💭 Difficulties of design in open source

I’ve been taking notes for a list or presentation highlighting major and minor difficulties that designers as well as design as a whole faces when it comes to open source processes. Yesterday @devonzuegel posted on Twitter: Why are designers relatively rare contributors to open source? Which includes a lot of great replies to be added to the list. It also prompted me to open up the notes and make it a collaborative list! 🙂 So this post is a wiki, you can edit it! Click on the ‘...

Open Source Design

“When you give user insights and feedback to FOSS - that’s an open source contribution!”

Check out this conversation with Canonical.

In this video, Open Source Designer Eriol Fox dives into the pragmatic world of design and usability within the FOSS ecosystem. We discuss how product designers and user researchers are driving long-term software sustainability through accessibility and smarter design.

This conversation covers the full spectrum of modern design development: from CLI design (Command Line Interface) and the "contributor-user" pathway, to why industry leaders are prioritizing design systems to keep their projects healthy. If you’re into Linux terminal workflows, human-computer interaction (HCI), or just building better digital commons, there's something here for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP0gkjIhezs&t=1s

#OSS #opensource #ossdesign #opensourcedesign

If you are interested in research in design in open source projects see the list of publications at

https://github.com/victoria-bondarchuk/List-of-Academic-Research-on-Usability-in-FOSS

and the literature review at https://user-project.superbloom.design/process/literature-review/

#opensourcedesign #UX #opensource #research

Usability issue discussions in open source projects "…were mostly focused on visual design and user interaction mechanisms". A possible explaination: "efficiency issues […] and aesthetic issues […] tend to be system characteristics that can be readily discovered and addressed by developers once a version of the system is implemented, while other usability aspects may require deeper, upfront analysis and UI/UX design."

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3637307

#opensource #UX #opensourcedesign #research

Following on from yesterday's blog post about the new design for profiles coming in Mastodon 4.6... here is the video of @imanijoy recent talk at @fossdesign where they discuss the challenges and detailed thought that goes into the design of new features (and the redesign of existing ones). 🖌️

#FOSSBack #Mastodon #OpenSourceDesign #UX

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNxpTvbTy54

Imani Joy – A Solo Designer’s Survival Guide to the Fediverse #FOSSDesign

YouTube

Imani Joy, designer at @Mastodon – A Solo Designer’s Survival Guide to the Fediverse at FOSS Backstage Design (@fossdesign)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNxpTvbTy54

#opensource #opensourcedesign #UX

Imani Joy – A Solo Designer’s Survival Guide to the Fediverse #FOSSDesign

YouTube
Mockups and Prototyping at Blender #FOSSDesign

YouTube

If you are a developer working with designers in open source projects:
What did you learn about design from them and what would you like designers would know about development?

#opensourcedesign #development

If you are a designer in open source: What do you wish you learned earlier about being a designer in open source? //jd

#opensourcedesign #design

- discuss about opensource design at https://discourse.opensourcedesign.net/
- post open source design related jobs at https://opensourcedesign.net/jobs/
- join our community calls https://opensourcedesign.net/events/monthly-online-meeting/

#opensourcedesign #community

Open Source Design

We are a community of designers and developers pushing more open design processes and improving the user experience and interface design of open source software.

Open Source Design