In the Bitcoin Design Community, we recently started a project called the Open Design Guide (background). The idea is to create a 10-15 page guide or curriculum that introduces designers to open source and helps them get comfortable, find projects they like and start contributing (whether that’s around bitcoin or any other area). A bit like opensource.guide, but for design.
We put together this first version pretty quickly using AI so we have something to poke at. Next step is a reading club, where we meet once a week. Every session is focused on one page. Everyone reads it beforehand and takes notes. Then we read it together and discuss. At the end, we (ideally) have a list of improvements that we implement.
A guide like this hugely benefits from diverse participation. We’re trying to get a sense of who might be interested, and then we’ll finalize the schedule based on availability. How does that sound? Would you like to join?
Awesome, thank you for your interest. We scheduled the first call for this Thursday (Sep 12) at 12:00 UTC, more info here. We’ll start with intros, project background, and then dive into the introduction page.
We had interested people from all around the world, which makes it impossible to find a common time that works for everyone. If you are in a time zone where 12:00 UTC does not work for you, and would like to schedule a second call at a different time, let me know. I won’t join, but I’ll try to help facilitate. There might be others that would join a call if you set one up. It not a lot of work, and usually everyone appreciates these sessions.
That’s unfortunate. We will share our call notes, maybe those are of some interest. If you ever have a moment of complete boredom and just don’t know what to do with yourself, I’d like to plant the idea for that time to take a look at the site and share your feedback.
We had a nice first call, covering the home and introduction pages of the guide. You can find the notes here.
We were a group of seven, from various different backgrounds and time zones. After a quick project intro and personal intros, we read through the content, paragraph by paragraph, and discussed. Overall, we did not find any fundamental issues with the guide as a whole, but did identify various improvements (see the notes). I’ll prep a pull request in the next few days with those and share it for review.
In call #2, we will tackle Chapter 1: Open Source. It’s scheduled for Thursday, September 19 at 12:00 UTC. The chapter provides an intro to open-source, key principles, benefits of contributing, common misconceptions, etc - written with a designer audience in mind.
No worries about joining if you missed the first call, or if you just want to listen. You’re 110% welcome to hop in.
I wanted to get your feedback on this auto-generated 12-minute podcast about the Open Design Guide (used NotebookLM). You can listen to it here.
Generally, I think it is super helpful when content is made available in different formats. Some people learn differently than others, and some formats fit better in our day-to-day than others (e.g. audio is great for commutes). With limited resources, these tools can allow us to do things that we couldn’t otherwise. Or, they could be first versions (prototypes) of something that we follow up with via human-generated audio discussions.
Now, a fake podcast, where the non-existent hosts pretend they recently tested out Elementary OS, is of course a little on the silly side. But if you squint a bit and get past that, it’s pretty cool. What do you make of it?
In our third call tomorrow at 12:00 UTC, we will dig deep into the page about the role of the designer in open-source. You’re invited to join (no worries if you missed previous calls).
There’s also a pull request for chapter 1, based on the notes from our call last week (recording). If you’d like to chip in, this could be your moment right here. Seize it and blaze your path to a glorious future (YMMV).
In our fourth session today at 12:00 UTC (which you are invited to join), we’ll talk about chapter 3, digging into how to get started with open source. This is a really important one, and I think it benefits a lot from the tips and tricks of people who have been in the trenches. Hop on in.
Today is the day… for our fifth call… about chapter four. It discusses collaborative workflows, which is a huge, huge topic and also very essential for designers to build a good mental model of. Let’s see how our AI-generated text holds up and where it missed the mark.
There is a pull request up for changes to chapter 2, based on the notes of our reading session from two weeks ago. If you’re the type of insane person that likes to review pull request, I guess this will satisfy your needs. If you don’t enjoy this activity, it would make it even more special and meaningful if you choose to partake. Choose your destiny…
Last week’s session was interesting, in that we pretty much agreed that the page we reviewed about collaborative workflows needed to be mostly rewritten. It was too narrowly focused on git and code collaboration. What will this week bring as we talk about design process (link to the page)? Join us and find out. Having you there is going to be such a treat.
Here’s the call info. It’s going down tomorrow, October 17 at 12:00 UTC.
There are also two pull requests up for review, for chapters 2 and 3, if you like that kind of thing (it’s a bit of an acquired taste, TBH).
The call this Thursday (at 12:00 UTC) is going to cover the Tools and Resources page. We will take turns reading through the content with the goal of improving the content based on your suggestions. Issues will then be filed on Github with the aim to improve the content based on the call.
There’s also been some good activity on the three open pull requests, and it’s always great to get more proposals for improvement.
See you on Thursday (I won’t, because I am traveling, but maybe you readers of this awesome thread will see each other).
And this week (tomorrow (aka Thursday) at 12:00 UTC), we will tackle the Contributing Design Assets page. Is it a good page full of useful information? We shall see. Join us and be on the frontlines of answering that question.
The monologue (at least in this thread) continues with the BREAKING NEWS (!!!) that we will have another call on Thursday at 12:00 UTC on Jitsi. More info here.
Coming up today in our reading club (at 12:00 UTC in Jitsi), we will review Chapter 9: Building a Personal Brand. More call info here. We already touched on this in our last call… are we even here to build personal brands? It is important that our work is visible for it to be useful, but is this the right framing? Maybe it is, maybe not. Let’s see what we come up with in this session.
Is it time for another Open Design Guide reading club? Indeed it is. Thursday, November 21 at 12:00 UTC on Jitsi. This one will be about Chapter 10: Advanced Topics. These are areas that more experienced contributors eventually start getting into. Nonetheless, it’s great for newcomers to be aware of these as well. So join us.
Another one™. We decided to skip Chapter 11 and go straight to Chapter 12. 11 is about case studies, which we need to write from scratch based on our own research. We can start this asynchronously (see this issue). In the meantime, we can continue with Chapter 12, which is about working on a final project where the reader applies their learnings in the real world.
Not another one™. We are now done with reading sessions, after working through the whole guide. Shout-out and 100x thanks to all who joined. So now what’s next? The point of this reading club was to do a first pass at the AI-generated content. Now there’s still some implementing of that gathered feedback. And then there are some other things we found that would be good to improve. I gathered some notes and thoughts here in this issue (this is a good moment to click that blue link in between the arrow emoji…). I’d also love to hear your thoughts on what you’d like to see next for this project. Especially if you have a good opportunity to apply it (like for the intended purpose of introducing designers to open source/design).
(this is a good moment to click that blue link in between the arrow emoji…). I’d also love to hear your thoughts on what you’d like to see next for this project. Especially if you have a good opportunity to apply it (like for the intended purpose of introducing designers to open source/design).
