Design contributions to OSS: Learnings from the Open Design project at Ushahidi Structuring in-person and remote workshops for open source design contributions.

A presentation at FOSDEM in in Brussels, Belgium by Eriol Fox

Design contributions to OSS: Learnings from the Open Design project.

Design contributions to OSS: Learnings from the Open Design project.

Intro to speaker

Intro to speaker

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

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

Berlin 2018 & Seattle 2019

Berlin 2018 & Seattle 2019

Designers want to work on projects ‘for good’.

Designers want to work on projects ‘for good’.

Intro to Open Design

Intro to Open Design

Designers collaborating and contributing to Humanitarian OSS and tech for good at challenge gatherings.

Designers collaborating and contributing to Humanitarian OSS and tech for good at challenge gatherings.

But there are a lot of challenges.

But there are a lot of challenges.

Most designers don’t have a clue about what OSS is or can be.

Most designers don’t have a clue about what OSS is or can be.

OSS isn’t part of design education.

OSS isn’t part of design education.

Even if designers know OSS, Github can be a barrier.

Even if designers know OSS, Github can be a barrier.

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

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

OSS project issues can be restrictive…

OSS project issues can be restrictive…

…but open workshops often lose focus and relevancy.

…but open workshops often lose focus and relevancy.

Lack of version control in software and process for designers.

Lack of version control in software and process for designers.

India, Bengaluru & Taiwan, Taipei

India, Bengaluru & Taiwan, Taipei

Design activities.

Design activities.

Invite into the process a ‘witness’.

Invite into the process a ‘witness’.

Translate issues to design challenges.

Translate issues to design challenges.

Prototypes.

Prototypes.

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

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

We want to build relationships with more OSS projects.

We want to build relationships with more OSS projects.

Open methodology, frameworks and processes to use and remix:

Open methodology, frameworks and processes to use and remix:

Ushahidi builds OSS humanitarian tools, remotely for some of the most marginalized people across the globe. To tackle these systemic problems with how to ‘open source’ a design effort and bring the community along with the ‘on-staff’ Ushahidi designers, we’ve been piloting a series of design events on our OSS crisis communication tool TenFour with our partners Designit and Adobe. Together, we’re looking to solve the problems with how open source design can work by engaging through meaningful technology that makes a difference in the world.

We’re here to take you through that journey and what we’ve learnt about design contributions to OSS.

In this session, we’ll briefly cover the history of the project and the main problems we attempted to solve and we’ll present the learning and adaptions to our workshop framework and methodology that aims to engage design teams and individuals that are not yet ‘on-board’ with OSS as an ethos or movement.

Looking into some the abstract deeper motivations for design professionals to contribute but also some practical tips on structuring issues, labelling and maintaining design (and extended functions like research, UX and product management) you’ll leave with a set of tools and methods you can apply to your OSS to engage with designers.