What’s out there in open source design.
An overview of what’s happening in open source design today by @Jancborchardt
Sharing the knowledge
Large open source projects have more resources and are sharing their expertise. Learn from them:
- Gnome design wiki is a big and well structured design reference
- Mozilla UX blog, read about usability research in India for example. Bigger projects have more design resources
- Drupal usability group
- WordPress design updates with weekly meetings
- Ubuntu design blog, about usability testing in China for example
Sharing methods
Two strategies for getting usability work integrated in existing developer workflows:
- Define a set of UX related tags you can use in the bug tracker. Best to keep it simple and start with one catch-all “Design” tag instead of breaking it out in too specific subtags
- Build a design team. Create a channel for design related discussion. Existing channels on IRC are #Gnome-design, #drupal-usability #ux (Mozilla) #wikimedia-design, #owncloud-design, #opensourcedesign
The million dollar question pops up early: where to find designers for our open source projects?
Existing initiatives
- DesignOpen.org
- OpenUsability.org
- Libre Graphics Meeting (which is more art, design & typography focussed)
- OpenDesign.io is just a survey at this point.
- Open-Karma.com
- Creatives Unite
- Beautiful open, curating good looking pages for javascript libraries, mostly
- DesignOpenSrc is building a list of designers willing to work on open source projects
- Open Source Designers group on Github
Jan is also working with universities, introducing some open source projects to the students and having them work on it. A low barrier way to get new people involved.
Meet and collaborate
Get together, meet each other face to face and get the cross-project exchange started. Share experience and resources. Today is exciting, the first designer meetup at FOSDEM. Lets get busy!
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