Abigail Makolo

Open source is beautiful! It makes powerful, potentially life-changing software free and open to all. However, open-source software has been largely associated with poor user experience and aesthetics. Could this be because designers are not interested in contributing to free software? Actually, “Most designers don’t have a clue about open source,” says Eriol Fox of Ushahidi, a non-profit social enterprise that creates humanitarian, open-source tech tools. And there’s no doubt, personally I was not aware for the longest time in my tech career that designers (and people from other fields other than coding) could contribute to open-source software almost as much as programmers do. Why should you contribute to open-source as a designer? What opportunities are open to you as an open-source designer and what help is available to help you get started? These questions and more will be addressed in this talk. It is open to everyone, including non-designers and non-coders.