Illinois research universities: usability rankings

Usability scores, grades, and the most common failures for 10 Illinois research university websites, from ScanGov homepage scans.

  • Sites: 10
  • Last scan: 11/8/2026

Showing Illinois research university sites. All education sites

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

C 73

Average usability score of 10 fully scanned Illinois research university sites

3rd

of 17 states, ranked by average usability score

10 of 10

Illinois research university sites fully scanned

D 68

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

How Illinois usability scores are distributed

Smoothed distribution of the 10 fully scanned Illinois research university sites, score 0 to 100. Height shows how many sites score near each value.

  • Illinois average
  • All education average
View the data table
Score rangeSites
0 to 90
10 to 190
20 to 290
30 to 390
40 to 491
50 to 592
60 to 692
70 to 791
80 to 891
90 to 1003

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

Share of fully scanned sites in each grade band. Illinois research universities: 10 sites. All education: 2687 sites.

  1. Illinois
  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)
Illinois30% (3)20% (2)50% (5)
All education sites11% (289)42% (1,124)47% (1,274)

Top 3 Illinois research university sites by usability score

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

Northern Illinois University

A 100 usability

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

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

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

A 100 usability

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

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

Loyola University Chicago

A 93 usability

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

Most common usability failures among Illinois research university sites

Share of the 10 fully scanned Illinois 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 alt70%
  2. Open Graph site name70%
  3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)50%
  4. Open Graph type50%
  5. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)30%
View the data table
CheckShare failingSites failing
Open Graph image alt70%7
Open Graph site name70%7
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)50%5
Open Graph type50%5
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)30%3

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 site name. The site has a name for social media and browser display. Site name missing in social media shares.
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). Page content stays in place as the page loads. Users click wrong buttons by mistake.
  • Open Graph type. The page declares its content type for social media cards. Social media shows wrong content type.
  • 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 Illinois by usability score

Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 niu.edu
Northern Illinois University U.S. rank 1 		16 of 16 checks pass A
1 illinois.edu
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign U.S. rank 1 		16 of 16 checks pass A
2 luc.edu
Loyola University Chicago U.S. rank 2 		15 of 16 checks pass A
3 siu.edu
Southern Illinois University-Carbondale U.S. rank 9 		13 of 16 checks pass B
4 uchicago.edu
University of Chicago U.S. rank 13 		12 of 16 checks pass C
5 depaul.edu
DePaul University U.S. rank 17 		11 of 16 checks pass D
5 illinoisstate.edu
Illinois State University U.S. rank 17 		11 of 16 checks pass D
6 iit.edu
Illinois Institute of Technology U.S. rank 23 		9 of 16 checks pass F
7 northwestern.edu
Northwestern University U.S. rank 25 		8 of 16 checks pass F
8 uic.edu
University of Illinois Chicago U.S. rank 27 		7 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 10/27/2026 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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