Some operatives from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are joining Airbnb cofounder and DOGE member Joe Gebbia’s new National Design Studio, sources tell WIRED.
Gebbia’s NDS is a federal project tasked with redesigning government web pages and digital services. Like DOGE and the US DOGE Service (formerly US Digital Service), it’s also an office located within the executive office of the president. “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, who was named chief design officer of NDS, said in a statement to X on Saturday. “I will do my best to make the U.S. the most beautiful, and usable, country in the digital world.”
Originally, Gebbia was going to join the USDS, three sources familiar with the situation tell WIRED, but he opted to start his own office focused on design. NDS will be, at least in part, populated by DOGE operatives affiliated with the General Services Administration, the sources said.
It’s unclear exactly who from DOGE will be joining the studio’s staff, but the NDS X account follows Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, the 19-year-old early DOGE technologist who has been integral to DOGE’s efforts to dismantle large parts of the government, and Zachary Terrell, who slashed grants from the National Science Foundation earlier this year.
Kaitlyn Koller, a former Senate Foreign Relations committee aide, is joining Gebbia at the NDS, according to one source with knowledge. Until recently, Koller worked alongside USDS leadership. Acting USDS administrator Amy Gleason told staff on Tuesday that any future communication with Koller should be reported to her directly, says the source.
The NDS will act as a sister organization to the USDS—the two offices may end up collaborating on certain projects, but they’ll operate as entirely separate entities, according to the three sources familiar. The organization will also work with private designers and studios, and could venture into designing physical spaces and buildings as well.
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Last Thursday, President Donald Trump signed the executive order establishing the NDS and a new administration position called the “chief design officer.” The order also outlined a new “America by Design” national initiative that would improve the usability and aesthetics of online government services. The NDS, housed within the executive office of the president, is tasked with executing it.
“The Chief Design Officer will help recruit top creative talent, coordinate with executive departments and agencies (agencies), and devise innovative solutions,” the order reads.
Gebbia, the chief design officer, will report to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. Gebbia did not respond to a request for comment about NDS and its staff.
“The National Design Studio is embarking on an historic mission to redesign government websites. American citizens deserve the best possible experience when interfacing with their government,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston, tells WIRED. “NDS is actively recruiting talented software engineers and designers from inside and outside the government.”
Gebbia joined DOGE in February, taking the lead on a DOGE effort at the Office of Personnel Management to revamp the federal retirement system. After Musk left the government in May, Gebbia’s name circulated as a possible replacement to lead DOGE, but he was not interested in taking on the role, The New York Times reported in June.
On its new website, NDS suggests it will update the ways Americans interact with government systems, as with passport renewals, tax filing, and green card applications. According to Reuters, the Internal Revenue Service will be one of the studio’s focuses.
Work on many of these projects was already underway at the USDS and GSA’s 18F—the government’s original digital consulting group—prior to the founding of DOGE. Numerous staffers focused on these projects were either fired or resigned in the first few weeks of the Trump administration, and 18F was shuttered in March.
The announcement of NDS has irked some engineers and former designers at the USDS and 18F. “[There is] a lot of frustration here that DOGE spent the last six months firing all of our designers or encouraging them to leave, with the few remaining ones being scattered across the org with an expectation they will be RIF'd,” or let go, before starting a new program with a similar mission, one GSA source tells WIRED.
In at least one instance, the White House actually ended projects undertaken by this group that had made things easier for American taxpayers. The Trump administration killed Direct File, an IRS system that let people file their taxes for free. WIRED previously reported that DOGE member Sam Corcos moved to kill Direct File after one meeting with tax software lobbyists this spring.
The NDS and Gebbia haven’t announced the initiative's priorities, but in a March interview with Fox News, Gebbia addressed a then recent executive order signed by Trump aimed at enabling “intra- and inter-agency” data sharing and consolidation. Gebbia backed the initiative, invoking the same “Apple-like store experience” he used when announcing his role as US CDO.
“I don't feel like National Design Studio’s ambition is to replicate the role of other organizations. Which isn’t a criticism of those organizations. This is a needed new component to that ecosystem to effectuate the scale that we’re talking about,” says Matt Lira, who served as special assistant to the president for innovation policy and initiatives during Trump’s first term, in response to frustrations from current federal workers over the launch of NDS. “Bringing in fresh perspective is inherently good.”
