White House Executive Order Seeks to Modernize Federal Digital Services

The White House launched the America by Design initiative and established a National Design Studio (NDS), led by the nation’s first Chief Design Officer, under a new executive order released Thursday to strengthen federal digital services and improve how citizens interact with government. The executive order coincides with a broader push to update, improve and scale user experience across government agencies.

NDS will work with agencies to reduce duplicative design costs, standardize design across service providers and work to improve user experience. The order tasks the Chief Design Officer to recruit top talent and develop innovative solutions to make digital and physical experiences “both beautiful and efficient,” according to the order.

The order directs federal agencies to work with the Chief Design Officer to carry out the America by Design initiative within their organizations and to deliver initial results by July 4, 2026.

“Government is acknowledging that digital services must be simple, must be intuitive, and frankly, it needs to be on par with private sector apps and digital application,” Lee Becker, senior vice president and executive advisor of Medallia’s public sector and health care and former chief of staff for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Veterans Experience Office (VEO), told GovCIO Media & Research in an interview.

Bolstering User Experience at Veterans Affairs

The administration’s focus on improving user experience signals a wider trend in government toward design-driven service delivery. VEO is a leading example, which President Donald Trump codified into law earlier this month. The codification was a “watershed moment” for customer experience development in government, according to Becker, solidifying its status as an important function of government service delivery that will “transcend administrations.”

The VEO was launched in 2015 to collect veteran feedback on the VA’s digital experience in an effort to improve benefits and services. Former Department of Veterans Affairs Chief Veterans Experience Officer John Boerstler told GovCIO Media & Research in an interview in October 2024 that trust in the agency rose from 55% in 2016 to an 80.4% score in 2024.

“I think what I’m most proud of is … developing more communication channels with our veterans directly, especially those communication channels that got disrupted by COVID,” said Boerstler at the time. “That was important for me especially when we have PACT Act and this massive expansion of care and benefits, which made millions of veterans eligible for benefits and care from VA.”

Becker said that government agencies will follow the lead of the VEO in what he called “pockets of excellence.” Becker pointed to examples within agencies like the Social Security Administration, Federal Student Aid, Internal Revenue Service and Housing and Urban Development that revamped their user experience for customers in an effort to improve benefits delivery and services.

“This is a signal. This should inspire every agency, every employee that’s been in this space that’s been trying hard to improve services in this way. It should be comforting to know that that this is not a flash in the pan,” Becker said. “This is something for real. The government will not be delivering services without this discipline as part of it.”