Back in January 2012, I wrote about visiting American Presidential Libraries online. There are 13 of them (former President Obama’s Library hasn’t been built yet) and each one is a joy to visit. Well, some more so than others – yes President Carter, I’m talking about yours. However, this post isn’t about the libraries as much as it is on the White House website during the tenure of the last four Presidents.
The National Archives stores a snapshot of the White House website as it was under each President on their last day. The collected websites can be found here. Clicking on a website below takes you to that site at the National Archives. The first President to build a website was President Clinton in 1994. His White House site went through five versions during its six-year history. The look of the White House’s first web site (below, on the left) is typical of personal websites of the era. It is a big picture of the White House surrounded by clickable links to other areas of the website. However, it is the January 2000 version (below, on the right) that the Clinton White House is remembered for. That version set the standard for the categories of service that the on-line White House would offer in the future such as “White House for Kids” and coordination with websites of the other two branches of Government.
President Bush’s website ran for eight years and established the current White House web site look and color scheme (blue and white). The small White House seal and the royal blue color menu bar would part of the White House website for the next 17 years. The site had a light blue background to contrast against the blue menu bar which was above the White House graphic.
President Obama’s website is more visual with less text. It is designed to be mobile device friendly. This website moved the White House graphic into the blue menu bar and changed the background to white. Unlike President Bush’s 3 column site, President Obama’s site floated between one and two columns (depending on the page) and added a five column footer to the site. This footer made the site “cleaner” looking because it created a bottom navigational menu “below the folder.” Now the site visitor didn’t have to go back to the top menu to continue moving around the site. 
President Trump’s White House website kept the top and bottom menu structure and the large splash graphic on the front page. However, it removed info on the White House Greeting Office (where citizens can request Presidential greeting for birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions). It also removed the Spanish language page and the accessibility page (sign language tour of the White House) from the web site. It added a “Sign up for Updates” to the front page making it the first White House to use the Government site to compile a mailing list.
Checking out the White House web sites gives you a fascinating look back at web design over the last 23 years. All considered, it’s well worth it.
