GSA and National Design Studio collaborate to boost Login.gov experience
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By
Frank Konkel
The partnership is focused on making the government’s in-house identity service easier to use without compromising on security.
Login.gov, the government’s identity-proofing platform housed within the General Services Administration, is collaborating with the National Design Studio to enhance the user experience of millions of Americans who regularly use the shared service.
The collaboration aims to “make it easier for people to access government services, while operating with privacy, transparency, and security at the core of everything we do,” according to an internal email sent to staff Tuesday by Greg Hogan, acting assistant commissioner of Login.gov, and obtained by Nextgov/FCW.
Currently, more than 100 million Americans have accounts through Login.gov to access a variety of government services like Social Security accounts, unemployment insurance, passport services and more across 50 states and agencies.
The National Design Studio was stood up via an August 2025 executive order to improve how Americans experience and interact with government agencies online and in-person. Housed within the Executive Office of the President and headed by Joe Gebbia, the National Design Studio has collaborated with several agencies across government, including on a major effort with the Office of Personnel Management to make federal retirement applications fully electronic.
Per Hogan’s email, “ND Studio has drafted a proposed set of changes that will help modernize and streamline the sign up, sign in, and identity proofing process.” Hogan makes clear that while National Design Studio is providing a service to Login.gov, it “does not oversee or operate” the service, nor is it “building a replacement Login.gov website.”
The National Design Studio instead built a separate “experimental version” of the site to test different design concepts and improvements that it pitched to leadership.
“The ND Studio will have resources available to support us in real-time thinking through these immediate changes and identifying areas where their expertise would be beneficial for the long term,” Hogan said in the email. “I believe our combined skills can greatly benefit the American public.”
“Our team at GSA remains responsible for every change made to the service. Any proposal must go through our normal reviews for engineering, security, accessibility, privacy, compliance, performance, and product before it gets shipped to users. We’ll implement only changes that improve the user experience and meet our standards,” he added.