From the Nominator

"UCSF Magazine is the flagship publication of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Yet for many years, our online presence consisted of a flipbook and feature stories posted on the main UCSF website.  

We launched a full-fledged version of the UCSF Magazine website in 2021 (and basic version in 2020) to make it easier to read our content online, engage our audience with multimedia, encourage them to explore additional content, expand our reach, publish timely stories quickly, meet AA accessibility standards, and enhance the magazine's brand. We designed, tested, and built the website in-house through an iterative process and always with the user in mind. Our visitors now enjoy responsive design, user-tested navigation, multimedia extras, additional reading recommendations, story collections, a complete online archive, and the ability to easily share content.   

We are thrilled with the results. Our website had more than 1.5 million page views between July 1, 2020-Dec. 31, 2021. During that time, 85% of users were new, organic search drove 62% of our traffic, and 67% of users were on mobile. Some of our older stories also garnered significant page views; one from 2018 had 34,000. This shows us that our SEO is working, we're reaching fresh audiences, and the site is mobile-friendly. 

In addition, with its bold, sophisticated design, the website now mirrors the quality of our award-winning print magazine."

From the Judges

UCSF Magazine Website looks the most professional of all the entries. It is clear and visually appealing with a visual mix, as well as diversity in content. The quality of UCSF’s writing and content is what secured the number one spot. Most judges found themselves sticking around to read far more than was necessary for pure interest, which is saying something about a medically-focused website. Beautiful and compelling work.