The White House homepage is one of the most consistently highly trafficked White House pages, receiving millions of visitors a month.
In April 2015, Ashleigh and team released the first-ever responsive White House homepage. The WhiteHouse.gov landing page now displays content in a consistent way, no matter which device you're using, helping visitors find the most relevant content as quickly as possible.
This redesign was a landmark change in a series of improvements to the White House online platforms to make them more accessible, user-friendly, and in line with modern best practices.
The White House homepage as seen on relaunch day. Promoting an online engagement with the U.S. Surgeon General, a new executive action fighting workplace discrimination against LGBT individuals, the U.S.-Iran nuclear agreement, and more.
Before the redesign:
multiple areas of the White House homepage were underperforming, with rotating and tabbed content hidden to most users
the second largest image was in the bottom-right of the page, out of site for many
the old mobile homepage theme only loaded on phones and served highly reduced content
After the redesign:
the homepage features only the most important, curated White House content, making it a one-stop destination to find out the priorities of the administration
the images reinforce importance, with the largest at the top and the smallest near the bottom
content can easily be grouped as a collection and titled or presented as individual items
the same content is served on all devices
each piece of content featured sees higher click-through rates and engagement
Flexibility
The White House homepage is updated multiple times a week or day. With these frequent updates come changes in tone, content, and medium that call for different formats.
The redesigned White House homepage accommodates these changes with ease. For example, the header allows for flexible placement of titles, descriptions, buttons, images, and videos without breaking the responsive template and while staying on brand.
More Emotive Communication
In updating the homepage over time, the in-house design team has grown to lead with their thoughtful selection of photographs. Most of the photos are from the official White House photo office collection and are selected to bring the site visitors behind the scenes with the President, First Lady, Vice President, White House staff and guests. This simple method helps communicate the transparency and openness of the administration, while providing human interest and inviting visuals to website guests.
Below is an array of homepage images used in late 2015 and early 2016.
Feedback
In conjunction with the release of the new White House homepage, an online form was promoted to take feedback from the public. The vast majority of respondents stated that the experience and look of the updated page was "much better" than the previous experience. Here are some highlights:
“I love it. You all have done a great job of making government accessible to us, the people. Keep up the great work.”
“At first glance, the homepage appear[s] so much better. I visit WhiteHouse.gov quite often and this is the best homepage I’ve seen thus far. The appearance, easier to view photos, schedules, etc., makes it a lot more user friendly.”
“This is my first time visiting WhiteHouse.gov. I feel very impressed and very informed. So, I will visit the website frequently.”
The above-linked website is now archived. Some styles and features are no longer active.
CLIENT/EMPLOYER
The White House
DESIGN
February 2015
DEVELOPMENT
March-April 2015
LAUNCHED
April 9, 2015
TEAM
WHITE HOUSE
Ashleigh Axios: product direction, creative direction, design, content strategy, promotion
James Hobbs: UX & product design
Amanda Stone: project management & training facilitator
Jillian Maryonovich: header design support
Acquia Team: development & technical product management
Leigh Heyman: technical direction
Nathaniel Lubin: review & internal project promotion
Daniel Pfeiffer: project approval
SUPPORT FROM
Kit Rodofla: traffic insights