Erioldoesdesign
commented
1 year ago Call has been done - now editing transcript for PII for public publishing
Open Erioldoesdesign opened 1 year ago
Erioldoesdesign
commented
1 year ago Call has been done - now editing transcript for PII for public publishing
Interview Script
Hi there Green
We’re going to spend some time chatting about your design in OSS experience to date to get a sense of what you have done to date.
Will you be recording video/audio for the diary study or writing?
Writing
Do you want a Zoom room that will auto-record a video/audio for your weekly diary
For longer recordings - will ask for a zoom room from us
In your survey it says you’ve been doing this for X time?
Joined in 2020 October through hacktoberfest - first as coder and then found women in tech community and saw that design for infographics was needed. Reached out to maintainer and contributed. Other design tasks in that community. Contributed to a few projects. Research projects and longer than hacktoberfest.
Created an interview guide for professors - in the slack community - interview guidelines - translations. Drawn towards the research part of design. That project was lead by the uni and had different people in charge - going back and forth - multiple people involved and not organised. Too many people and no clarity.
(OSS community member's name 1) intro’d me to [OSD.net](http://osd.net/) looking for issues to fix → (OSS project 1) → tweeting for designers contributing to issues.
(OSS event 1) website design (OSS community member's name 1) design lead with open design issues → contributed to (OSS event 1)
(OSS project 1)
Meet (OSS community member's name 2) contribution to the landing page added to repo → style guide and icons.
Wrote an article about being a designer in OSS.
How did you start in Design?
Studied english and literature → before pandemic (friend of (OSS community member's name 1)) tech convo started as a FE dev → didn’t have a laptop, PC or phone. Wanted to kickstart career in tech as they studied. Pandemic went back home. Cousin had a laptop and learned HTML & CSS an then javascript → lockdown closed the school to learn.
Friend with (OSS community member's name 1) shared resources and people in design shared resources → coding resources closed off and then took up design via dribbble and Behance UI design didn’t feel right and they asked question → design phase started OSS → design research ‘Wasn’t good at UI/UX’ do research → boot camp course and research.
What OSS do you contribute to and participate in?
First started → joined a few communities as a ‘non active member’ takes me a long time to get comfy re. taking on roles and responsibilities want to learn first. I want to see how I can contribute. No issues for design UI always has FE/code in it if exist.
(OSS project 2) -herald community → meetings, UX (leader (OSS community member's name 3)) they took a break come back and then I had moved on.
(OSS project 3) and other events
Conferences and event facilitation
Community contributions advocating for designers to be in OSS
Getting them to be a part of projects
(OSS project 4) attending meetings and now actively contributing
Increase the OSS - speaking, attending and writing isn’t enough → (OSS project 5) asked them for an local chapter and thinks a regional approach → a lot of people contribute to OSS and people writing articles from their own exp → more designers in the space.
How to help projects to maintain and sustain design contributions
How do you decided on a project that they’d like to work on/contribute to?
On a (Social media platform) talking about why I stay in a space. Someone who is new to the space. in an under represented group → valued as a person as well as skills, needed and opinions count. Most projects are technical, building and software → OSS has a huge impact on career → interact with me as a person.
Platforms & communities where they care about people → understand my impact and skills if you take time to know me
See something I can change
Observe before taking on roles → can I help here?
If I’m not needed as a person
Looking at docs is very confusing for designers → people ops in the community
What did people affect? monetising OSS? getting exhausted from vol work. Not being recognised enough for work so may as well get paid. Recognising people for value and impact both ways from the contributor to the project and vice versa.
Do you contribute to OSS as part of a paid role, volunteer (free) or both? in what ratio?
Both!
If you’re paid for OSS how does this feel to you?
Lucky to get paid on some contributions. Paid for speaking at a conf.
Feels good to have money and be recognised. Swag is fine. Getting paid for confs. Good feeling to get paid.
If you’re not paid for OSS how does this feel to you?
More volunteer roles. Don’t expect to get be paid but I know it’s not a paid systems. Sad that some people get paid for the same things you do. Make you feel bad. sometimes I joke about git hub stars! why only very technical people. designers are still doing essential work. Big orgs or programs that help recognise.
What kind of design do you find yourself spending the most time doing? UX? UI? Research?
Research and community management, events and organisation for events.
Community is a strong foundation in projects. made of of users and contributors and if they don’t feel needed → community engagement and design strategies that help sustain community. For 2023 we’ve mapped out what we hope to achieve for each Quarter. people are interested in the space and if you don’t design programs that people need/want they will go somewhere else. Encourage them to be part of us. (Social media platform) help. Speakers are all new contributors. longer term contributors. Content design.
What tools and software do you use for your contributions?
Depending on project → Adobe XD had a paid account they would share was already stored there.
Github with issue templates and PR
(OSS event 1) & Figma & github
Miro → linux foundation shared board
Slack, google meeting community channels - chat platforms.
All new to this contributor → had to reach out for help for adobe & github. Needed training.
What kind of processes and communication happens between you and the others that work on the OSS? Who else works on the OSS?
Depends on the type of contribution. (OSS event 1) easy because text on whatsapp and friends. (OSS event 1) first interface contribution. Discord & Slack comms. Comments on figma.
Not had any miscommunication. because of the contributions they do there’s a guideline already → design system was done already and then you do that. Never used a design system. conversations on whatsapp didn’t matter how long it took it was for victory to learn.
Are there other designers or people that are interested in design in the OSS project?
Thinking ahead to when you might stop contributing to the OSS projects you do, how would you like to leave that project? what would the design aspects look like to you?
most of the contributions i don’t know how to document them. Portfolio? share github link for devs → documented procedure is hard. Have no documentation for many projects as access has been removed and look for documents. I would have to reach out. Plan the structure for communities for them to not just recognise contributions but document them well.