Airbnb co-founder hires Peter Arnell as first US chief brand architect

Billionaire Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia is growing his team at… American National Design StudioTrump’s initiative focused on improving the government’s online presence. Gebbia announced on Monday that American designer Peter Arnell has joined the team to become the brand’s first chief architect in the United States.

Jebbia shared the news of Arnel’s appointment, during The Wall Street Journal’s “The Future of Everything” conference is being held on Monday. Arnell will join a group of Silicon Valley design and software engineering talent uniquely focused on reshaping the usability of America’s government’s online platforms.

During his four-decade career as a brand and marketer, Arnel has worked with major brands such as Donna Karan New York, Samsung, Unilever, Pepsi, Reebok, Chrysler, The Home Depot, and others. Now, his focus will be on rebranding this digital slice of the USA, which he calls “the greatest brand in the world.”

“This is a very special and different take on the word ‘brand’ in the sense that we’re not rebranding this country, of course,” Arnel explained at the Wall Street Journal event. “What we’re trying to do, specifically, is to have consistency, (a) uniform look and feel and experience, so that we start to build trust in the way the everyday American interacts with government.”

He said the move represented an “interesting challenge” for the future, as the team was tasked with redesigning 27,000 government websites. To do this, the team is relying on many of the same design sensibilities they’ve previously used to create best-in-class consumer apps, like Airbnb.

“There’s an Airbnb spirit here,” Gebbia noted, saying that much like bringing the complex process of finding a room to rent or a vacation rental online, the government’s work is also about taking a complex process and making it easier, safer and more trustworthy.

He also pointed out some of the work the team has already done to improve the design and functionality of government online processes and websites to date. For example the team Renewing the government retirement processwhich used to be complex on paper, has been transformed into a simplified web-based version that employees can complete within minutes, in some cases, rather than months. He said that there is another process being prototyped that has reduced the common government workflow from 87 clicks to 12, and the plan is to reach 10.

The design initiative will also address other frustrations caused by using government websites, such as losing sites during navigation or pages timing out, causing users to lose their data.

Gebbia slyly referred to the poor consumer experience using government websites as “one of the darkest experiences User experience Patterns you can think of” – a reference to deceptive design or user interface tricks that sites use to manipulate their users.

“The mere perception that (the government website) is difficult prevents you from even engaging in it,” he suggested. “I think we are moving beyond that,” he said. “This is over. People should feel empowered to get the things done that they need to get done with the government.”