University Website Design – The Home Page

University websites have to deal with a large range of visitors and a large amount of
content. Because of these two factors, the home page design needs to strike a delicate
balance of functionality and attraction: enough content to be interesting, but not too much
so that the visitor will be overwhelmed; a user-friendly layout that accommodates first
time visitors and regular users alike. On top of this, the home page (like that of any
website) has to efficiently communicate the kind of institution the university is (or would
like to appear to be). This in itself is a tricky objective, as universities combine a range of
roles (education, business, community, etc).

Here are 3 main areas we think are most important to the design of the home page:

1. Communication: reflect the way you want the institution to be perceived.

First and foremost, is the immediate impact of the home page. As with any other, this needs
to communicate what a business is about. For a university, this means impressing potential
students, academics, researchers and businesses with the core ethos of the institution. For
most this means choosing whether they want to be primarily recognised for:

Cutting-edge research

Glasgow captures the cutting edge nature of its research (all 3 items in its banner display
are related to research) and also hints at tradition in the background which displays a
traditional university scene.

The history or traditional reputation of the university

The home age is centred around the Hull's history through the dominant image of the old
university building.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Harvard University is also is also keen to emphasis its traditional
reputation and the website secures this through its use of the university's colours in the
design. Interestingly enough the design choices of the home pages of Oxford and Cambridge
do not indicate a desire to base their appeal on tradition.

Its influence in a global area, such as political debate

The striking use of a limited colour palette for LSE ensures visual impact, while the
prominence of up-to-the-minute political news and debate make it seem highly relevant
and dynamic.

Its internationality

Manchester University stresses its reputation as an international university through the

prominence of its multi-ethnic student body.
While Cardiff University instantly displaces any regional specificity by the use of a
strikingly colourful illustration which contrasts with the minimal presentation of the rest of
the page, achieving maximum visual impact.

Its modernity

Northumbria University employs a minimal background with a dynamic and colourful

navigation bar which dominates the page and displays images which address the
importance of art and design to the university.
Its setting

St Andrews celebrates its history as the oldest Scottish university, but more importantly
places this in the drama of its geographical setting.

Each of these examples has a clarity in its approach to web design that indicates the
university's particular appeal, achieved by the use of a central banner made of images and a
minimal amount of text. It is interesting to notice how these categories apply to most
universities, and that often a range of them are using flash with a sequence of images to
change the focus of each banner.

2. Content management: avoid overloading the homepage with text.

As part of this effective communication, a university website needs to deliver a lot of

information, but in a way that supports the visual impact and therefore doesn't overload
the home page with text. All of the above examples manage to present snippets of
information which are graphically compartmentalised (using colour, layout or boxes) and
so are slightly split up, that can be accessed elsewhere, thus cutting down on the amount of
text. It seems that a main feature of a university home page is to direct a visitor further
inside. The home page needs a visual hook which will encourage the new visitor to explore
and direct regular users efficiently to where they want to go, which brings us neatly to our
next point.
3. Functionality: ease of navigation.

As we've discussed, the sheer size of a university website presents its own problems and
the accessibility of its various areas is crucial for new and regular visitors alike. In this
respect the layout and organisation of navigation is vital. Here are some examples we
thought have come up with good solutions to the difficulty of directing attention, making
the various areas easier to pick out from one another.

The use of colour to separate the main areas of navigation in the UCL website makes the
site easy to engage with and avoids confusion through fussiness. In this way the home page
has immediate impact.

Oxford University adopts an opposite approach by making the whole page a uniform colour
(Oxford blue, naturally) and giving a very clear map of all the different areas. The one
image that is used becomes more striking as a result.
Bristol University uses a slightly different layout that places navigation to the side, broken
up from the news at the other side with a central panel of images communicating key
information about the institution (its internationality, for example). The prominence of the
A-Z bar at the top also indicates an approach geared to help the visitor find information.

Northumbria's navigation is incorporated more into the components of the site's design, so
that the overall sleekness of the page is not compromised.

Finally, an almost universal feature we noticed, that ties in with all 3 of these main points is
the dominant use of flash on the university home page. This use of revolving images in a
main banner enables the site to maintain a striking and attractive design, while
incorporating extra content and a range of ideas into its brand image. Here the University
of London transforms the site through the use of flash in an image that takes up over half
the page. Through this the site communicates its relationship to:
Tradition

The dynamic location of London

And cutting-edge research in new technology

About the Author

GWS Media is a Bristol-based Company established in 2000. We have over ten years’ track record
producing highly effective Websites, marketing material and campaigns integrated into a
company’s overall marketing strategy. GWS offer a full range of Business Media Services, including
Corporate Video, Print Design, PR, and a host of website services including specialist multilingual
websites. View our blog for internet marketing tips, and other posts of interest to small businesses,
like this article. We specialize in site renewal, search engine promotion, marketing reports and
online reputation management. Our multilingual sites give a competitive edge to exporters, and our
marketing reports provide critical information about the return on your marketing investment. Our
national and international clients include Mensa International, Nicholl Food Packaging Ltd (a
company with a turnover of £60m which has expanded into Europe and for which we have
provided a multilingual site), the British Cattle Veterinary Association and the National Eye
Research Centre. GWS can offer database-backed sites, ecommerce, flash animation, content
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