University websites are usually not so interesting. The ones I chose here are some top universities and they have been taking their web designs seriously.   Different designs send out different messages. Top schools have to have a serious look while art schools remonstrate their creativity into the design. Hope you like them and when you have a similar project, you know where to look.

Harvard University

Red and black alsways go well with each other. Smart and serious is the look of Harvard.

Boston University

Boston University used an accordion to hold essential contents including: video and galleries. This fancy accordion is created with flash. I also found this tutorial on doing this with CS3

University of Sydney used same technology

MIT

Famous for their innovations, MIT’s web site is also interesting. The background image and color is different everyday, and the content cleverly avoid blocking the image.

MIT gives different sections freedom to display their concepts properly.

The NEW school

It is about learning and having fun. New school’s design is simple and modern.

University of Connecticut

Blue is a popular color among universities and institutions but few of them have good designs. University of Connecticut’s design was certainly considered and executed carefully.

Oxford

Same with the sample above. Oxford used navy blue with white text. However, it looks a bit heavy to me.

Princeton

Another minimalism design with classic Princeton color – orange. By using the same orange on buttons, bullet images and links the designer cleverly incorporated the brand into the design

Stanford

Being one of the most famous university, Stanford’s website used slimbox and carousel to display their culture vividly.