California research universities: usability rankings

Usability scores, grades, and the most common failures for 25 California research university websites, from ScanGov homepage scans.

  • Sites: 25
  • Last scan: 11/8/2026

Showing California research university sites. All education sites

R1 and R2 universities in California, public and private together.

D 68

Average usability score of 22 fully scanned California research university sites

8th

of 17 states, ranked by average usability score

22 of 25

California research university sites fully scanned. We couldn't fully scan 3, so they're listed without grades

D 68

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

How California usability scores are distributed

Smoothed distribution of the 22 fully scanned California research university sites, score 0 to 100. Height shows how many sites score near each value.

  • California average
  • All education average
View the data table
Score rangeSites
0 to 90
10 to 190
20 to 290
30 to 390
40 to 493
50 to 594
60 to 696
70 to 792
80 to 893
90 to 1004

California research universities by usability grade, compared with all education sites

Share of fully scanned sites in each grade band. California research universities: 22 sites. All education: 2687 sites.

  1. California
  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)
California18% (4)23% (5)59% (13)
All education sites11% (289)42% (1,124)47% (1,274)

Top 3 California research university sites by usability score

#1 in California · U.S. education rank 1

California Institute of Technology

A 100 usability

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

#2 in California · U.S. education rank 2

Claremont Graduate University

A 93 usability

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

#2 in California · U.S. education rank 2

Stanford University

A 93 usability

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

Most common usability failures among California research university sites

Share of the 22 fully scanned California 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 alt86%
  2. Open Graph image64%
  3. First Contentful Paint (FCP)55%
  4. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)55%
  5. Open Graph site name55%
View the data table
CheckShare failingSites failing
Open Graph image alt86%19
Open Graph image64%14
First Contentful Paint (FCP)55%12
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)55%12
Open Graph site name55%12

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.
  • 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.
  • Open Graph site name. The site has a name for social media and browser display. Site name missing in social media shares.

Every education site with one problem

Research universities in California by usability score

Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 caltech.edu
California Institute of Technology U.S. rank 1 		16 of 16 checks pass A
2 cgu.edu
Claremont Graduate University U.S. rank 2 		15 of 16 checks pass A
2 stanford.edu
Stanford University U.S. rank 2 		15 of 16 checks pass A
2 usc.edu
University of Southern California U.S. rank 2 		15 of 16 checks pass A
3 chapman.edu
Chapman University U.S. rank 4 		14 of 16 checks pass B
3 lmu.edu
Loyola Marymount University U.S. rank 4 		14 of 16 checks pass B
4 uci.edu
University of California-Irvine U.S. rank 9 		13 of 16 checks pass B
5 berkeley.edu
University of California-Berkeley U.S. rank 14 		11 of 15 checks pass C
5 ucla.edu
University of California-Los Angeles U.S. rank 14 		11 of 15 checks pass C
6 ucsd.edu
University of California-San Diego U.S. rank 17 		11 of 16 checks pass D
7 sdsu.edu
San Diego State University U.S. rank 18 		10 of 15 checks pass D
7 ucr.edu
University of California-Riverside U.S. rank 18 		10 of 15 checks pass D
8 fresnostate.edu
California State University-Fresno U.S. rank 19 		9 of 14 checks pass D
9 sandiego.edu
University of San Diego U.S. rank 20 		10 of 16 checks pass D
10 ucsb.edu
University of California-Santa Barbara U.S. rank 21 		9 of 15 checks pass D
11 apu.edu
Azusa Pacific University U.S. rank 23 		9 of 16 checks pass F
11 llu.edu
Loma Linda University U.S. rank 23 		9 of 16 checks pass F
12 csulb.edu
California State University-Long Beach U.S. rank 24 		8 of 15 checks pass F
12 ucdavis.edu
University of California-Davis U.S. rank 24 		8 of 15 checks pass F
13 csueastbay.edu
California State University-East Bay U.S. rank 29 		6 of 15 checks pass F
13 csusb.edu
California State University-San Bernardino U.S. rank 29 		6 of 15 checks pass F
13 sfsu.edu
San Francisco State University U.S. rank 29 		6 of 15 checks pass F
fullerton.edu
California State University-Fullerton 		Not fully scanned, so not graded. We couldn't fully scan your site because it responded without any page content. Status 995 -
ucmerced.edu
University of California-Merced 		Not fully scanned, so not graded. We weren't able to fully scan your site. Status 403 -
ucsc.edu
University of California-Santa Cruz 		Not fully scanned, so not graded. We couldn't scan your site because it showed our bot a captcha or browser check instead of the page. Status 996 -

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 10/25/2026 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. We could not fully scan 3 sites. They did not respond, blocked the scanner, or sent no page content. They appear in the table without grades, with their scan status, and are left out of every figure. 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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