Executive Order 14338: Improving Our Nation Through Better Design

What does Executive Order 14338 do?

The order created a Chief Design Officer role and directed work on the usability and visual presentation of federal digital and physical services.

Official records rechecked October 2, 2026: The White House personnel report, with a staff roster dated July 1, 2026, lists Kaitlyn A. Koller as Director of Operations for the National Design Studio. This documents a named role in that roster; it does not measure whether federal services improved.

Reading the operative provisions of Executive Order 14338

EO 14338 establishes the America by Design initiative and a National Design Studio in the White House to improve the usability of federal services. It creates a Chief Design Officer role and asks agencies to apply user-centered design to websites, forms and public-facing processes. The order appears in the Federal Register. The studio coordinates and advises; it does not replace the agencies legally responsible for their programs.

User-centered design can make a benefits application easier to understand, reduce errors and improve access for people with disabilities or limited internet service. But a simpler form must still collect information required by law and protect personal data. Design choices should be tested with users, measured for completion and error rates, and reviewed for accessibility and language access.

The studio’s annual report cited in this guide is evidence of staff activity and selected design projects, not proof that all federal services have improved. Each agency must implement changes in its own systems and comply with procurement, privacy, security and records rules. To assess results, compare task completion, processing time, user errors and accessibility across a specific service before and after redesign. A design initiative is successful when users can complete a lawful task more easily, not merely when a new interface is launched.