So while working on the re-design proposals for the jobs page it was suggested that an article or perhaps a discourse thread (or maybe a category) around ‘How to ask for OSS design work and have the engagement be successful’
Suggestions in the Figma comments included:
“You’ll attract more UX help if you post more open ended job requests. We’d suggest starting off with a user study or a journey map so your team can identify more impactful UX work for your project.”
Target group description for the product or feature
Usage scenario if it is a feature (usability questions, testing, review), broad goal of the product if it is something more overaching (UI style, website, logo)
Technological limitations (e.g. sticking with a particular toolkit, keeping the website static…)
Link to past conversations about this (in case they exist)
I am curious what kind of questions designers have entering an Open Source-oriented role for the first time. I don’t have a lot of experience shadowing with designers in my work, so it feels hard for me to know where to start. I am curious to know more what kinds of questions designers ask when they first start a new role or position. How do you learn??
I think this is me too. How do i know how to contribute, what to contribute too and if i can work with someone to teach while we contribute together, it would be awesome.
I think something as self-driven as open source requires the contributors to have a fair bit of context. Especially for us designers we need to know about how a feature/interface fits in with the rest of the software (and not just looking at a piece of code in isolation and fixing it). So maybe a chance to familiarise yourself with the software and existing designs can be helpful to see if it’s a good fit for the designer or not?
Many designers turn to open source because of how welcoming it is as a community, and to gain some real world experience, so especially if a job posting is not paid, I think it’s important to mention that it’s a learning process for everyone.
General job posting info about time commitments, company culture if applicable, etc
What do you think? Did anyone have different experiences?
In the SustainOSS Design & UX working group, we are exploring a publishing mechanism to share best practices across a range of topics, which could include a how-to article from content in this thread. This is a follow-up for our next meeting on Tuesday, 14 December at 17:00 UTC:
Written guidance on how to make a job on OSD successful · Issue #393 · opensourcedesign/opensourcedesign.github.io · GitHub