Designers Can Be Open Sourcerers Too! - OSCAfest

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.

Transcript

1. Abigail Makolo eHealth4everyone @abigail_mak Designers Can Be Open-Sourcerers Too!
2. Hi! I’m Abby - Self-taught User Experience (UX) Designer. - Product Manager & SQA and Testing Enthusiast - GCI 2019 Mentor, AnitaB.org - Open Source Design Enthusiast - Loves ice-cream and photography Abigail Makolo eHealth4everyone @abigail_mak
3. Designing for Open Source
4. Wait, what is Open Source? FOSS?
5. Open Source Festival 2020 Open source is something people can read, modify and share because its design/code is publicly accessible. FOSS is Free and Open Source Software. Collaborative participation Open-exchange Peer-review Transparency Flexibility Community-oriented development
6. “Most designers don’t have a clue about open source.” - Eriol Fox, Ushahidi
7. No clue about open source The tools/processes can be intimidating They don’t see the benefits
8. As a Designer Conduct UX reviews of existing projects Design sketches, mockups to improve usability Conduct user research and usability testing for the project
9. As a Designer Develop a style guide for consistent visual design Create branding designs (e.g. new logo) Create walkthrough videos for the software
10. As a Designer Improve the project documentation Rewrite design issues as design challenges Look out for opportunities for design contributions Visit For more ideas on ways to contribute
11. Growing as an Open-Source Designer Opensource.guide
12. “Let’s make open source software beautiful and more usable!” - Abigail Makolo
13. Thank you! Abigail Makolo eHealth4everyone @abigail_mak