Centring humans and their rights in Open Source Design. A
Content warnings
Our structure
Intro
Human rights centred designer? What does that mean?
Ushahidi
Open Food Network
Community work 1
Community work 2
Community work 3
Community work 4
Designing for human rights
I didn’t start out being human rights centred.
I worked as a designer for a parental tech start up. A customer support case came in.
Poll: Have you had a similar experience? Was there a moment that made you pause with concern?
Why Open Source Software is uniquely positioned to move this forward.
A place where designers could consistently prioritise human rights.
Why do designers care about open source?
They see how they can learn, grow, collaborate and communicate.
“They’ll have the opportunity to learn and collaborate with other designers” Franklin Ohaegbulam
“OSS is part of our everyday lives. It deserves the same treatment that non-OSS gets which is a proper, user centred design process.” Florian Bölter
Why do designers care about open source? They see a space where they can openly centre human needs with tech.
“The role of a designer is to elevate and amply the voices of others so that nobody is left out of the conversation.” Courtenay Beadel
Why do designers care about human rights in tech?
Because our human rights are intrinsically interwoven in how we form technology.
“If we [designers] are not intentionally working against injustice, we are unintentionally complicit in it.” Jacklyn Waight
I find it difficult to remove the ‘human rights’ centred thinking from design now… and why should I?
Poll: How often have you heard a similar phrase to ‘[this tech] works for most people even if it doesn’t work for the few’ or the notorious ‘Edge cases’
The amount of OSS projects that have human rights focuses is growing and access to help these with design contributions is a great opportunity.
Panic button. As we spoke, the excitement about this feature was huge…I was quiet. I was thinking of times I’d felt panic…
Poll: Have you given or received information about a difficult subject? Think about how that situation played out.
Mapping a violent crisis. In order to attempt to collaboratively prototype solutions, we needed to understand each others experiences…
facebook.com/polycomdevelopmentproject
Example of a journey map 1
Example of a journey map 2
How did we make sure we did this ethically?
Poll: Do you think your organisation or project could benefit from talking with those that are most harmed by what you create? @EriolDoesDesign
Activity - Journey Mapping
Journey map template
PTSD flashback while using google sheets during an online meeting Before During
Eriol’s filing a missing person report
Take some time to come back from that exercise if you need to.
Poll: Could you see this exercise being useful for the projects you're involved in? (you can elaborate you answer in chat if you choose)
Two team activities
personas non grata
The blue team vs. red team
Wrapping up
OSS can empower designers in human rights to explore these topics.
If OSS leads as it has done in many ways, then this can be good for all.
What will nudge you to centre human rights in your work?
Reports and Guides.
Books!
Resources and tools.
Human rights Centred Design community.
To good health and discussion, thanks for listening.
Questions?