Higher Education Website Design: Best Practices for Attracting and Engaging Students

In today's competitive higher education landscape, a university's website serves as a crucial "front door," representing the institution's brand, values, and academic offerings to prospective students, current students, alumni, faculty, and staff. When promoting your university online, you're not just advertising your programs but offering an entire academic journey. With prospective students starting their college planning as early as 9th grade and conducting extensive digital research, a well-designed website is paramount for attracting and converting these prospective students. Moreover, with a decline in Americans' trust in higher education, universities must leverage their websites to showcase their credibility and commitment to positive student outcomes. This article explores essential best practices in higher education website design, focusing on creating engaging, user-friendly, and accessible digital experiences.

Storytelling and Content Creation

Crafting a Compelling Narrative

Even with relevant content and helpful information, reaching and engaging your audience takes time and effort. If you really want to attract people, you need to tell a genuine story with a human connection to inspire them to take the next step with you. To effectively attract prospective students, universities should move beyond simply listing programs and services. Instead, websites should tell a compelling story that resonates with potential students and their parents. Your story should have a point of view, a clear voice, and a good sense of how to say things effectively. Please provide them a clear path through the story so they know exactly how to get there. This involves crafting a narrative that highlights the university's unique identity, values, and the experiences of its students and faculty.

For example, Imperial College London uses storytelling to publish immersive feature stories from across the university, and “We live inside a bubble blown by the Sun” is one of the latest narratives they have developed. This narrative explores the development of instruments utilized by university researchers to utilize the Solar Orbiter satellite. Rich in stunning photography and interactive graphics, this story motivates students interested in outer space research and encourages them to enroll in relevant programs. The shorthand HTML embed tool integrates dynamic infographics and interactive charts that engage the reader as they scroll through the content.

Breaking Up Text with Engaging Visuals

To maintain user interest and improve comprehension, it's crucial to break up lengthy text with engaging images and videos. Identify key points or sections in the text that could be more clearly presented as a visual or video. Opt for high-quality images and videos accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. Visual elements create a more engaging and visually appealing browsing experience for visitors, making it more relatable and credible to prospective students.

For instance, the University of Bradford uses video to provide a dynamic and visually captivating overview of the university's mission, achievements, and aspirations and allows visitors to gain insights into Bradford's reputation, course offerings, and impactful research.

User Experience (UX) and Navigation

Mapping the Student Journey

Exploring academic programs, subscribing to your newsletter, downloading program brochures, and exploring campus life all contribute to the user experience. It includes designing intuitive interfaces, providing clear pathways to desired information or actions, and optimizing the journey from when a user lands on your site to completing their intended task or goal. A well-defined student journey map outlines the experiences at each stage of the site's navigation, from initial exploration to specific actions. However, this approach requires thoughtful planning and iteration based on user patterns, interactions, and outcomes.

The University of Reading offers different options to guide users through their site's content smoothly. They're directed to a page with information tailored to them based on their choice. It keeps navigation clean and user-friendly.

Intuitive Navigation and Information Architecture

A clear and intuitive navigation system is essential for a positive user experience. Universities must organize their website content according to user goals rather than institutional structure. This involves creating a site architecture that helps users understand their location within the site and easily find the information they need.

When putting together the navigation for your site, you need to decide a number of things:

Do you want the navigation to go across the top of the page?
If so, which links or categories belong there (since you likely won’t fit it all)?
How will you order and organize those links?
Will your mega menu include images, or will it simply be list- or link-based?
How will you present your secondary links: hamburger menu style or in a bar above the main header and navigation?

How you organize and present this information will have a huge impact on your users’ experience. So, it’s a good idea to take a look at how other universities and colleges have designed theirs.

Read also: Key Trends in Education

For example, the University of Arizona's primary navigation is reasonably sized and well-organized. Also, each dropdown menu requires the user to click to reveal the subcategories. So, instead of users accidentally passing their cursor over a category and having the dropdown cover the content they’re trying to look at, they control when these menus open. Also, there’s an “I am” dropdown at the top. You can’t see it in the video above, but the options are:

A future student
A current student
A faculty or staff member
A parent or visitor
An alumni member
A donor
A business or partner

When one of these options is selected, the site transforms according to the user segment. This way, designers won’t need to overload the navigation with options for every type of user. Instead, they fill it with the most popular and important pages. When engaged, though, the fullscreen pop-out menu is beautifully organized.

On the left are links for user segments. On the right are links for everything else on the site. You can see how the designer has used typographical hierarchy (size and weight) to establish what the most important links are.

Uniform branding and navigation: To provide a seamless experience, use the same navigation techniques and menu styles for all site pages.

Program Search Functionality

Given the vast array of programs offered by most universities, a robust search experience is crucial. Program pages need to be equipped with a smart search experience. This means adding filters so that users can narrow down the list of visible options and including a search form that detects fuzzy matches and can provide accurate alternative recommendations. This includes adding filters so that users can narrow down the list of visible options and including a search form that detects fuzzy matches and can provide accurate alternative recommendations.

For example, here’s the Mizzou Online Program finder page and how the search functionality works: Notice how the program blocks at the bottom change as the user types their query into the search box at the top. This way, users see in real-time how many possible matches there are. It also might give them a better idea of the kind of wording they should use to find what they’re looking for. Another good example can be found on the Undergraduate Majors page for Penn State: This school offers a similar search experience to Mizzou Online. What I like about the design of this page, in particular, is how the list of all majors doesn’t appear on the main page. Instead, there’s a numerical navigation placed at the bottom. There are currently 259 majors available at Penn State. If the designer had included every block on the main page, any student or parent who attempts to scroll down the page would likely experience frustration or overwhelm at some point. So, the numerical navigation along with the filters and search bar are very smart choices. In addition, the 18 pages found in the numerical navigation might actually encourage more people to take advantage of the search and filters.

Visual Hierarchy and Clean Design

Design With Visual Hierarchy in Mind Visual hierarchy refers to arranging and presenting elements on a web page to guide visitors' attention and convey information. It includes structuring the layout to highlight essential information like program offerings, admissions criteria, and campus events prominently while de-emphasizing less critical details. Headings, subheadings, and bullet points break up content and make it easier to scan, while images, icons, and infographics add visual interest and reinforce key messages. The boxed layout provides an easy flow for users through a webpage through continuity between elements and reads very well due to the lack of distractions.

Here are some techniques you must use to create visual hierarchies:

Keep the user goal in mind
Use of white space
Visual cues such as arrows, shapes, and icons
Organize related content

Hierarchy directs attention to enhance user engagement. It's all about ranking your elements by order of importance.

Tiffin University has a clean design that features clear navigation, information, placement of CTAs, and sections for easy browsing.

Microinteractions and Attention to Detail

While they may seem insignificant, micro-interactions are essential to the user experience. By providing visual cues, micro-interactions make interactions more intuitive, engaging, and enjoyable for users. Micro-interactions work best when they’re designed with intention. For instance, at TAMU, the button enlarges and changes color when hovered over to increase user engagement.

Calls to Action (CTAs)

Include Calls to Action (CTA) for the Next Steps Call-to-actions (CTAs) act as gateways through the user journey to keep users on track and moving in the right direction. You might have mapped out the user journey, but if they don’t know how to move through it, they won’t experience it how you want them to. CTAs can effectively engage users, drive conversions, and meet their objectives. Use action-oriented words that convey the desired action, such as ‘Apply Now,’ ‘Explore Programs,’ or ‘Schedule a Tour. Position CTAs preferably above the fold or in a prominent location where they are easily visible to users without scrolling. Make CTAs stand out by using colors that contrast with the surrounding elements.

For example, the University of Windsor has a CTA button on their hero image section to ‘Take a Virtual Tour,’ given a color that makes it pop out of the background.

Accessibility and Inclusivity

Designing for Accessibility

Recent CDC data indicates that approximately 27% of adults in the United States have a disability. Failing to accommodate such a significant portion of the population would contradict UNCG's mission to be an inclusive, collaborative, and responsive institution that positively impacts students and communities. Accessible content is required by law for universities to ensure that information is available to everyone. Design for everyone involves implementing features such as alt text for images, keyboard navigation, and clear headings for screen readers to interpret content effectively. You don't need to compromise aesthetics to achieve accessibility. Meeting WCAG-certified standards not only fulfills legal obligations but also reflects a commitment to inclusivity and equity.

Adelphi University offers a form for users to report accessibility issues, along with a page explaining their web accessibility policies.

Promoting Inclusivity and Diversity

Inclusivity is a big deal when designing digital experiences for younger generations. In particular, the inclusion of images and graphics that provide a fair and accurate representation of your campus are a must. While many people might think of this from an ethnicity perspective, there are so many other ways to reflect the inclusivity and diversity of your school.

As an example, watch the video found in the hero section of the Loyola University homepage. In the full video, you’ll see tons of diverse examples, like:

Students walking with professors
Students hanging out together on campus
Men’s sports teams
Women’s sports teams
Different sports (crew, basketball, volleyball, etc.)
Sports fans
An a capella group
Science students working on projects
Students campaigning for the Center of Community Justice
A rooftop gardening project

Your campus is about more than the demographics of the students who go there, so your visuals should represent as much of the experience as possible. And if you want them to have an even bigger impact, make them feel more authentic and less staged.

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. The University of Waterloo offers a clear Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, & Anti-Racism (EDI-R) strategy page detailing the organization’s strategic goals. The podcast focuses on giving students a voice to discuss their experiences as university community members who hold marginalized identities. To help your university community understand your policies, create a dedicated webpage outlining your approach and goals.

Mobile-First Design and Responsiveness

Optimizing for Mobile Devices

Around 96.5% of global users accessed the internet via mobile phones. Gen Z users spend an average of 7 hours and 22 minutes daily on their phones, with 75% saying their phone is their go-to device. Design for everyone involves implementing features such as alt text for images, keyboard navigation, and clear headings for screen readers to interpret content effectively. With mobile devices being the primary means of accessing the internet for many students, a mobile-first design approach is critical. This involves designing websites and user flows specifically for touch-based interactions and ensuring menus and loading speeds are optimized for mobile networks.

Here's an example of UBC's mobile experience with a simple design that effectively uses white space to keep the page uncluttered, a top-level menu that's easy to read, and social media icons that let visitors instantly connect on different platforms.

Mobile-first design is the foundational trend that enables all others.

Responsive Design

Is your site responsive? It should be! Is your site responsive? It should be! If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, the testing tool might identify specific errors, such as incompatible plugins or text that’s too small.

Personalization and Engagement

Activity-Based Personalization

For universities, activity-based personalization is particularly valuable in enhancing student recruitment, engagement, and retention. Universities gain insights into individual interests and needs by tracking user activities such as course searches, event registrations, or resource downloads. Personalization has become a baseline expectation rather than a premium feature.

Here's an example of how the University of Texas has incorporated personalization into its hero section on its webpage, directly indicating that it all starts with 'You' and placing CTAs, taking them to make the desired action.

Indiana University Bloomington integrated Salesforce CRM and tracked approximately 430,000 undergraduate opportunity records used through the various recruitment funnel stages and 35,500 individual case entries of interactions-such as questions, feedback, or issues-with a student or agent. The conversion ratio of admission applicants to enrollees at IUPUI went up 7%.

Showcasing Student Experiences

Showcasing authentic student experiences helps prospective students connect with campus information and make emotional connections with institutions. This can be achieved through student spotlights, interviews, and user-generated content.

Social Media Integration

Embedding social media buttons promotes user-generated content, facilitates community building, and develops a sense of belonging and connection among your audience. Additionally, embedding social media buttons promotes user-generated content, facilitates community building, and develops a sense of belonging and connection among your audience. It will help visitors to follow, like, and share your content; you can expand your reach and attract more prospective students. Placing social media icons in the footer keeps them consistently visible across all pages, ensuring visitors can find them anywhere. The footer is also a common location for such elements, helping to create a cohesive and professional appearance.

Technical Considerations

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO involves so much more than just incorporating keywords throughout your program pages. From the page URL to hidden fields (H-Tags! Alt text!), every page element can and should be optimized to meet the needs of users and the search engines crawling your site.

Page titles: Page titles tell users and search engines what your page is about and therefore have a big impact on search rankings and students clicking through. Page titles should accurately describe the page’s content, be distinct from other page titles on your site, and be no more than 60-70 characters in length (If your page title is too long or deemed less relevant, Google may only show a portion of the text in the search result).
Meta descriptions: Meta descriptions help search engines understand the content on your webpage, which helps lead users to click to your site Each page should have a unique description that uses active voice and incorporates target keywords or phrases.

Front-End Development and Staging

For these reasons, it’s important that the content on your enrollment-critical pages is clear, concise, and reflects your school’s unique identity. Your pages should also flow naturally so that users can easily scan and navigate to the information that’s most important to them. But many institutions still rely on fragile front-end code that wasn’t built for frequent change.

A better approach is to build your front-end code separately using a static site generator (SSG). This separation provides additional benefits: The CSS and components developed in your staging site become a reliable foundation for styling your CRM, course catalog, calendar, news, RFI forms, and other systems. A static site generator (SSG) compiles front-end code into fast, secure web pages-kind of like flattening a complex, layered Photoshop file into an optimized, flat image.

Once you’ve separated front-end code from your CMS, you need a smart way to manage it. A proven approach is to build and test all front-end code on a dedicated front-end staging site-a safe, standalone environment where visual updates can be reviewed and refined before they’re integrated into the CMS. A snapshot of the Carnegie Mellon University staging site. We always manage front-end code in a version-controlled repository, which works like Google Docs for code. Multiple developers can collaborate safely, track changes, and revert mistakes when needed. Repository platforms like GitHub and Bitbucket support transparency and sustainability, which is why version control is a core practice in nearly all modern development workflows. A staging site gives you a safe space to test layouts, preview design decisions, and catch issues before anything goes live. We almost always begin with placeholder text and images. Designing around polished content can work in other industries, but higher ed sites benefit more from flexible layouts that can expand or contract as content evolves.

Page Speed and Performance

Ensure your site is responsive? It should be! Code that minimizes data usage. Responsiveness and video streaming quality.

Additional Features and Considerations

Virtual Tours and Interactive Campus Maps

Campus visits and tours have a major impact on whether students decide to attend your college. Because many colleges accept students from around the country and worldwide, virtual tours are widely used in the sector.

Another worthwhile feature to add is something that many visitors will appreciate: an interactive campus map. Or they can use the options from the sidebar to home in on specific campuses or building types and find what they’re looking for there. Once they’ve found it, each location comes with pictures, extra information and a physical address. Students can also share these locations with others, use an internal GPS system to map out directions to the point of interest, or open them up in Google Maps. There’s also a tab called “Tours” in this app. From here, users can access the virtual tour, the audio for the self-guided tour and more.

Highlighting Faculty and Research

Highlighting faculty and institutional research is crucial for attracting high-caliber scholars and collaborators. By integrating with PubMed and similar databases, profiles can showcase the latest publications. For instance, faculty profiles can link to associated news articles, research publications, and affiliated research areas.

Dynamic Content Refresh

Keeping content visually fresh is essential for repeat visitors. Features like randomly displaying different faculty profiles, research highlights, or student testimonials with each page refresh ensure a vibrant, ever-changing experience.

Integration with University Calendars

Integrating with a central calendar system allows auto updates to event listings, lectures, and workshops.

Mental Health Resources

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. The mental health declines prompted by the pandemic are still in effect today. Georgetown University offers a webpage with mental well-being resources and counseling options for student, faculty, and staff mental health resources.

AI Policy

Students and faculty have greater access to user-friendly artificial intelligence (AI) than ever before. Stanford makes their position on AI usage clear with a webpage on Generative AI Policy Guidelines.

Avoiding Dark Patterns

Avoid Dark Patterns and Deceptive Design Dark patterns and deceptive design refer to manipulative techniques used in user interface design to trick users into taking actions they may not intend to. It includes misleading information or confusing layouts that steer users towards unintended outcomes, such as signing up for a paid webinar they didn't mean to. Provide clear and honest information about your university, programs, and services. Avoid hiding important details or using misleading language. Use clear headings, intuitive menus, and descriptive labels. Users appreciate user experiences that don't trick them into making decisions.

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