Trump appoints Airbnb co-founder as first official government head of design

US President Donald Trump has appointed Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia as the United States’ first Chief Design Officer, a role created as part of the launch of the National Design Studio within the Executive Office of the President. The new position was confirmed through an executive order signed on 21 August. The initiative, called America by Design, has been established to address the way federal services are designed and delivered. The government says the focus will be on improving the usability and consistency of the government’s digital presence, from websites and forms to broader systems that affect how citizens access services. The National Design Studio says it will work with agencies across government to ‘streamline interfaces and reduce duplication, with the goal of creating a simpler, more coherent experience for the public.

Gebbia, who co-founded Airbnb in 2008 and has since supported a range of ventures in design and technology, will lead the programme. His immediate task will be the redesign of more than 20,000 federal websites and the development of common design standards. Agencies have been instructed to present tangible progress by 4 July 2026, coinciding with the 250th anniversary of US independence.

Gebbia, who joined the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) earlier this year and is on the board of Tesla, said Saturday that his directive is to improve the government’s services to be as “satisfying to use as the Apple Store: beautifully designed, great user experience, run on modern software … an experience that projects a level of excellence for our nation, and makes life less complicated for everyday Americans.”

The National Design Studio has been set up as a temporary body with a three-year mandate. The intention is to deliver change without embedding another permanent bureaucracy. The studio follows the winding down of the Department of Government Efficiency, which had been tasked with driving reform through cost-cutting measures. America by Design shifts the emphasis toward usability, accessibility and a consistent user experience.

For workplace professionals, the initiative may reflect a growing trend that extends beyond government. Organisations of all kinds are recognising that design is no longer limited to products or marketing but is a central part of how services, systems and workplaces function. In the same way that the National Design Studio will aim to make public services more coherent, many employers are applying similar thinking to how employees interact with digital tools, physical spaces and organisational processes.

The creation of a Chief Design Officer role at the highest level of government underscores how design has become integral to organisational effectiveness. It signals a recognition that the experience of users, whether they are citizens or employees, directly affects the performance and perception of institutions. For workplaces, the lesson is clear: design thinking and user-centred approaches are becoming not just desirable but essential to modernisation.