Design and Open Source: Shaping a Better World

By understanding and empathizing with actual people and having a genuine interest in attending to their needs, designers can materialize a future that is better and more equitable for all. While this is what we designers should always be aiming towards, I recognize that many times we are constrained by things like business interests or what is best for a specific company. While amazing design has been and will continue to be done within this setting, community-made, free and open design is a much-needed space. In this article, we will talk about open design, it’s connections to open source, why designers should contribute, and it’s challenges.

Open design, at least for UX design, can be thought of as an extension of open-source software. Open source software, in its essence, is freely available for anyone to use, modify, and distribute. It represents a departure from the traditional profit-driven approach. There may be some that pose this as an impossible ideal that could only be dreamt of, but the reality is that open-source communities have built many of the tools you use today. These include software like Blendr for your 3D models, Firefox for browsing the internet, WordPress to build your websites and Canvas to view your grades. 

Any open source contributor can tell you that open source is nowhere near perfect, and company interests are usually at play to some extent. However, it stands as a beacon of what can be done when people come together with genuine interest to build something that is to be shared and made in community as opposed to proprietary and purely profit-driven products.

A large part of why people may not have widely adopted open-source software as users is largely because it can have difficult user experiences. Designers can directly respond to these problems by leveraging their skills to enhance the usability and appeal of open-source products.

I thoroughly believe in the ideals of open source design, and I hope designers will contribute to open source on these merits. However, I also see great benefit in it’s practical implications for designers. By participating in open source projects, designers can gain real-world experience, address tangible problems and learn soft skills in collaborative environments. 

As a UX designer in an open source product called Knative, a platform that lets you build cloud applications, I work within an amazing community of designers and engineers to better the experience of Knative. I can tell you firsthand the incredible feeling of pushing a project through with designers from all over the world. We have had contributors from 5 continents since the UX group started in September! It has been incredibly rewarding, but also not without it’s challenges.

For starters, since having designers in open source projects is not the norm, a lot of the normal systems and regulations that the community has made over time exclude UX designers. An example of this is that the main place where Knative is built is through Github, and any contributions made by an individual are counted through it. Depending on the amount of contributions, a person can get a say in elections for the steering committees in Knative. However designers do not do or document most of their work on Github. For example, I would just make a change directly in the Figma or Penpot file I am working on, but if I want that contribution to truly count, I must download it and upload it to Github. Github as a platform is built for developers in mind, so the learning curve for designers is steep and it adds an arduous step to the design process (). 

I have also witnessed harsh interactions within open source communities. Look no further than Linus Benedict Torvalds, the founder of Linux. He is widely known to flippantly attack, as he self describes, other contributors when he does not think their ideas are up to par. Additionally, while this is not my experience, I have heard certain communities can view design as overly corporate, and they have not been welcoming to designers. 

I also recognize there is a lot of privilege in being able to volunteer in this way. Only two years back, and I know I would not have had any time to contribute to Knative as I would have had no free time. This article is by no means meant to pressure or guilt trip designers into contributing to open-source, but rather a push so that more people know about it, to contribute within their own means and abilities if they so desire.

In conclusion, the potential of design to effect positive change is undeniable, and open source stands as a testament to this principle. By embracing the ethos of open source, designers can transcend the constraints of capitalism and usher in a new era of innovation and inclusivity. Together, let us harness the power of design to create a world that is more equitable, accessible, and just for all.

Works Cited:

DesignerUp. (2023, August 16). Contributing to open Source for Designers | Complete guide. https://designerup.co/blog/contributing-to-open-source-for-designers/ 

Finley, K. (2018, September 17). Linux’s creator is sorry. But will he change? WIRED. https://www.wired.com/story/linuxs-creator-is-sorry-but-will-he-change/ 

Open source design. (2017, March 27). Open Source Design. https://opensourcedesign.net/open-source/communities/collaboration/tools/design/2017/03/27/osd-needs-better-collaboration-tools.html 

Parlavecchio, A. (n.d.). Confluencing - illos. Dribbble. https://dribbble.com/shots/11117422-Confluencing-Illos 

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