White House launches new mobile app

The White House has revamped its mobile website and released a new app for visiting the seat of the nation's government. The mobile experience is designed to allow visitors to gather more information about the iconic building and allow users to make their own digital visits.

According to the White House Blog, the new WhiteHouse.gov GUI design provides more features and availability to mobile users. Additionally, new mobile apps for iOS and Android feature live streams of White House events, photo and video archives and breaking news. The administration revealed that the number of mobile visits to WhiteHouse.gov has tripled in the past two years, totaling more than 15 percent of traffic to the site.

The new website was developed with responsive graphical user interface design, allowing for easy, high-quality access regardless of the user's screen size and resolution. Additionally, a simplistic layout was implemented to make it easier to access relevant information and find the features that a user is looking for quickly.

"As WhiteHouse.gov helps the president meet his own commitment to open up the People's House, mobile will play an increasingly important role," said Peter Welsh, deputy director of online platform for the Office of Digital Strategy. "We'll continue updating the apps and mobile site in the days and months ahead[.]"

In addition to providing mobile users with access to information and events related to the White House, these new apps were released open source on GitHub. According to the Next Web, this shows that the current administration is not only embracing the latest technology, but understands it, unlike other branches of the federal government.

With the new app and site design, WhiteHouse.gov is being made more accessible to the public and more attractive to mobile users. This is a major step in the evolution of the technological prowess of the government, which has typically been behind the times, according to the news source.

Updating a website and mobile app is an important step for any organization when it comes to appealing to a broader audience and increasing its user base. From improved navigation to an enhanced overall experience, implementing responsive design and developing native apps for the most popular mobile interfaces is a major leap into the modern technological world.