President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday establishing the country’s first national design studio.
Trump’s order creates the “American by Design” initiative to “improve experiences for Americans, starting by breathing new life into the design of sites where people interface with their Government.”
“It is time to update the Government’s design language to be both usable and beautiful,” the order says. “This effort will be facilitated by a new National Design Studio and by a new Chief Design Officer,” who will “help recruit top creative talent, coordinate with executive departments and agencies, and devise innovative solutions.”
The National Design Studio will “advise agencies on how to reduce duplicative design costs, use standardized design to enhance the public’s trust in high-impact service providers, and dramatically improve the quality of experiences offered to the American public,” the order declares.
The studio will close in three years.
Trump’s initiative comes as the federal government has “lagged behind in usability and aesthetics,” the order criticizes. “There is a high financial cost to maintaining legacy systems, to say nothing of the cost in time lost by the American public trying to navigate them. It is time to fill the digital potholes across our Nation.”
According to a White House fact sheet on the development, federal websites fail to meet the public’s expectations. “Poorly designed digital and physical interfaces undermine public trust in high-impact Federal service providers,” the fact sheet says, adding, “The current sprawling ecosystem of Federal services lacks the usability and aesthetic quality expected by the American public.”
Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia has been tapped to spearhead the new design studio, reports indicate.
