Solid-gold Nav Bars? Trump Plans Redesign Of Government Websites

US government websites are getting an aesthetic and functional overhaul under a Trump executive order and a new "America by Design" initiative headed by a Silicon Valley veteran and DOGE insider. 

The president kicked the initiative off last week with an order establishing a National Design Studio and the aforementioned America by Design initiative. The NDS will initially focus on, in the words of Trump's executive order, making government design language "usable and beautiful" in the digital space.

National Design Studio work will also focus on reducing duplicative design costs, creating a new design standard, and generally "improving the quality" of points of interaction between citizens and the US government.

"With a sprawling ecosystem of digital services offered to Americans, the Government has lagged behind in usability and aesthetics," the EO states, adding that those lagging websites have cost the government excess money and wasted the time of citizens trying to use them.

"It is time to fill the digital potholes across our Nation," Trump wrote in the EO. 

According to a fact sheet accompanying the order, of the 26,000 estimated federal government websites, only six percent have a "good" or better rating for mobile device performance, while 45 percent are considered entirely unfriendly for mobile use. In addition, the White House said that less than 20 percent of federal government websites use guidance from the US Web Design System standard – a number it wants to boost alongside an overhaul of the standard itself. 

While the entire project was only announced last week, it has already found a leader in the form of Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia, who announced his appointment on X over the weekend. A White House spokesperson confirmed his role to The Register. 

"My directive is to update today's government services to be as satisfying to use as the Apple Store: beautifully designed, great user experience, run on modern software," Gebbia said on X, further describing his objective as to create "an experience that projects a level of excellence for our nation, and makes life less complicated for everyday Americans."

Gebbia, a personal friend of Elon Musk and a Tesla board member, reportedly joined DOGE in February. 

Given the President's famously specific tastes, we inquired as to whether Gebbia would be taking design cues from the Oval Office in defining government sites' new digital style, but the White House didn't answer questions to that end. 

Bigger than the founding fathers

It is clear from the America by Design website that this project is all about branding, and one brand reigns supreme in the official eyes of the federal government.

"What's the biggest brand in the world? If you said Trump, you're not wrong," according to the opening text on the bare-bones website. 

One wouldn't want to upset the status quo, of course, so team Trump quickly follows that up with respect for the even more important brand that serves as "the foundation" of the Trump Brand: "It's the nation … where he was born. It's the United States of America." 

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The project also somewhat awkwardly describes President Trump as "going bigger than President Nixon," though not in the way you might think. It's by supersizing Nixon's aesthetic overhaul of federal agencies. Nixon's project led to a new logo for NASA, new National Parks branding, and standardized highway system signage. 

"It's time to continue what [Nixon] started…for the digital age," the ABD project said of its goals, which include attracting new talent – part of Gebbia's mandate is designer recruitment – and delivering "an Apple Store like experience" to government agencies. 

The Trump administration has already exercised a lot of change over government web sites, such as scrubbing mentions of topics that were verboten under his anti-DEI approach to governance. A whole-of-government digital makeover with a unified design aesthetic could very well include a widespread content audit as well. We asked the White House, but it didn't answer that question either. 

We should also note that Trump's aannouncement goes beyond redefining the look and function of digital spaces. Physical federal spaces are slated for a reimagining, too. What that might look like is anyone's guess, though it's fair to say people have their ideas. ®