuals. We take a holistic approach, incorporating content, user experience, and functionality.

First, let’s talk about content.

Tell your story. Emotional storytelling is a powerful way to engage older audiences. As people age, they become more receptive to emotional connections. Use testimonials, reviews, and user-generated content. This helps build a connection between the user and your organization and can turn users into advocates.

Next, focus on messaging and clarity.

Gen X and Boomers have been marketed to their entire lives. They know a sales pitch when they see one. They value authenticity and are skeptical of hyperbole. When we work with clients, we recommend acknowledging user struggles, empathizing with their experiences, and offering specific content solutions. Most importantly, guide them to what they need rather than simply telling them what to do.

Keep things simple. Stick to one idea per content block. Don’t overload the user with too much at once. Instead, craft a journey. Let users absorb information in small, manageable chunks. This makes your content easier to navigate and understand. It also helps users reach their goals, which improves conversions and ROI.

Refine the user experience, starting with mobile.

About one-third of Boomers don’t use cell phones and prefer desktop. But over 90% of Gen Xers own smartphones and use them for everything from casual browsing to task-focused activities. This means your mobile experience can’t be an afterthought. It has to be fully optimized and offer the same functionality as your desktop site.

A chart demonstrating smartphone ownership by generation, with Millennials in the lead with 98%, followed by GenX with 90% and Boomers at only 33%.

Shorten the user journey.

Evaluate your information architecture. Reduce the number of steps required to complete a task. Give users clear feedback on their progress during multi-step processes, like booking or checkout. If an error occurs, explain it in plain language and show users how to fix it. Empower them to learn and troubleshoot on their own.

Managing complexity is key. As the web grows more complex, seniors will need simplified pathways. Break large tasks into smaller steps using multi-stage forms. Let users save their progress and return later. This flexibility supports a better experience.

Train your users.

Gen X is willing to learn, so help them. Offer training videos, FAQs, how-tos, tooltips, and contextual help menus. Even chatbots can guide them through interfaces. Embed learning into their journey so they can grow more confident over time.

Color combinations matter.

Color is the first thing users experience. As people age, vision shifts. Blue cells in the eye fade, making it harder to see blue. If your brand uses blue for important UI elements, support it with sizing, shapes, or iconography. Avoid using blue and yellow together — or red and green. These combinations can be hard to distinguish.

Use a contrast checker.

According to the National Library of Medicine, contrast sensitivity starts declining after age 40 and may be reduced by up to 83% by age 80. A 4.5:1 ratio is considered accessible, but 7:1 is ideal. Proper contrast helps users distinguish navigation, CTAs, and form inputs. WebAIM is a good contrast checker.

NO ALL CAPS (or rather, no all caps).

ALL CAPS reduces readability and disrupts the ability to quickly scan content, especially on mobile. Increase font size and use legible typefaces instead.

Put the ‘fun’ in functionality.

Personalized support helps users feel seen. Chatbots and virtual assistants offer real-time help. Provide access to help resources, contact options, and support channels. Boomers may prefer phone calls, while Gen X leans toward email or chat. Give users multiple ways to get assistance.

Support assistive technologies.

As Gen X ages, they’ll experience many of the same mobility and vision challenges as older Boomers. Make sure your site works with screen readers and voice recognition tools. This not only increases usability but also makes your users feel heard and supported.

Everyone benefits (including site owners)

So what are the benefits of doing all this?

You reduce stigma. A well-designed site helps seniors feel welcome and avoids making them feel like outsiders who have to jump through hoops.
You improve accessibility and usability. And with that comes an SEO bonus: accessible sites rank better.
You boost engagement. Seniors trust and rely heavily on word-of-mouth (especially Boomers). A positive experience encourages them to share it with friends and family, expanding your reach.
Ultimately, good design improves lives. It’s what happens when people can easily find the information, services or solutions they need.

Keep measuring, keep improving.

It’s a question we often hear our clients ask:

“How do you measure the success of implementing these practices?”

At Kanopi, we’re big believers in what comes next. We don’t consider a website “done” when it launches. Instead, we support it over time through regular checks, testing and user feedback, and continue to refine the experience to meet evolving goals. We use both qualitative and quantitative methods to track success, using both data and direct insights from users.

If something isn’t working like it should, we make changes. Ongoing improvement helps each site stay effective and relevant.

Want more? We held a webinar about this.

Interface of ON24's webinar platform with Cliff Persaud giving a webinar on best practices on building a website for an aging population.

Cliff Persaud is our wise yet not-quite-senior-aged Creative & Strategy Director here at Kanopi. If you’re interested in delving into more of his cranial treasures, check out his other blog posts below. Even better, set aside 30 minutes to watch his webinar on website best practices for aging populations.

How to Design a Better Academic Catalog

Anne Stefanyk CEO/Founder

How to create a smarter, simpler experience for your prospective students

In higher education, your academic catalog is more than a list. It serves as one of the most powerful tools for converting prospective students in your digital ecosystem. But too often, these catalogs feel like information overload instead of a helpful resource.

Here at Kanopi, we believe exploring program options shouldn’t feel like trying to find a pimple on a grasshopper. With hundreds (or even thousands) of offerings across multiple campuses, modalities, and degrees, it’s easy for prospective students to feel lost.

This is just one reason why our design strategy is guided by one overarching, all-encompassing principle:

Don’t make me think.

If you’re a higher ed marketer, here are some ways you can apply this simple principle to design an academic catalog that transforms your own complex program data into intuitive, user-friendly digital experiences:

Let Users Guide Their Own Journey

When it comes to catalog navigation, filters are your best friend. Implement robust, accessible faceted search systems that let users narrow their options based on:

Area of study
Degree level (undergraduate, graduate, certificate)
Campus or delivery format (online, in-person, hybrid)
Geographic location
Start term or admission requirements

By allowing users to set their own parameters, you’ll cut down on information noise and turn the catalog from a data dump into a personalized discovery tool.

Personalize with Guided Exploration

Imagine a student landing on your catalog page and seeing a simple prompt:

“What would you like to study?”
“Where would you like to study?”
“What kind of degree are you pursuing?”

This is progressive disclosure in action. It simplifies decision-making by breaking complex choices into small and manageable steps. By leading users through a tailored journey, you reduce cognitive load and build confidence at every click.

Side-by-Side Program Comparisons

Once a student narrows their list, they want to compare their options quickly and clearly. Make this easier for them by enabling side-by-side comparisons of key metrics like:

Tuition and fees
Program duration
Delivery format
Career outcomes

This helps students quickly compare their options and gives marketers a clear way to highlight each program’s strengths.

Clear Visual Hierarchy = Better Engagement

Long-form academic content can feel dense. There are a few ways you can help make it easier to digest:

Plain, accessible language
Consistent layout patterns (like tabs and accordions)
Strong visual hierarchy for easy scanning

It’s all about clarity and flow. The goal is to help users move through content easily, without strain or confusion.

Modular, Scalable, and Future-Proof

Content scalability is especially important when you’re managing hundreds of programs. That’s why we recommend building with modular design in CMS platforms like Drupal and WordPress. Program data entered once can be repurposed across multiple views, pages, and audiences. That means less duplication, better consistency, and easier updates.

Built for Mobile, Optimized for Speed

Prospective students are mobile-first. Ensure every catalog experience is fully responsive and performance-optimized. Whether someone is researching from a laptop, tablet, or smartphone, they’ll enjoy a fast, seamless experience.

Thoughtful Use of AI for Discovery

AI can enhance search and discovery with tools like:

Intent-based search
Smart recommendations
Behavior-driven prompts

At the same time, it’s essential to maintain transparency, ethical oversight and user control to ensure AI is always used responsibly. Because technology should support student exploration, not hijack it.

Design your academic catalog in a way that makes the complex simple

In the end, your academic catalog should feel like a trusted guide and not an obstacle course. Whether you offer 50 programs or 5,000, your audience deserves a clear, user-friendly experience that respects their time and needs.

Accessibility in the Design Process

Cliff Persaud Director of Strategy and Creative

(Note: If you’re short on time, click here for the tl:dr summary.)

We take web accessibility seriously here at Kanopi. It’s a key part of being an inclusive organization, which is one of our core values.

It’s also because we need to be. And so do you.

Let’s start with the fact that it just makes good business sense.

According to CDC stats, 27% of adults in the U.S. alone are permanently disabled (which itself is just one small portion of the entire disability spectrum). If your website doesn’t address their accessibility concerns, you’re essentially denying them the opportunity to become your customer, member, subscriber, applicant, or whatever your website goals may be.

It’s also worth mentioning that, depending on the nature of your organization, you could even face potential legal liability if your website isn’t properly accessible.

In practice, it means we’ve baked accessibility considerations directly into our processes, throughout every department and team. For example, when our strategy team creates user personas, they ensure at least one of them has a specific accessibility need along with the standard set of attributes.

Since many of the considerations regarding website accessibility are design considerations, our design team has created an Accessibility Checklist that we apply to everything we create. It’s based on the A11y Project plus our own team’s experience, and it’s meant to help ensure our designs meet the standards set forth by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

The A11y Project provides the most comprehensive explanation of WCAG. So, to quote them verbatim:

The WCAG is a shared standard for web content accessibility for individuals, organizations, and governments. There are three levels of accessibility compliance in the WCAG, which reflect the priority of support:

A: Essential — If this isn’t met, assistive technology may not be able to read, understand, or fully operate the page or view.
AA: Ideal Support — Required for multiple government and public body websites.
AAA: Specialized Support — This is typically reserved for parts of websites and web apps that serve a specialized audience.

As A11y points out, this list by itself won’t make your site fully accessible to everyone, but it will go a long way toward improving the overall user experience.

Kanopi Design Accessibility Checklist

Color Contrast

We check text contrast to prioritize readability, and meet a minimum WCAG AA-compliant 4.5:1 contrast ratio.

We also ensure that color contrast for non-text items (graphical objects, for example) meets the minimum standard 3:1.

We use Webaim’s contrast checker tool to ensure our contrast ratios are compliant.

Typography

WCAG guidelines require that text can be resized up to 200 percent without losing content or functionality, and without relying on assistive technology. This rule does not apply to captions or images of text.

We choose fonts that work well at both large and small sizes. They feature clear, distinct letterforms that are easy to read in many situations. This helps accommodate the variation found across different mobile devices.

We use a minimum size of 12 points or 16 pixels for all body copy.

Animation & Motion

While most mobile and desktop operating systems now include ‘reduce motion’ settings, websites themselves should also allow for further controls. WCAG also states that users should always be able to exert some control over how they experience animation in websites.

This is why the websites we design, build and support allow users to play and stop animations as it suits them. We also use motion strategically, so it enhances the experiences for some users without impeding the experiences for others.

Layout Design

We make sure all user interface elements in our designs are sized and spaced to make interaction (i.e. via ‘tap’ or alternative interfaces) as simple as possible for users with reduced motor functionality.

In addition to being compliant with WCAG guidelines regarding text spacing and other interface elements, it also aligns with more general design best practices — in this case, Jakob’s Law.

Accessibility benefits all users.

We’ve found that adhering to accessibility guidelines not only opens your websites to potential new users, but it creates a better user experience for everyone.

These are just a sample of the user benefits accessible websites provide:

Reduced friction points within the website experience
Easier to consume and engage with content
Better mobile experience
Wider audience reach
Reduced bounce rates
SEO benefits
Higher conversion rates

Feel free to borrow this checklist for your own organization, or formulate your own list that best reflects your user research. And if your website needs to be more accessible, a major redesign might be the right step. If you’re not sure, we’re here to help.

If you’re interested in learning more about accessibility, check out these posts:

TL:DR Design Accessibility Checklist

Note: As per our Accessibility Expert Candice Dexter, we should note that these checklist items apply to more than one rule each; but we’re focusing here on its primary compliance rule.

Color Contrast

Check for:

We prioritize fonts that perform at large and small sizes We test text contrast to prioritize readability, and meet a minimum AA-compliant 4.5:1 contrast ratio.

We also ensure that color contrast for non-text items (such as graphical objects) meets the minimum standard 3:1.

To comply with:

WCAG 2.0 Level AA Contrast Guideline 1.4.3
Contrast Checker: webaim.org

Typography

Check for:

We prioritize fonts that perform at large and small sizes that have distinct, easily identifiable letterforms. A minimum size of 12 points or 16 pixels is used for all body copy.

We stick with fonts that can be easily read in a variety of scenarios, to account for the variation that can occur with mobile devices.

To comply with:

WCAG 2.0 Level AA Contrast Guideline 1.4.4

Animation & Motion

Check for:

Users should always be able to exert some control over how they experience animation in websites. While most mobile and desktop operating systems now include ‘reduce motion’ settings, websites themselves should also allow for further controls.

The websites we design, build and support give users the ability to play and stop animations as it suits them. We also use motion strategically, to enhance the experiences for some users without impeding others.

To comply with:

WCAG 2.0 Level A Contrast Guideline 2.2.2

Layout Design

Check for:

To comply with:

WCAG Level AA Guideline 1.4.12

Accessible personas: the key to inclusive web design

Natalie Yelton Content Strategist & Copywriter

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates over 15% of the world’s population — or 1.3 billion people — self-identify as having a disability.

That’s why creating inclusive and accessible websites isn’t just a nice-to-have in today’s online world; it’s an absolute necessity.

As hospitals, universities, and nonprofits strive to meet the needs of everyone who visits their websites, it becomes all the more crucial to understand the diverse challenges folks face when attempting to interact with inaccessible content (and the impact this can have on customer acquisition, applications, and fundraising.)

Here at Kanopi, we’d argue that to understand what people with disabilities need from your website, you should develop accessible personas — detailed representations of your different website visitors, particularly those with disabilities.

This blog explores why accessible personas are essential, how they help design better user experiences and the best practices for developing them. Let’s get started!

What are accessible personas?

We’ve written about them before here, but simply put, a persona is a fictional yet data-driven representation of your target customer, written as if the persona were a real person. It’s documented in a way that lists everything from demographic information to hobbies, to pain points, and motivators.

A persona is a tool you can use to create sales and marketing materials that have a specific target user in mind, rather than a generic one. They are designed to guide content writers, designers, and developers in crafting websites that can be easily accessed and navigated by everyone, regardless of their abilities.

But what many personas lack is taking accessibility needs into account. We can’t forget or ignore that site visitors can have various impairments, including permanent, temporary, and situational disabilities (see below for more on those). This is particularly critical in healthcare, where users come to a website with any number of accessibility needs and need information quickly and easily.

Example: a persona for a UCSF Department of Urology patient

By focusing on different disability types — such as mobility, visual, hearing, cognitive, and neurological impairments — organizations can better anticipate the needs of folks who may face barriers when interacting with their websites.

Dyslexia alone affects 20% of the population and represents 80–90% of all those with learning disabilities. It’s the most common of all neurocognitive disorders. Limiting all capitalization and breaking up large walls of text to add white space are just a few design solutions that help ensure your site content is dyslexia-friendly.

It’s also essential to consider the three different types of impairments:

Permanent impairments, like blindness or permanent mobility limitations.
Temporary impairments, such as an eye injury or recovering from surgery.
Situational impairments, like those faced by a person in bright sunlight or within a noisy environment.

There’s a strong business case for developing accessible personas.

Improved usability for everyone

Accessible personas help organizations understand the unique challenges faced by people with disabilities, leading to more inclusive and user-friendly web design.

The insights drawn from accessible personas ensure that accessibility isn’t an afterthought but an integrated part of the design process.

By considering different abilities, you create a better experience not only for folks with disabilities but for everyone — whether they’re navigating your website with a keyboard, voice control, or even in a noisy or visually cluttered space.

Helps meet legal & ethical obligations

Most organizations must comply with accessibility laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Then there’s the issue of ethics. Put simply, ensuring your website is accessible to people with disabilities means equal access to your site’s content for all, not just a few.

Enhances content, UX, & design

Creating accessible personas encourages teams to focus on key aspects of accessibility, such as content clarity, navigation ease, and intuitive design.

For instance, a persona with a hearing impairment might require captions for videos and a visual indicator for sound cues.

Additionally, a person with a visual impairment might need large text options and high-contrast colors.

These solutions — along with many more outlined in our content scorecard — help ensure that everyone who visits your website can read, navigate and use your content as intended.

Fosters empathy & inclusion

Developing personas based on real-world impairments fosters empathy among strategists, content writers, designers, and developers.

When teams are guided by detailed personas that represent real-world people, you can create a stronger emotional connection to your organization’s accessibility goals.

This empathy can shift the focus from mere compliance to a genuine commitment to creating more inclusive and usable digital experiences for everyone.

Best practices for developing accessible personas

Consider permanent, temporary, & situational disabilities

Disabilities can vary widely in terms of permanence. Some folks might have lifelong disabilities, like blindness, while others might have temporary conditions, such as an eye injury.

Situational impairments — like a noisy environment or bright lighting — also affect how people interact with your website.

Account for diverse impairments

A disability can impact someone’s senses and abilities differently, including:

Mobility: People with limited motor control may require options to navigate your website without precise mouse movements. Ensure your site provides keyboard navigation, large buttons, and clear visual cues for all clickable elements.
Visual: Permanent impairments like blindness or color blindness and temporary issues such as cataracts or eye injuries require solutions including alt text, high-contrast colors, and adjustable font sizes.
Hearing: People with hearing impairments need captions and transcripts for videos and visual cues for audio content.
Cognitive & Neurological: People with cognitive impairments benefit from clear, simple language, step-by-step instructions, and tutorials that help them navigate your website easily.

Embed accessibility in Drupal

Once you’ve designed your personas, make it easy to implement how you’ll meet people’s needs.

The Drupal A11y Project Checklist created and maintained by developers at Kanopi offers helpful, integrated guidance on interaction methods, navigation, and structure for individuals, organizations, and governments.

Screenshot of the Drupal.org A11y project checklist

Practical solutions for a variety of impairments

Avoid taking a one-size-fits-all approach. Different solutions assist different impairments. For example:

Mobility Impairments: Ensure folks can navigate your site using their keyboard or screen reader. Avoid requiring precise mouse movements, which can be difficult for people with motor impairments.
Visual Impairments: Craft high-contrast color schemes and resizable text options, and use descriptive alt text for images and videos. These features benefit people with blindness, color blindness, and even temporary impairments like eye injuries.
Hearing Impairments: Use captions, transcripts, and visual cues to replace audio information. Additionally, provide clear, concise language to ensure understanding.
Cognitive Impairments: Simplify language, use step-by-step instructions, and minimize complex interactions. Visual aids can be beneficial for people with cognitive or neurological impairments.
Neurological impairments: Avoid extreme flash and strobe of visual content, parallax effects, and scroll-triggered animations, considering the needs of the 50 million people worldwide who have epilepsy and the 1.8 million adults worldwide who have bilateral vestibular hypofunction (BVH).

Where to start for creating your own accessible personas

The UK Government Digital Service (GDS) has developed seven different open-source accessibility personas that you can use as a reference to get started. However, the GDS also notes that creating accessible personas is not a substitute for including people with access needs in your user testing.

Guidelines from Microsoft’s Inclusive Design methodology provide a comprehensive approach to developing accessible personas as well.

Accessible personas not only humanize your site’s users but also help prioritize and align content, UX, and design solutions to better meet their needs.

At Kanopi, we create personas from many different sources, including:

user research
interviews with real people
data gathered through analytics
and market knowledge best practices.

We’ve developed accessible personas for many organizations, including Flagler College, the Gilder Lehrman Hamilton Education Program, and the UCSF Department of Urology.

While it may seem like a daunting task, taking small, incremental steps can improve your site’s accessibility over time. For example, you could start by focusing on your website’s forms.

The 22 Best Hospital Website Design Examples to Inspire You

Allison Manley

For people facing medical issues, quickly finding the right healthcare provider is essential. Increasingly, patients are browsing hospital websites to find the information they need. With 82% of patients using search engines to find a healthcare provider, hospital websites have become essential to the patient journey.

As a result, your hospital needs to offer a robust, user-friendly hospital website design that exceeds patient expectations. This guide will explore how to optimize your website design through the following sections:

What is the hospital website user journey?
Why do searchers visit hospital websites?
22 stellar examples of effective hospital web design
Features of successful hospital website design
Work with Kanopi to optimize your hospital website

Here, you can gather inspiration and key insights for your hospital website build or refresh project.

What is the hospital website user journey?

The first step of designing an effective, engaging hospital website is to understand how your website fits into the overall patient experience. With the right strategies, your website can turn casual internet visitors into long-term, loyal patients of your healthcare facility. This is best illustrated through the steps of the hospital website user journey:

Hospital Website User Journey

Turn casual visitors into long-term, loyal patients by optimizing every digital touchpoint.

Click a journey phase above to view details.

Key Digital Elements That Support This Phase

Awareness: Users discover your website through a Google search, social media post, recommendation from a family member or friend, referral from another website, etc.
Research: Visitors browse your website to understand your offerings, including your specialties, healthcare professionals on staff, appointment booking process, and other services and resources.
Decision: Users determine whether to become patients and schedule an appointment. This will depend on whether your website answers their questions and offers a convenient, simple booking process.
Empowerment: Your hospital empowers patients to take control of their health through updated patient records, clear next actions, and ongoing two-way communications between patients and healthcare professionals.
Retention: Patients decide whether to remain at your healthcare organization or leave for another institution. The online experience you offer them, such as the patient portal and online payment process, plays into their decision.

As you can see, your hospital website plays a significant role in a patient’s perception of your institution and their satisfaction with their care. Your job is to facilitate each patient’s journey to make it as easy as possible for them to find the services and resources they need.

Measure your hospital site's success with our content scorecard

Why do searchers visit hospital websites?

Put yourself in your patients’ shoes: When using a hospital website, what features, resources, and design elements would you expect to see?

94% of website first impressions are based on design, and 61% of website users will go to another website if they don’t find what they’re looking for within about five seconds. That means you have limited time to capture your audience’s attention and help them complete their intended actions.

To provide a positive experience for your community and encourage retention, we recommend taking a patient-first approach to healthcare web design. To do so, keep in mind the following things visitors want to be able to accomplish through your website.

Users want to:

Therefore, you should:

Find information quickly.

Avoid popup ads.
Use card design or content grids to make all homepage information immediately visible. Avoid carousels, which can lead to visitors missing some crucial information.
Limit multi-level menus to a single tier for each main category. This avoids overwhelming users with too many menu options.

Use your website without facing accessibility barriers.

Choose a content management system (CMS) that offers built-in accessibility features, such as the ability to easily add alternative text to images.
Don’t use animations or auto-playing videos—they can be distracting, slow down performance, and are inaccessible for some audiences.
Use sufficient color contrast. The WCAG recommends a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. Check your website’s contrast with WebAim’s free Contrast Checker.
Test your website for accessibility using both manual and automated tests.

Access simple, actionable next steps relevant to their needs.

Create distinct pathways for each primary user group, such as current patients, new patients, donors, healthcare professionals, etc. Use calls to action (CTAs) that speak to different user needs to help visitors navigate your site.
Design your website around your users’ needs by keeping patient-centered content at the forefront of your site and content intended for healthcare professionals in a lesser position.
Include just a handful of homepage buttons/calls to action (CTAs) to keep the next actions straightforward.

See proof of your hospital’s credibility.

Use authentic, unposed images—not stock photos.
Include credentials in your healthcare professional directory, including educational background, certifications, awards, etc.
Spotlight your hospital’s high rankings in industry resources like the U.S. World News & Report Best Hospitals rankings.
Incorporate patient testimonials and case studies.

Keep their personal information secure.

Update your site regularly to quickly deploy security patches and fixes.
Leverage security measures like SSL encryption and PCI compliance for transactions.
Keep patient health information private by leveraging HIPAA-compliant analytics tools.

22 stellar examples of effective hospital web design

We’ve rounded up top hospital website design examples and the stand-out features that make each example successful. Explore each website to gather inspiration for your hospital’s website design.

Cleveland Clinic | Clear CTAs
Mayo Clinic | Simple Search
Colorado Health Foundation | Enhanced user experience
The University of Kansas Health System | Prominent credibility markers
Seattle Children’s Hospital | Compelling video
Northwestern Medicine | Eye-catching branding
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital | Impact stories
UCSF Department of Surgery | Intuitive user experience
Emory Healthcare | Effective location browsing
Boston Children’s Hospital | Powerful homepage hero image
Gila Regional Medical Center | Multilingual capabilities
Massachusetts General Hospital | User-friendly CTAs
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center | Patient-first language
Cincinnati Children’s | Convenient online payments
McLean Hospital | Data transparency
UCLA Medical Center | Authoritative content
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center | Simple online donation page
NYU Langone Hospitals | Convenient appointment scheduling
Northside Hospital | Compelling statistics
Saint Francis Health System | Attention-grabbing imagery
The George Washington University Hospital | Online health risk assessments
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center | User-friendly patient information

1. Cleveland Clinic | Clear CTAs

The homepage for the Cleveland Clinic, a top hospital website design example

Clear homepage CTAs address common patient needs (find a doctor, get directions, schedule an appointment).
A robust health library answers common medical questions and concerns.
The homepage emphasizes the hospital’s commitment to patient-centered care.

2. Mayo Clinic | Simple search

The homepage search function makes it easy to research health concerns and conditions.
Users can explore robust biographies for all staff members to make informed decisions when choosing a doctor.
There are options to schedule appointments online or by phone, with additional FAQs to make the onboarding process smoother.

3. Colorado Health Foundation | Enhanced user experience

Homepage of The Colorado Health Foundation website

The site is highly accessible; the Colorado Health Foundation worked with the web design experts at Kanopi to increase the site’s Lighthouse score (a measure of page performance and accessibility) to 95/100.
We also worked with the organization to streamline the top-level menu to the most important items, simplifying the user experience for visitors.
The homepage content cards simplify the user journey by speaking to visitors’ FAQs.

4. The University of Kansas Health System | Prominent credibility markers

Homepage for the University of Kansas Health System, a top hospital web design example

The hospital’s U.S. News & World Report ranking is featured on the homepage to demonstrate credibility.
The site makes it simple to find relevant news and events about the hospital by including links on the homepage.
Patients can easily request medical records, empowering them to access their health information.

5. Seattle Children’s Hospital | Compelling video

Homepage of the Seattle Children’s Hospital website

The homepage features a compelling video (that would be even better if it weren’t auto-playing to enhance accessibility).
The site also spotlights its high U.S. News & World Report ranking.
Families can access detailed information to prepare and feel more comfortable ahead of a visit.

6. Northwestern Medicine | Eye-catching branding

Homepage for Northwestern Medicine, a leading hospital web design example

The eye-catching branding uses the hospital’s color palette.
There are multiple ways to find locations by name, specialty, or location type.
Compelling patient stories and case studies showcase what it’s like to seek care at this institution.

7. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital | Impact stories

Homepage for St. Jude, a top hospital website design example

The site features emotional impact stories about patient experiences.
Comprehensive articles and explanations of the hospital’s research demonstrate authority.
A simple online donation process with options to dedicate a gift in honor or memory of someone empowers visitors to show their support.

8. UCSF Department of Surgery | Intuitive user experience

Kanopi worked with UCSF to organize and reinvigorate their website, identifying user personas and reformatting the site for a more intuitive user experience.
Micro-interactions, transition animations, and soft shapes add visual intrigue without distracting or overwhelming users.
Imagery focuses on showing real people, adding authenticity and relatability to the site.
Our partnership earned multiple awards for user experience and health care services.

9. Emory Healthcare | Effective location browsing

Homepage for Emory Healthcare, representing one of the best hospital website designs

The primary homepage CTA (“Make an Appointment”) speaks directly to the most common user need.
How-to videos offer guidance for using the hospital’s patient portal.
Users can browse locations by care type or specialty.

10. Boston Children’s Hospital | Powerful homepage hero image

Homepage for the Boston Children’s Hospital website

The homepage hero image is compelling and its static nature makes it less distracting than a rotating image carousel.
Integrations with social platforms like Instagram give a unique feel to the homepage content.
Videos incorporated throughout the site provide information for families looking to book virtual or in-person appointments.

11. Gila Regional Medical Center | Multilingual capabilities

Homepage for Gila Regional Medical Center, a top hospital website design

The homepage features credibility markers such as ratings and awards from credible organizations.
Resources are available in both English and Spanish, increasing the site’s language accessibility.
The website sticks to the most relevant details for patients, avoiding overloading itself with confusing or distracting information.

12. Massachusetts General Hospital | User-friendly CTAs

Homepage for Massachusetts General Hospital, a top hospital web design

The homepage buttons saying “Find a doctor,” “Appointments and referrals,” and “View our treatments” make it easy for patients to find what they’re looking for.
A simple internal search function offers a convenient way to research conditions and treatments.
The site is available in multiple languages, making it accessible to a wider audience.

13. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center | Patient-first language

Homepage of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

The homepage leverages patient-first language using “you” pronouns.
The homepage has one hero CTA focused on patients’ needs (“Make an appointment”), keeping the page uncluttered and useful for visitors in a hurry.
The website features timely public notices for security incidents, keeping its community informed.

14. Cincinnati Children’s | Convenient online payments

The homepage celebrates the hospital’s ranking of #1 Children’s Hospital in the Nation by U.S. News & World Report.
The “I want to” CTA in the top menu allows users to quickly find the resources they need.
Clear billing options are outlined on the website, including convenient online, phone, and mail options.

15. McLean Hospital | Data transparency

Privacy incidents are highlighted directly on the homepage, empowering patients to understand potential threats to their personal data.
Treatment options are arranged by age, making it easier for visitors to find relevant information.
The hospital offers convenient online mental health webinars and courses for community members to feel more empowered and take control of their mental health.

16. UCLA Medical Center | Authoritative content

Homepage for the UCLA Medical Center, a top hospital web design example

The hospital’s credentials are highlighted right on the homepage: “#1 in California and Los Angeles, ‘Best Hospitals’ National Honor Roll, 35 consecutive years”
Users can translate the website into 10 different languages.
Visitors can search by location, provider, medical services, and clinical trials to find the practice that’s right for them.

17. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center | Simple online donation page

The hospital’s user-friendly internal search function is highlighted directly on the homepage.
The online donation page is streamlined and empowering, giving donors the option to donate to a specific area or give in honor or memory of someone.
The website uses clear statistics to highlight the organization’s positive impact and beneficial research.

18. NYU Langone Hospitals | Convenient appointment scheduling

Homepage for the NYU Langone Health website, a top hospital web design example

Users can search doctors by specialty, condition, treatment, or name.
The homepage has clear links to the online patient portal.
Visitors can schedule virtual urgent care visits.

19. Northside Hospital | Compelling statistics

The homepage “I am” CTA makes it easy for visitors to self-select a user group that matches their needs.
The homepage also features compelling statistics speaking to the hospital’s positive impact.
The website’s patient stories use photos and direct quotes to convey patient experiences.

20. Saint Francis Health System | Attention-grabbing imagery

Homepage for Saint Francis Health System

The homepage incorporates an eye-catching hero image.
News articles feature the hospital’s high quality rankings from credible organizations.
Users can search for a provider by specialty, location, or insurance.

21. The George Washington University Hospital | Online health risk assessments

Homepage for the George Washington University Hospital, a top hospital web design example

The homepage emphasizes the hospital’s awards and rankings, demonstrating credibility.
The site spotlights a wide variety of patient services, including spiritual care, language services, and access to medical records.
Online health risk assessments help patients take charge of their health.

22. The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center | User-friendly patient information

The homepage for The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center website

The homepage CTA speaks directly to patients who may feel a sense of urgency, saying “When your illness or injury can’t wait, the choice is clear.”
The online Patient & Visitor Guide answers common patient FAQs to help visitors feel more comfortable with their stay.
The site highlights the hospital’s commitment to health equity, including information about its roadmap and initiatives to achieve health equity.

Features of successful hospital website design

Now that you better understand what your audience wants to see from your hospital website, let’s summarize the specific features your site should have to fulfill their needs. Successful hospital websites have the following elements:

Information about location, parking, and other logistics
Staff/doctor directory
Comprehensive educational content covering medical and healthcare topics
Event calendar
Credibility markers (awards, certifications, credentials, etc.)
Convenient appointment booking
Streamlined navigation
User-friendly internal search
Timeless look
Mobile-friendly functionality
Accessible content
Multilingual options
Security features for sensitive information (strong password requirements, two-factor authentication, etc.)
Insurance information

Adapt these features to your organization’s unique branding and tone to create a consistent website that appeals to all user needs.

Work with Kanopi to optimize your hospital website

A hospital web design and development project is a major undertaking, and you need an experienced developer on your side to create a finished product that exceeds your audience’s expectations. Kanopi Studios is a reliable healthcare web design partner that will help you create the effective hospital website your community deserves.

Our services include:

User and stakeholder research
User persona development and testing
Content audit and strategy
Healthcare website design focused on user-friendliness and accessibility
Website development and maintenance

Hospital web design case study: The Linked Immunisation Action Network

The desktop and mobile versions of the Linked Immunisation Action Network website

Our partnership with the Linked Immunisation Action Network offers a helpful look into how we approach hospital and healthcare web design. The organization came to us needing to improve their website’s performance and usability—two important site aspects that are heavily impacted by design.

Focusing on high-traffic areas (the homepage and Tools and Resources section), we updated the backend code and fixed form and plugin issues. We also redesigned the Tools and Resources section to streamline user pathways, improve search functionality, and enhance visual design to increase engagement.

As a result, the site saw both desktop and mobile speeds improve as well as an accessibility boost. Read the complete case study here and explore our other recent healthcare projects to see how we take website design from ideas to reality.

Wrapping Up

Remember: Investing in effective web design support upfront will help your organization achieve a high return on investment (ROI) for your project. It’s worth it to work with an expert who can guide the process from start to finish and implement best practices.

Looking for additional healthcare web design support? Start with these additional resources:

7 Best Hospital Web Development Examples and Expert Tips. Explore more hospital web development examples to understand how to optimize the technical side of your site.
How to Use Healthcare Content Marketing to Drive Engagement. Explore how your hospital’s content strategy plays into your audience engagement efforts.
7 HIPAA-Compliant Website Analytics Tools for Healthcare. Review top HIPAA-compliant analytics solutions to find the right tool for your healthcare website.
Webinar: Website Best Practices for an Aging Population. Kanopi’s Cliff Persaud discusses the challenges and opportunities facing healthcare providers, and how they can ensure their website design meets the needs of aging patients.

Higher Ed Website Design: 12 Examples & Tips for 2026

Cliff Persaud Director of Strategy and Creative

Higher ed institutions have several Sisyphean tasks to overcome, such as rising tuition costs, concerns about the value of an education, and other obstacles. The good news is that you already have a useful tool to enhance trust and credibility—your higher ed website.

75% of consumers say they judge an organization’s credibility based on the quality of its website design. With a positive and forward-thinking higher education website, you can gain the trust of your audience and strengthen your online presence.

At Kanopi, our designers keep their eyes and ears open to understand the unique pressures and requirements of the higher education web design landscape. We work with higher education clients to build websites that better tell their universities’ stories. Leaning on our experience, we’ll review the best higher ed website designs in 2025 and the best practices represented in each example.

University of Arizona | Optimized user experience
Stanford University | Use of AI as an organizational practice
Kenyon University | More resources for underrepresented members of the student community
University of Waterloo | Clarity on DEI initiatives
Western Washington University’s Department of Design | Interactive design
University of Wisconsin-Madison | Rich interactive experiences
Adelphi University | Improved usability and accessibility
Georgetown University | Focus on mental health and wellness
University of South Alabama | Creating opportunities for personalization of the online experience
Loyola University Maryland | Charming microinteractions
Rice University | Interactive student tours
Rhode Island School of Design | Real-time updates

1. University of Arizona | Optimized user experience

The University of Arizona’s website homepage

What to know about this higher ed website design best practice

The user experience is the way visitors interact with your higher education website. Browsing your undergraduate majors, signing up for your newsletter, submitting a donation using your online giving form—all of these activities fall under the umbrella of user experience.

Higher ed website design is focused on simplifying the user experience to facilitate streamlined user journeys for every visitor. This means that every visitor can find the information they need quickly and easily, whether they’re a prospective or current student, faculty member, parent, donor, or community or business partner.

What we love about the University of Arizona’s website

The University of Arizona homepage immediately offers tailored resources for one of its most important user groups: accepted new students. New students can view the next enrollment steps, such as paying the enrollment fee, signing up for new student orientation, and exploring scholarships.

Arizona’s website also offers an “I am” drop-down search option for other visitors. Visitors choose the descriptor that best matches them and are sent to a webpage with specific resources for their needs.

The University of Arizona’s “I am” CTA with options for future and current students, faculty, parents, and more

Take a look at this example of the personalized content you can serve each audience using tailored CTAs:

Metropolitan University

Personalized Excellence

These customized experiences that speak to specific user groups are becoming increasingly common as universities learn more about their target audiences.

Next steps to take

To help visitors move through your content more easily, your college or university website should:

Use concise, powerful calls to action (CTAs). Your CTAs should address common user questions and concerns to help connect individuals with the necessary information.
Offer clear navigation. Keep your website menu short and straightforward, with a limited number of items. This keeps your navigation uncluttered and easy to use.
Be mobile-friendly. Ensure your site has an effective mobile-responsive design to offer an equally positive user experience across all devices.
Offer clear next actions for each visitor segment. Give visitors a variety of prompts to help them move through your website content. For instance, similar to the Arizona website, take a look at how the Georgetown University website offers quick links for different visitors:

Georgetown’s quick links with info for faculty, staff, students, alumni, and parents, representing the higher ed website design trend of clear next actions for different users

Identify five to seven user groups or personas within your higher education audience to determine which user journeys to prioritize on your website.

2. Stanford University | Use of AI as an organizational practice

Screenshot of the Stanford University website homepage

What to know about this higher ed website design best practice

Students and faculty have greater access to user-friendly artificial intelligence (AI) than ever before. Website visitors want to know how your university approaches AI in the classroom and helps students prepare for an AI-centered workforce.

According to an Inside Higher Ed survey, almost three-quarters of students say that their universities should prepare them for AI in the workplace, either “a lot” (27%) or “somewhat” (45%).

What we love about the Stanford University website

Stanford makes their position on AI usage clear with a webpage on Generative AI Policy Guidelines. It clearly states the circumstances under which instructors can use AI to support learning and situations where students should not use AI tools.

Screenshot of Stanford’s Generative AI Policy Guidance

Next steps to take

To meet the demand for information about AI usage, your higher education website should highlight:

Student use of AI. Spotlight opportunities for students to learn more about AI in their field through research and hands-on application.
Institutional AI policies. Include a webpage outlining your university’s approach to student and instructor use of AI in academics.
Research and development. Feature any news or research updates from university professors in the field of AI.

Potential and current students want to know that your university is on the cutting edge of these technologies that will profoundly impact their daily lives, so your AI information should be easy to find on your website.

3. Kenyon University | More resources for underrepresented members of the student community

Screenshot of the Kenyon University website homepage

What to know about this higher ed website design best practice

Higher education institutions have increasingly emphasized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to ensure all students feel welcome and to expose all students to different cultures and backgrounds. Students themselves are noticing a difference—over half of students surveyed in the fall of 2021 said they perceived a noticeable difference in diversity on campus.

However, there’s still more progress to be made. That’s why colleges and universities have emphasized creating streamlined user pathways that connect students of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, disabled students, first-generation college students, and other underrepresented groups with the resources and information they need.

What we love about the Kenyon University website

The Kenyon College Diversity & Inclusion page exemplifies how you can bring your school’s commitment to diversity to the forefront. The page states the school’s commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive learning environment and offers a variety of resources for underrepresented students. This gives current and prospective students an easy way to access the support they need to reach their full potential.

Kenyon’s Diversity & Inclusion information page

Next steps to take

To help underrepresented students feel supported at your school, you should update your university’s website in the following ways:

Provide tailored information for first-generation and international students to simplify navigating the application process.
Include the link to your school’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion in your main website menu.
Spotlight mentoring opportunities or affinity groups for underrepresented communities.

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4. University of Waterloo | Clarity on DEI initiatives

What to know about this higher ed website design best practice

In addition to helping students access the resources they need thrive, universities are clarifying their stance on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies amid changes to higher ed acceptance policies.

What we love about the University of Waterloo’s website

The University of Waterloo offers a clear Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, & Anti-Racism (EDI-R) strategy page detailing the organization’s strategic goals. Waterloo takes its commitment further by magnifying diverse student voices in the content creation process through its Amplify podcast.

The podcast focuses on giving students a voice to discuss their experiences as university community members who hold marginalized identities. It also provides plenty of quick links to resources for students in need, such as counseling services and student associations.

Episode titles and descriptions for episodes of Waterloo’s Amplify podcast, representing the higher ed website design trend of greater clarity on DEI initiatives

Next steps to take

To help your university community understand your policies, create a dedicated webpage outlining your approach and goals. For example, similar to the Waterloo example above, the McMaster University website features an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) strategy roadmap with a clear framework, action plan, and definitions.

5. Western Washington University’s Department of Design | Interactive design

The WWU Design homepage, showing different pieces of art that users can move around and arrange on the page

What to know about this higher ed website design best practice

Interactive design helps your university website stand out from the crowd, blending the functional and the aesthetic to create a more well-rounded user experience. 94% of users’ first website impressions are related to design, making this a key aspect of your nonprofit’s website strategy.

What we love about the Western Washington website

Check out Western Washington University’s Department of Design website homepage above. The interactive homepage actually allows visitors to rearrange elements on the page to create their own design. This is a unique way to show visitors what the school is about while providing an engaging and memorable user experience.

Next steps to take

Consider what makes your university or department unique and how you can represent your school’s personality visually. For example, does your college offer summer programs? Try a scrapbook style design to emphasize the blend of learning and summer fun. Animation and illustration styles could also help you present different aspects of your university in a more engaging way.

6. University of Wisconsin-Madison | Rich interactive experiences

The University of Wisconsin-Madison homepage

What to know about this higher ed website design best practice

Interactive experiences put website visitors in control of their online experience. They can engage with information and resources that interest them most or appeal to their unique needs.

What we love about the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s website

Interactive timelines are an effective tool for showcasing continuity and allowing users to explore areas that interest them.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s interactive timeline is an excellent example of a rich interactive timeline experience. Users can scroll down the page to read about the school’s history and select images to learn more about specific events or notable people.

UW-Madison’s interactive timeline, indicative of the higher ed website design trend of interactivity

Next steps to take

If you have an idea for a creative interactive element but are unsure how to bring it to life, reach out to an experienced design partner like Kanopi for support. These experts can turn your vision into reality and ensure your creative idea fits seamlessly into your website’s overall look and feel.

7. Adelphi University | Improved usability and accessibility

What to know about this higher ed website design best practice

The best university websites know that an inclusive website is a fully accessible one. Accessibility means a website is usable and understandable by everyone, regardless of age or ability.

Accessible higher ed websites consider the wide range of human experiences when designing and structuring pages and content. From long-term accessibility issues, such as color blindness, to users with short-term impairments like a broken arm, accessible websites offer visitors an enjoyable and user-friendly experience.

What we love about the Adelphi University website

Along with a page explaining their web accessibility policies, Adelphi University offers a form for users to report accessibility issues. Users can provide information about the web address where they encountered the problem and explain the issue they experienced.

Screenshot of the web accessibility form on the Adelphi website

Next steps to take

To improve your site’s accessibility, you can:

Follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as you develop or redesign your website. These guidelines were created to establish a universal standard for website accessibility.
Explore Kanopi’s list of best accessibility tools. Resources such as the A11Y project checklist and Lighthouse can help you assess your site’s current level of accessibility and identify opportunities for improvement.
Test your website’s accessibility manually. This crucial step helps you note any instances of poor accessibility that automatic testing resources might have missed. To conduct thorough manual testing, try navigating your website with just your keyboard or zooming in to 200% to assess usability in that format.

8. Georgetown University | Focus on mental health and wellness

The Georgetown University website homepage

What to know about this higher ed website design best practice

In the past few years, college students’ mental health struggles have hit crisis levels. Financial worries and school stress have always been major contributors to poor student mental health, but the pandemic added a new dimension to the crisis. Many students switched to hybrid or fully virtual class schedules, leading to increased feelings of loneliness and isolation.

The mental health declines prompted by the pandemic are still in effect today. 44% of students reported feeling depressed in the past year, and 95% of college counselors said that mental health is a growing concern at their school.

What we love about the Georgetown University’s website

Georgetown University offers a webpage with mental well-being resources and counseling options for student, faculty, and staff mental health resources. The page even offers guiding questions to help visitors find the right resources.

The Georgetown University website prioritizes centralizing mental health resources in its higher ed website design.

Next steps to take

Ensure your own higher education website showcases your mental health resources. By adopting an empathetic, understanding tone, prospective and current students will feel more comfortable using available resources.

9. University of South Alabama | Creating opportunities for personalization of the online experience

The University of South Alabama homepage

What to know about this higher ed website design best practice

Personalization is increasingly essential for all forms of marketing, including higher education outreach. According to EAB, 93% of students said receiving a personalized message from a college would encourage them to explore a school further.

College websites are heeding the call for more personalization by taking steps to personalize both their website’s public-facing and gated versions.

Public-facing personalization

The public-facing side of your website includes all content that any visitor can access without a login.

The best higher ed websites leverage data analytics to track user behaviors and serve more relevant content on the front end. For example, let’s say you have a visitor who previously visited your university website to start an application but didn’t finish the form. On their next visit, your site can serve CTAs that remind them to apply before your deadline.

Gated content personalization

Gated content is any content on your website that requires a login to access.

When current students log into their profile on your college website, they should be able to access a customized dashboard with information relevant to their needs. For example, a student in the journalism school should be able to see the deadline for advising registration and upcoming student organization meetings.

What we love about the University of South Alabama’s website

The University of South Alabama’s website offers an easily accessible portal for students to log into popular applications that support their student journey. Website users can also toggle between a student view and a faculty and staff view, depending on their needs.

Student log in options on the South Alabama website

Next steps to take

Determine which types of personalization you’d like to offer through your website, whether public-facing, gated, or a combination of both. Ensure your website offers robust security credentials to keep student information safe when logging into gated content. These measures include:

Requiring complex passwords
Offering two-factor authentication for logins
Ensuring your website uses HTTPS to encrypt data

10. Loyola University Maryland | Charming microinteractions

What to know about this higher ed website design best practice

Microinteractions are the small moments and design elements users experience on your website that engage them more deeply. This encompasses everything from hovering over a button and watching it get larger or change colors to interacting with an in-depth infographic.

Think about the satisfaction and joy you experience when using Facebook’s reaction buttons or sending an iPhone message with an animation. These small interactions engage and delight users, making digital browsing a more enjoyable experience.

What we love about the Loyola University Maryland website

The Loyola website includes a few simple button microinteractions. For example, the homepage CTA button shows a different message when users hover over it, changing from “More Than Ready” to “Discover the Loyola Difference.” In addition, an arrow appears pointing downward, letting users know that when they click the button, they’ll be sent further down the homepage to learn more about the college.

Additional CTAs use the school’s white and green color scheme to make buttons pop on the page through color-changing microinteractions.

Next steps to take

Evaluate your website to determine whether you want to incorporate microinteractions into your content. We recommend using these elements sparingly so they don’t distract from other aspects of the user experience.

Even though these microinteractions represent small moments, they can significantly impact your visitors’ experience using your website. By optimizing even these brief connections, you ensure every interaction users have with your website is a positive one.

11. Rice University | Interactive student tours

What to know about this higher ed website design best practice

Campus visits and tours have a major impact on whether students decide to attend your college. In fact, 69% of high school students said that a good campus visit could make them significantly more interested in a college they weren’t entirely interested in, and a bad experience can turn them off of a college they were very interested in.

Because many colleges accept students from around the country and worldwide, virtual tours are widely used in the sector. These tours offer a glimpse at university life for students who can’t attend an in-person tour.

What we love about the Rice University website

Rice University’s virtual tour is full of unique elements and microinteractions, starting with the rocket ship animation that appears when you hover over the “Launch Map” button.

Next steps to take

Creating a virtual tour experience is a major undertaking, so we recommend connecting with a higher ed website developer who can manage the project efficiently, especially if you want to create something as unique and robust as Rice’s virtual tour.

Some colleges also use services like YouVisit, which creates virtual tours using HD video production and 360-degree images.

12. Rhode Island School of Design Alumni | Real-time updates

What to know about this higher ed website design best practice

College and university websites are embracing their role as digital resources for learning more about their schools and providing ongoing updates on everything from recent news to research developments.

Social media feeds, blog post updates, and news articles help keep higher education websites fresh and relevant. They show visitors that the university keeps up with current events and contributes to important conversations.

What we love about the Rhode Island School of Design website

One example of this higher ed web design best practice is the Rhode Island School of Design’s alumni website homepage news feed. The feed is a scrolling carousel of recent news updates and blog posts that alumni community members may be interested in.

Next steps to take

By using your higher education website to feature news and current events, you can make it a helpful resource for your university’s community and a wider audience of alumni, sponsors, researchers, and prospective students interested in staying up to date with your institution.

How Kanopi Can Help With Your Higher Ed Website Design

Working with a website design agency helps your college or university stay updated with effective, usable design best practices. At Kanopi, we offer web design services for colleges, universities, and other higher education institutions.

We understand that a strong university website design starts with knowing your target audience, balancing their varying goals, and serving each segment equally. Here’s a glance at the elements we assess and optimize through our process:

Kanopi’s higher ed website design services

Research and Discovery: We conduct qualitative and quantitative user research and testing. Then, we use our findings to create a vision board for your website to ensure we accurately capture your goals and strategy.
Content Strategy: We audit your existing content, assess your tone and style, and help create a more inclusive strategy that prioritizes accessibility.
User Experience: We craft user personas for your primary audience groups and create journeys and pathways that speak to each persona.
Website Design: We ensure your higher ed website has a top-of-the-line design that optimizes every user interaction.

Please review our higher education design case studies and contact us if you want to improve your college or university website.

Wrapping Up

Your website can effectively connect stakeholders to opportunities that interest them and help them feel welcome in your university community. Use this guide to stay current with the best practices that resonate most with prospective and current students and other core audiences.

For more information on college and general web design tips, check out these additional resources:

25+ of the Best College Websites & Why They Stand Out. See these best practices in action by reviewing the best college websites available.
Web Design Trends to Watch in 2025. Explore more influential design trends for websites this year.
Higher Ed Website Design | Kanopi Studios. Learn about Kanopi’s higher ed website design process that we leverage to help clients create effective and sustainable websites.

University websites are more engaging, user-friendly, and innovative than ever before — and it isn’t going unnoticed.

Why is high-quality college website design essential?

6 Effective Features of Higher Ed Websites

1. Compelling design

2. Accessibility

3. Engaging virtual tours

4. Mobile-friendliness

5. Detailed admissions pages

6. Individuality

Best College Websites: Our Top Picks

Best College Website Designs

Best College Websites for Accessibility

Award-Winning College Websites

Best Virtual College Tours

Best Mobile College Websites

Best College Website Admissions Pages

Most Unique College Websites

How to Build the Best College Website with Agency Help

Additional Resources

Nonprofit Website Design: FAQs

What are the benefits of strong nonprofit website design?

What key information should every nonprofit website have?

How much does nonprofit web design cost?

12 Nonprofit Web Design Best Practices in Action

1. Simple Online Donation Process

Why it matters

Who’s doing this well?

2. Clear Calls to Action

Why it matters

Who’s doing this well?

3. Consistent, Aesthetically Pleasing Visual Branding

Why it matters

Who’s doing this well?

4. Compelling Storytelling

Why it matters

Who’s doing this well?

5. Streamlined Navigation

Why it matters

Who’s doing this well?

6. Mobile-Friendliness

Why it matters

Who’s doing this well?

7. Accessibility

Why it matters

Who’s doing this well?

8. Trust Signals

Why it matters

Who’s doing this well?

9. High Performance

Why it matters

Who’s doing this well?

10. Strong Visual Imagery

Why it matters

Who’s doing this well?

11. Clear Value for the Community

Why it matters

Who’s doing this well?

12. Ongoing Maintenance and Performance Enhancement

Why it matters

Who’s doing this well?

Additional Nonprofit Website Design Considerations

What Kanopi Brings to Web Design for Nonprofits

Final thoughts

1. Top Navigation Bar

What it is:

Why it works:

Things to watch:

Where it fits:

2. Sidebar Navigation

What it is:

Why it works:

Things to watch:

Where it fits:

3. Dropdown & Mega Menus

What they are:

Why they work:

Things to watch:

Where they fit:

4. Hamburger Menus

What it is: