Higher education web design · Boston, MA

Higher education web design for Boston colleges and universities

Boston and Cambridge hold one of the densest concentrations of colleges in the country, so every institution competes on clarity. We design and build higher education sites that help prospective students compare programs and act.

Plan your Boston campus website

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Seattle, USA

Drupal Certified Partner
WCAG 2.2 AA on every template
Senior US based team
Fixed fee quotes for any budget

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Trusted by colleges and mission driven organizations

Short answer

Who designs higher education websites in Boston?

DoodleWeb is a Seattle based web design and development company and a Drupal Certified Partner that designs, builds, migrates and maintains websites for colleges and universities in Boston and across Massachusetts. Every build ships to WCAG 2.2 AA, meets Core Web Vitals targets on key templates and is quoted as a fixed fee for any budget.

Berklee College of Music in Boston is a DoodleWeb client. Boston campuses often run dozens of department sites with separate content models; we consolidate them onto a governed Drupal multisite or a single platform with shared taxonomy and per department editorial roles.

Serving: Boston and Cambridge, Somerville
Typical timeline: 6 to 16 weeks
Accessibility: WCAG 2.2 AA
Platforms: Drupal, WordPress, Webflow

What we fix

What Boston campus web teams ask us to solve

Prospective students cannot find the right program

How we fix it. We build program finders filtered by level, format and interest, with each program page leading to request info, visit and apply.

Hundreds of editors and no shared standards

How we fix it. Role based publishing, reusable accessible components and recorded training keep every department on brand and compliant.

Accessibility issues return after every audit

How we fix it. We fix components, not pages, and add automated axe and Pa11y checks so regressions fail before they go live.

A legacy Drupal or custom CMS nobody wants to touch

How we fix it. Module by module audits, repeatable dry runs and URL parity checks move content to Drupal 11 or WordPress without losing search traffic.

Priorities for Boston institutions

Department site consolidation without losing local autonomy
Drupal 7 to Drupal 11 migrations with URL and SEO parity checks
Accessible program, faculty and research directories

Case studies

Higher education work we can show you

Published scope from our case studies. Results depend on each institution, so we walk through what applies to you on a call.

Drupal 10 · 24 weeks

George Brown College

AODA and WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility audit and remediation across a Drupal 10 multi-faculty CMS serving 30,000+ students and 100+ editors.

WCAG issues closed: 412
Lighthouse a11y score: 74 → 98
Level A + AA conformance: 100%
Delivered: VPAT 2.5

Read the George Brown College case study

Drupal · 18 weeks

Trinity Western University

WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility audit and remediation on a cinematic Drupal recruitment site. 287 issues closed, Lighthouse a11y 71 to 97, VPAT delivered.

WCAG issues closed: 287
Lighthouse a11y score: 71 → 97
Videos captioned: 60+
Delivered: VPAT 2.5

Read the Trinity Western University case study

Comparison

Which platform fits your institution?

Platform comparison for colleges and universities
Platform	Best for	Governance	Editing
Drupal	Universities and large colleges with many departments	Multisite, granular roles, content moderation workflows	Structured, governed editing with Layout Builder
WordPress	Smaller colleges, schools and focused program sites	Roles and multisite available, lighter governance	Fast, familiar editing for small teams
Webflow	Admissions microsites and campaign sites	Limited roles, best for one marketing team	Visual editing, design controlled

Accessibility and compliance

The rules Boston institutions work under

ADA Title II web rule for public colleges

The Department of Justice requires public entities, including public colleges, to meet WCAG 2.1 AA. Its April 20, 2026 interim final rule moved compliance to April 26, 2027 for entities serving 50,000 or more people and April 26, 2028 for smaller ones.

Source: ADA.gov: Title II web and mobile app rule, compliance dates updated April 20, 2026

WCAG 2.2 AA is our default

WCAG 2.2 is the current W3C recommendation and includes every WCAG 2.1 AA criterion, so building to it covers the federal and state standards above.

Source: W3C: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2

This is general information, not legal advice. Sources checked 2026-11-08.

Data we design around

Benchmarks that shape our builds

Google Core Web Vitals "good" thresholds we treat as the floor for admissions and program templates.
Metric	Good threshold
Largest Contentful Paint	2.5 seconds or less
Interaction to Next Paint	200 milliseconds or less
Cumulative Layout Shift	0.1 or less

Source: web.dev: Core Web Vitals thresholds

How we work

From first call to launch in 6 to 16 weeks

Step 1 · 1 to 3 weeks
Discovery
Stakeholder interviews, analytics review, content and accessibility audit, and a written scope with a fixed fee.
Step 2 · 2 to 5 weeks
Design
Information architecture, a reusable accessible component system and clickable prototypes reviewed with real users.
Step 3 · 3 to 8 weeks
Build
Development on Drupal, WordPress or Webflow, integrations, content migration and redirect mapping.
Step 4 · 1 to 2 weeks
Launch and train
Accessibility and performance testing, editor training, launch support and an optional care plan.

FAQ

Higher education web design in Boston: questions, answered

Have you worked with Boston higher education institutions?

Yes. Berklee College of Music is a DoodleWeb client. We do not publish project results for every client, so we share documented case studies such as George Brown College and Trinity Western University on discovery calls.

Can you consolidate many department sites into one platform?

Yes. We audit every site, design one shared content model, and move departments onto a governed multisite or single site with domain access while each department keeps its own editors.

How much does a higher education website cost in Boston?

We work with any budget and do not publish one starting price. After a short discovery call we recommend tailored or templated options based on your page count, integrations, accessibility needs and timeline, and quote a fixed fee.

How long does a college or university website redesign take?

Most of our higher education projects run 6 to 16 weeks for a focused redesign and longer for multisite consolidation or large migrations. Published examples include a 24 week Drupal 10 accessibility program for George Brown College.

Should our college use Drupal or WordPress?

Drupal suits large institutions with many departments, complex permissions and multisite needs. WordPress suits smaller colleges and focused sites that need fast editing. We recommend after discovery and support both as a Drupal Certified Partner and WP Engine Advanced Partner.

When do public colleges have to meet the ADA Title II web rule?

Under the Department of Justice's April 20, 2026 interim final rule, public entities serving 50,000 or more people must meet WCAG 2.1 AA by April 26, 2027, and smaller entities by April 26, 2028. We build to WCAG 2.2 AA, which includes the 2.1 AA criteria.