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Biden’s team revamped WhiteHouse.gov in 6 weeks

Fast Company: “For a glimpse of how the Biden Administration plans to govern, look no further than the White House website. The new site has lots of negative white space and is designed to be accessible to everyone from Spanish speakers to citizens with vision impairments. “WhiteHouse.gov ends up being the front page of the federal government,” says White House director of digital strategy Rob Flaherty, whose team would like users to consider WhiteHouse.gov a digital front door. It’s a stark contrast from the previous administration’s site, which used gold accents along with dark blue and white. Under President Donald Trump, a Spanish version of the site was removed (which the Biden administration reinstated). As for navigation: The Trump-era site put zero effort into making content easy to find and visually compelling. On a page about former U.S. presidents, the Trump site opted for a list rather than a visual grid with images. The design matters because the White House website is a place for people to learn about the administration and its agenda. It’s also a place for people to find jobs. Flaherty says some of its most trafficked pages are about the history of the White House and biographical information…The site introduces new features like high-contrast dark mode and large text options, which are both important for legibility and are especially important for users with visual impairments. It brought back a Spanish language version of the site, retired by the Trump administration, and features new details like inclusive pronoun dropdowns for its contact menu. Flaherty’s team also conducted a content audit. “We took down anything that gave the wrong impression of what our administration is about,” he says…”

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