Boston, MA-NH research universities: usability rankings

Usability scores, grades, and the most common failures for 9 Boston, MA-NH research university websites, from ScanGov homepage scans.

  • Sites: 9
  • Last scan: 11/8/2026

Showing Boston, MA-NH research university sites. All education sites

R1 and R2 universities in the Boston, MA-NH metropolitan area, public and private together. Metro boundaries follow the Census definition, so a page can cross state lines.

C 77

Average usability score of 9 fully scanned Boston, MA-NH research university sites

3rd

of 8 metro areas, ranked by average usability score

9 of 9

Boston, ma-nh research university sites fully scanned

D 68

Average usability score of all 2,687 fully scanned education sites

How Boston, MA-NH usability scores are distributed

Smoothed distribution of the 9 fully scanned Boston, MA-NH research university sites, score 0 to 100. Height shows how many sites score near each value.

  • Boston, MA-NH average
  • All education average
View the data table
Score rangeSites
0 to 90
10 to 190
20 to 290
30 to 390
40 to 490
50 to 591
60 to 692
70 to 790
80 to 895
90 to 1001

Boston, MA-NH research universities by usability grade, compared with all education sites

Share of fully scanned sites in each grade band. Boston, MA-NH research universities: 9 sites. All education: 2687 sites.

  1. Boston, MA-NH
  2. All education sites
  • A (90 to 100)
  • B to C (70 to 89)
  • D to F (below 70)
View the data table
GroupA (90 to 100)B to C (70 to 89)D to F (below 70)
Boston, MA-NH11% (1)56% (5)33% (3)
All education sites11% (289)42% (1,124)47% (1,274)

Top 3 Boston, MA-NH research university sites by usability score

#1 in Boston, MA-NH · U.S. education rank 2

Harvard University

A 93 usability

  • Accessibility A
  • Botability A
  • Security B
  • Usability A
  • Readability F

#2 in Boston, MA-NH · U.S. education rank 4

Tufts University

B 87 usability

  • Accessibility A
  • Botability A
  • Security C
  • Usability B
  • Readability A

#3 in Boston, MA-NH · U.S. education rank 9

Boston University

B 81 usability

  • Accessibility B
  • Botability B
  • Security B
  • Usability B
  • Readability -

Most common usability failures among Boston, MA-NH research university sites

Share of the 9 fully scanned Boston, MA-NH research university sites failing each check. A site can fail more than one check. Each check links to the sites failing it, or to its standard when we have no list yet.

  1. Open Graph image alt100%
  2. Open Graph image44%
  3. Open Graph description33%
  4. First Contentful Paint (FCP)22%
  5. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)22%
View the data table
CheckShare failingSites failing
Open Graph image alt100%9
Open Graph image44%4
Open Graph description33%3
First Contentful Paint (FCP)22%2
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)22%2

What each check means

  • Open Graph image alt. The social media preview image has alt text for screen readers. Screen readers cannot describe shared images.
  • Open Graph image. The page has a preview image for social media cards. Shared links have no image on social media.
  • Open Graph description. The page has a description for social media previews. Shared links have no description on social media.
  • First Contentful Paint (FCP). The page starts displaying content within 1.8 seconds. Users see blank screen and think site is broken.
  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). The page's main content loads within 2.5 seconds. Users wait too long and leave your page.

Every education site with one problem

Research universities in Boston, MA-NH by usability score

Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 harvard.edu
Harvard University U.S. rank 2 		15 of 16 checks pass A
2 tufts.edu
Tufts University U.S. rank 4 		14 of 16 checks pass B
3 bu.edu
Boston University U.S. rank 9 		13 of 16 checks pass B
3 web.mit.edu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology U.S. rank 9 		13 of 16 checks pass B
3 northeastern.edu
Northeastern University U.S. rank 9 		13 of 16 checks pass B
3 umb.edu
University of Massachusetts-Boston U.S. rank 9 		13 of 16 checks pass B
4 uml.edu
University of Massachusetts-Lowell U.S. rank 18 		10 of 15 checks pass D
4 unh.edu
University of New Hampshire-Main Campus U.S. rank 18 		10 of 15 checks pass D
5 bc.edu
Boston College U.S. rank 23 		9 of 16 checks pass F

About this data

ScanGov scans the homepage of each college and university site on our higher education list. Scores come from the checks in the ScanGov standards. Sites were scanned between 10/28/2026 and 11/8/2026. Each site's report shows its own scan date. A site counts as fully scanned when its homepage loaded and sent us its page content. Averages, grade shares, failure rates, and ranks use fully scanned sites only. Grades follow the ScanGov grade scale. Rank follows the ScanGov ranking method. The full dataset, with every county's raw results, is in the ScanGov data repository.

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