The Trump administration is putting Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia in charge of a newly created National Design Studio tasked with reimagining federal websites.
Gebbia, who will serve as the US chief design officer, posted on X on Saturday that he’ll be working to update government services “to be as satisfying to use as the Apple store: beautifully designed, great user experience, run on modern software.”
In the post, Gebbia said that his work will support the new America by Design initiative, which was created by an executive order from President Donald Trump on Thursday. The initiative is intended “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 usable and beautiful.”
Gebbia invited those interested in applying for roles at the National Design Studio to visit its new website. The website only has a prompt to sign up for an email list for updates.
In addition to his role in co-founding the vacation rental service Airbnb, Gebbia has headed up an office furniture design business called Neighborhood, and Samara, a former Airbnb subsidiary that develops accessory dwelling units. Gebbia has also been on the board of directors at Tesla and was part of Elon Musk’s DOGE project, which led a tumultuous cost-cutting effort across federal agencies.
Where should Gebbia start?
Gebbia will have his work cut out for him when it comes to redesigning government websites to be not only beautiful but also mobile-friendly, user-friendly and accessible.
“In my experience, and the experiences I have heard from colleagues, the legalese and poor design of government sites leave users confused,” said Ryan Frankel, president and chief technology officer at HostingAdvice, an internet marketing firm.
Frankel says that confusion tends to lead people to look for help or tutorials on how to find what they’re looking for. The majority of government websites, he said, have been shown to fail basic standards for security, speed, usability and accessibility.
That said, Frankel doesn’t think these are problems that are unsolvable.
“If we focus on the true nature that government websites should be easy and helpful first and foremost, then I believe this goal is achievable and would have lasting benefits,” he said.
Frankel believes Gebbia should start by tackling some of the websites Americans use most: IRS.gov, NIH.gov and other sites that greatly impact citizens and provide critical services.
“These are a natural fit for the government to improve,” he said.
Due to extra layers of review and approval, major changes to government websites might take a long time; Frankel estimates it could be two years before we see noticeable changes across them.
Treading carefully on security and experience
Gebbia’s team will also need to ensure that the sites they’re redesigning don’t compromise security for ease of use and jazzier design.
“The worst way for federal digital modernization to get stuck is to treat a more slick-looking CX (customer experience) as a separate matter from security requirements,” said Steve Morris, founder and CEO of Newmedia.com, a digital marketing agency.
Morris, whose firm has worked on government sites, including one for veterans’ benefits, says another strategy is to avoid ripping out entire themes for websites instead of cherry-picking what to replace.
“That doesn’t work very well or at all,” he said. “You can’t just flip the whole shebang without breaking things.”
Instead, Morris suggests, a more strategic approach to updating website themes can keep accessibility and compliance intact.
“My big unlock for Gebbia’s team is to combine those two hacks: no customer-experience change goes to final design without being a security test case, and theme-by-theme modernization,” he said. “That’s how you get the needle moving on federal digital infrastructure.”
