How the "America by Design" Executive Order is reshaping public service and why it matters now
Introduction
When you’ve lived somewhere a while, your house might not sparkle the way it did when you moved in. Even if it looks nice to guests, you probably have a junk drawer, an overstuffed closet, or a few things tucked away in the basement. Maybe the clutter is under control, but now the plumbing is acting up, or the wiring is a little off. The appliances don’t work like they used to, and there’s a suspicious spot on the ceiling that might be a leak. You come up with little workarounds and tricks to manage things day to day—it’s functional, not optimal. You tell yourself, “I’ll deal with it eventually.” Some days, it feels like it might be easier to move into a whole new house.
Government can feel the same way, especially in the digital space. Organizations start off with the best intentions and may function well at first. But over time, people come and go, technology changes, fixes are made in bits and pieces, and systems become harder to navigate as process crowds out purpose. Without steady, thoughtful upkeep of these systems, critical issues begin to form.
With the issuance of the “Improving our Nation Through Better Design” executive order, the federal government is renewing its commitment to better digital experiences. This marks a clear call for Customer Experience (CX) Modernization: a people-first approach that aligns operations and technology with human goals and needs. It’s about designing systems that enable scalable, repeatable, and efficient service delivery, so government works better for everyone from the inside out.
As agencies begin to interpret and act on this executive order, the path forward will require more than surface-level fixes. It demands a strategic, human-centered transformation—a foundational change.
So what will meaningful change look like, and what will it take to make it real?
What this Executive Order means
On August 21, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order titled, “Improving Our Nation Through Better Design,” launching the administration’s “America by Design” initiative. The goal - to update the government’s digital interfaces to be “both usable and beautiful.” Clunky forms, confusing layouts, broken functionality, and outdated processes are all too common across the federal landscape. This executive order offers a clear mandate for widespread improvement and meaningful transformation.
The initiative establishes a new National Design Studio and introduces the inaugural Chief Design Officer (CDO) role to recruit top creative talent, coordinate across agencies, and drive innovation. The Studio is tasked with reducing duplicative design costs, standardizing design to build public trust, and dramatically improving the quality of digital experiences.
A key focus of the EO is ensuring compliance with the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA). This legislation mandates website modernization, Section 508 compliance, digitization of services and forms, and a host of other usability standards and design improvements. Although the law passed in 2018, progress has been slow. A recent GAO study found that agencies had addressed only 57% of the 192 requirements outlined in the legislation. Meanwhile, according to the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation:
70% of government websites have detectable accessibility issues
Fewer than 20% use code from the US Web Design System
Only 40% participate in the GSA’s Digital Analytics Program
Barely over 50% are mobile-friendly, despite most web traffic now coming from mobile devices
These numbers show how far behind we are, highlighting the need to act now and to do more to deliver better experiences.
Implications + Expectations
This executive order makes one thing clear: intuitive, accessible customer experiencs are no longer optional—they’re essential. The American people come first. That means prioritizing customer experience, timely and accurate information, and meaningful outcomes.
Full stop.
While federal priorities may shift with administrations, good design remains apolitical, bipartisan, and essential. Many government services may “still work,” but without regular, people-first maintenance, they fall behind and deteriorate,especially as technology evolves and user expectations rise. This isn’t about a one-time fix: Human-centered design is an essential practice, a shift toward proactive, sustainable service delivery.
The challenges this EO addresses aren’t isolated bugs or broken links. They’re deeply embedded, system-wide problems that require thoughtful, coordinated solutions. A recent GSA study found more than 7,200 distinct websites across the 24 largest federal entities. That complexity begins with the systems, processes, and experiences that support them. Untangling it means combining emerging technologies like generative AI along with human-centered design practices grounded in real-world experience.
This goes far beyond moving buttons or relabeling navigation links. Optimizing customer experience means rethinking how things work, envisioning how they should work, and designing practical, scalable paths to get there.
Experience that works: Transforming services for people
The digital work ahead is, ironically, more about people than technology. Success hinges on how individuals interpret, interact with, and experience digital tools and services. Even improving a simple form requires understanding the process it supports, the broader system it fits within, and most importantly, the people it serves.
At Informed XP, we help both federal and private sector clients identify the problems that matter most and solve them. Our proven approach blends deep customer understanding, data-informed experience design, modern technologies, and a commitment to continuous process and experience improvement to drive lasting impact. From internal operations to public-facing services, we know how to create effective, meaningful change, because we’ve been doing this work for years. Below are a few examples that illustrate how this approach has delivered measurable results for our clients.
Clarifying services to build a CX foundation
Customer experience program design + service model alignment
In our work with the National Science Foundation (NSF), we developed a comprehensive Customer Experience (CX) program grounded in research and data. To establish a clear picture of the current state, we examined existing services and systems and explored people and processes through walkthroughs, service safaris, and interviews with staff and customers. Among the insights from this research was a key finding - service descriptions were often inconsistent and sometimes conflicting across websites, brochures, guides, and other materials. In many cases, they reflected internal operations rather than what customers actually needed or recognized as services. Using these findings, we defined each “service” from the customer’s perspective and created a clear, unified list that balanced organizational operations and customer expectations. This led to consolidating nearly 200 disparate references into a simplified catalog of 66 distinct services organized into 7 categories.
This foundational shift enabled the division to align around a shared, relatable service model—one that reflects how customers think, not just how the organization functions. This effort served as a cornerstone in establishing a broader customer experience program designed to drive continuous improvement through strategy, structure, and insight.
Transforming the mortgage processing experience
End-to-end CX assessment + platform redesign
At Freddie Mac, we examined the full mortgage lifecycle to uncover opportunities for improvement across loan origination, underwriting, servicing, and securitization. Our work involved reimagining legacy processes and systems, integrating new technologies, ensuring regulatory compliance, and designing intuitive tools and interfaces. But the real transformation began with understanding the experience from staff to customer perspectives. Through a mix of primary and secondary research, we mapped current and future state journeys, identified pain points, and delivered actionable insights and opportunities.
The result was demonstrable cycle-time reductions, increased staff productivity, and a shared foundation that informed strategic planning and roadmap decisions across the organization.
Modernizing internal operations
Business process improvement + workflow automation
At the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), we addressed a fragmented acquisition and procurement approval process that relied on institutional knowledge and a patchwork of tools like email and spreadsheets. Our team supported the selection of an out-of-the-box software solution and tailored it to meet the agency’s specific needs. Through in-depth discovery with staff and stakeholders, we identified pain points, clarified business requirements, and redefined the process from a user-centered perspective.
The result was a streamlined, automated workflow that replaced manual, inconsistent practices with a scalable system backed by a major software provider, ensuring long-term support and reliability. By reducing friction, increasing transparency, and eliminating manual effort, the new system is significantly improving the employee experience and boosting operational efficiency. Its success has sparked interest in expanding the solution to additional processes, underscoring the broader value and adaptability of our approach.
Designing for omnichannel growth
Multichannel experience design + scalable design systems
Our private sector work also brings valuable perspective to our federal engagements. For Intermex, a global financial services provider, we conducted in-depth research to understand how employees, retail agents, and customers interact with its products across mobile, web, and in-store channels. Based on these insights, our team modernized the mobile experience, introducing new features, improving interaction patterns, and delivering a streamlined, multilingual app that quickly gained user praise and adoption. To accelerate updates and releases, we also developed a standard design system that enables repeatable implementation at scale.
The result is record-breaking digital revenue and a growing base of satisfied customers. Due to the success of this work, IXP helped lead and shape UX design and CX strategy across the Intermex omnichannel footprint to drive business growth and inform decisions and roadmaps.
From mandate to meaningful change
These examples embody the principles outlined in the “Improving Our Nation Through Better Design” executive order. By centering on real customer needs, simplifying complex systems, and aligning services around how people actually experience them, we help federal agencies build trust and deliver services that are intuitive, efficient, and effective. This is the essence of CX Modernization: transforming how services are designed, delivered, and experienced and how the government shows up for the people it serves.
At Informed XP, we help agencies deliver on their mission with clarity, consistency, and care. Our team understands the complexity of government systems and the urgency of public needs. We’re ready to partner with agencies committed to CX Modernization and to building government tools that work for real people by design.
