Trump Orders Improvements to Design and User Experience of Government Websites

Any websites or physical sites that ‘have a major impact on Americans’ everyday lives’ are to be prioritized, the order stated.

President Donald Trump speaks during the "Winning the AI Race" summit hosted by All‑In Podcast and Hill & Valley Forum at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C., on July 23, 2025. Trump signed executive orders related to his Artificial Intelligence Action Plan during the event. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Aug. 21 intended to improve and update the design of government websites.

In the Thursday order, “Improving Our Nation Through Better Design,” Trump said the government is lagging “behind in usability and aesthetics” in its “sprawling ecosystem of digital services offered to Americans” and that it’s time to “fill the digital potholes across our nation.”

The order launches a new “American by Design” initiative to improve the user experience with government websites.

A new National Design Studio and chief design officer will facilitate the initiative.

The officer’s job will be to recruit “top creative talent,” coordinate with federal departments and agencies, and create “innovative solutions.”

The National Design Studio is tasked with advising agencies on ways to reduce duplicative design costs, utilize standardized design across multiple websites, and enhance the user experience.

An administrator who reports to the White House chief of staff’s office will lead the studio. It will include a temporary organization headed by its administrator, which is tasked with helping advance the design initiative and will be terminated three years from the date of the order.

“But that termination shall not be interpreted to imply the termination, attenuation, or amendment of any other authority or provision of this order,” the order states.

Additionally, agency heads are directed to consult with the chief design officer to implement the “America by Design” initiative and their respective departments, with initial results expected by July 4, 2026, or the 250th anniversary of American independence.

Any websites or physical sites that “have a major impact on Americans’ everyday lives” are to be prioritized, the order states.

According to a fact sheet describing the order, there are approximately 26,000 federal websites in the United States, with legacy government systems being “costly to maintain and notoriously difficult for Americans to navigate, wasting time and resources.”

Roughly 6 percent of federal websites are rated “good” for mobile performance, and at least 45 percent are not mobile-friendly, the fact sheet states.

The order also aims to improve websites and physical interfaces by updating the United States Web Design System, which is “an active open source community of government engineers, content specialists, and designers.”

The system supports dozens of federal agencies and nearly 200 websites.

Trump’s order states that less than 20 percent of federal websites use code from the United States Web Design System, “contributing to inconsistent and varying user experiences.”