Hi there Open Source Design Community 
At Simply Secure, we’re researching how designers (of all kinds of disciplines) contribute to or work on free and open source software.
The stories and processes of how designers contribute and are involved in free and open source software are hard to find. Despite how ‘invisible’ design is in OSS, there is a growing interest in OSS technology and projects — and that’s why we’re supporting designers to tell their stories.
We’re offering 5 people $1000 USD stipends (paid in installments) over a 10 week time period over the months of November 2022, December 2022 and January 2023 for ‘diary studies’ of designers’ lives in open source.
What the diary study would require from you:
- 1 x 45min introduction call and semi-structured interview about your design and OSS involvement.
- A weekly written summary about what involvement in OSS projects you had that week. This will be in question prompt format as well as have sections for free writing.
- We may have follow up questions about what you have offered in your report, these will never be over 3 questions and we don’t expect you to spend more than 1 hour responding to these questions.
- Optionally, you can record audio and/or video responses to the weekly written ‘round up’. Simply Secure will run this through our automated transcription service.
- Giving the team at Simply Secure viewing access to design work you’ve worked on while part of the diary study time period e.g. Shared Figma/Penpot files, shared written design research documents, user testing scripts, Design systems visuals/graphics etc.
- We will never ask you to share designs and/or files/documents that are under client protection/NDA, contain private company and/or user data or not already ‘open’ and viewable by the public.
- Introducing yourself and checking in weekly on communications sent by Simply Secure team in our chat room (e.g. Slack/Matrix/Discord) or forum (e.g. Github discussions/discourse).
Admin tasks required by you:
- Optional 30 min weekly check ins with our team at Simply Secure.
- 2 hour wrap-up call with the project research leads and the diary study participants.
- Adhoc logistical email communications with the Simply Secure team e.g. Technical difficulties with summary submissions, changes of circumstance, sending your payment/bank details etc.
Who can apply and openness commitments
The diary study information you produce and submit to the study will be held in our secure organizational cloud storage locations. We will never share your identity with anyone without written consent.
We intend to make the findings from these diary studies free and open source by abstracting and anonymising as much information as we can. We’ll ask for advice and consent in how to refer to the OSS projects and other details of the OSS you work on. We believe making these diary studies open source will benefit the wider OSS communities understanding of design in OSS.
These diary studies are open to anyone who has contributed to (meaning volunteer contributed for free) and/or worked on FOSS (worked on meaning, paid to work on) for any amount of time (e.g. 1 year is as valid as 5-10+ years). We’d like a wide selection of OSS project types, from OSS that have GUI/UI’s to OSS’s that are purely terminal based to OSS built for coders and OSS built for wide user types. We are particularly interested in OSS that helps scientific research and academic research.
We’re interested in hearing from people from multiple country locations as well as intersectional identities (e.g. women and marginalized genders, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, disabled, neurodiverse etc.)
We understand that some OSS projects may want you to communicate your involvement in this study as there may be questions about what details about an OSS project can/should be shared. We strongly advise you to seek any OSS projects’ consent in your participation before accepting an invitation to this research.
If you’re interested in participating, please fill out this short questionnaire about your history and interests in design and OSS. We will make our selections informed by your availability over the diary study timeline, interest in participation in the research and your descriptions of the OSS projects you contribute to.
Thank you!
please look out for an email by Friday 28th