Unlocking Open Source Design, for all of humanity

A presentation at IxDA Interaction 20 in in Milan, Metropolitan City of Milan, Italy by Eriol Fox

Unlocking Open Source Design, for all of humanity Eriol Fox, Thomas Kueber & Andre Jay Meissner

Unlocking Open Source Design, for all of humanity Eriol Fox, Thomas Kueber & Andre Jay Meissner

Unlocking Open Source Design, for all of humanity.

Unlocking Open Source Design, for all of humanity.

Speaker intro slide

Speaker intro slide

TenFour intro slide

TenFour intro slide

What is Open Source Software?

What is Open Source Software?

What is Open Source Software? continued

What is Open Source Software? continued

Designers want to work on projects ‘for good’.

Designers want to work on projects ‘for good’.

Why aren’t there many design related contributions to OSS?

Why aren’t there many design related contributions to OSS?

Intro to Open Design

Intro to Open Design

A year of research.

A year of research.

OSS isn’t part of design education.

OSS isn’t part of design education.

Explanation of OSS contribution sounds like ‘work for free’.

Explanation of OSS contribution sounds like ‘work for free’.

Most OSS projects understand design as ‘logos’ and ‘graphics’.

Most OSS projects understand design as ‘logos’ and ‘graphics’.

Why we continued the ‘live workshop’ approach.

Why we continued the ‘live workshop’ approach.

India, Bengaluru and Taiwan, Taipei

India, Bengaluru and Taiwan, Taipei

Design activities.

Design activities.

Design activities continued

Design activities continued

One prototype using voice

One prototype using voice

More cities in 2020 and beyond.

More cities in 2020 and beyond.

Increase and sustain contribution. Support the community. Build understanding between design and OSS. Bringing Open Design to education and workplaces

Increase and sustain contribution. Support the community. Build understanding between design and OSS. Bringing Open Design to education and workplaces

Open methodology, frameworks and processes to use and remix: github.com/ushahidi/opendesign

Open methodology, frameworks and processes to use and remix: github.com/ushahidi/opendesign

Designers involvement in how tech is built for humans is directly linked to its success. So what is it about Open Source Software that hasn’t caught on yet?

Open Source Design has a plethora of hurdles to leap before it could become fully adopted by organisations as well as the community of practice: Exploitative work-for-free attitudes. Scary developer-style workflows. How design roles connect up through a product life cycle. How our tools –and mindset– doesn’t yet allow for transparent, robust collaboration across a global, highly diverse and remote group of designers (https://opendesign.ushahidi.com/how-project-owners-and-managers-can-encourage-designer-contributions-to-oss/). Given that many designers want to work on projects that do good, why are we still keeping ourselves from unfolding our full potential?

Ushahidi (https://www.ushahidi.com/) builds humanitarian tools, remotely, for some of the most marginalised people on our planet. To tackle the systemic problems with how to open source a design effort and bring the community along with Ushahidi’s product team, the non profit has partnered with Designit and Adobe on the Open Design project (https://opendesign.ushahidi.com/design-should-be-open-for-all/). Together, we are looking to unlock open source design for everyone, by analysing what is going well and the challenges of the past, by curating guidance what should be improved in the future, and by piloting and proposing concrete practices for establishing organisational culture, team dynamics and redesigned tools and processes that makes a difference in the world.

Today we are here to take you through that journey by presenting you the results of the first year into the Open Design project, and to invite you to join our mission to unlock Open Source Design for all of us – to add true scale to advancing the human condition.