Gebbia said he wanted to create beautifully-designed government web portals that are as satisfying to use as the Apple App Store.
Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia said on Aug. 23 it would be an honor to redesign thousands of U.S. government websites after he was appointed as President Donald Trump’s new design chief.
Trump tapped the 44-year-old designer and entrepreneur to spearhead a new “National Design Studio,” tasked with the job of making federal online services more efficient and easy to use.
Gebbia graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with degrees in graphic design and industrial design, and took business coursework at Brown University and MIT. He is also the founder of Samara, which offers modular housing units.
Earlier this year, he joined the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to help modernize the federal retirement process.
Gebbia was appointed chief design officer after Trump signed an Aug. 21 executive order for “improving our nation through better design.”
“In order to employ the most talented designers of our generation to serve their country, the Chief Design Officer shall help recruit designers and other experts from the private sector as well as other sources of expertise,” the order said.
The order directs agency heads to prioritize improvements to their websites, as well as their “physical sites that have a major impact on Americans’ everyday lives.”
The order also created the National Design Studio to improve the “usability and aesthetics” of federal digital services. It will advise agencies on how to reduce duplicative design costs, use standardized design on sites where people interact with the government, and “dramatically improve the quality of experiences offered to the American public.”
The order gives Gebbia, his team, and government agencies until July 4, 2026, to “produce initial results” from the design initiative. In three years, the studio will close, the order said.
“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 in a post on X. “An experience that projects a level of excellence for our nation, and makes life less complicated for everyday Americans.”
By Melanie Sun
