Trump's plan to redesign every .gov website leads to AI-designed horrors
A year in, National Design Studio delays plan to update government web standards.
Signal weather
Rising
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
President Donald Trump’s plan to “fill the digital potholes” and use AI to quickly redesign every government website isn’t going very well. Last August, Trump created the National Design Studio, or NDS, by executive order. A temporary DOGE-like entity that answers only to the president, NDS was tasked with creating new standards to update the US Web Design System (USWDS) and overhaul 27,000 dot-gov websites in just three years. At the end of this so-called “America by Design” initiative, the government’s “design language” would supposedly be more usable and beautiful, Trump expected. However, that monumental task—assigned to a small team under a short timeframe—was seemingly made harder by DOGE's deep cuts to agencies previously responsible for improving government websites, including dismantling the 18F technology unit and restructuring the US Digital Service into DOGE.Read full article Comments
Stay on the signal
Follow Trump's plan to redesign every .gov website leads to AI-designed horrors
Follow this story beyond a single article: new follow-ups, adjacent sources, and the evolving storyline.
Story map
Understand this topic fast
A quick entry into the story: why it matters now, who is involved, and where to go next for context.
Why it matters now
Topic constellation
Open the live map for this story
See which entities, story threads, sources, and follow-up articles shape this story right now.
Click nodes to continue
Story timeline
Continue with this story
A short sequence of events and follow-up stories to understand the arc quickly.
How reliable this looks
Signal and trust for Ars Technica
This source works at a rapid pace: 100% of recent stories land in the hot window, and 0% carry visible search signal.
Reliability
92
Freshness
100
Sources in storyline
1
Related articles
More stories that share tags, source, or category context.
Google's new Nano Banana 2 Lite image model is its fastest and cheapest yet
They may not look as good, but Nano Banana 2 Lite images only take a few seconds to create.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
RFK Jr. stacks FDA panel with peptide peddlers as FDA scientists oppose access
Peptide drugs are popular, but FDA scientists warn they're untested, may be harmful.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
The US going 100% EV by 2040 would save more than 100k lives, study says
Much of it comes from heavy-duty trucks and buses that burn diesel.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
Trump asked Musk for SpaceX stock to seed US kids’ savings accounts, report says
Sources suggest Musk may be mulling big donation to Trump Accounts.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
More from Ars Technica
Fresh reporting and follow-up coverage from the same newsroom.
Google's new Nano Banana 2 Lite image model is its fastest and cheapest yet
They may not look as good, but Nano Banana 2 Lite images only take a few seconds to create.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
RFK Jr. stacks FDA panel with peptide peddlers as FDA scientists oppose access
Peptide drugs are popular, but FDA scientists warn they're untested, may be harmful.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
The US going 100% EV by 2040 would save more than 100k lives, study says
Much of it comes from heavy-duty trucks and buses that burn diesel.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.
Trump asked Musk for SpaceX stock to seed US kids’ savings accounts, report says
Sources suggest Musk may be mulling big donation to Trump Accounts.
Signal weather
Momentum is building quickly, so this card is a good early entry point into the topic.
Why now
Fresh coverage with immediate momentum.