How to contribute to Inkscape UX
Stolen from @doctormo on Rocket.chat:
Synopsis
From a design/UX perspective, you start from a really weak position. No direct relationships with any developers, no proven open source design work and a ton of ideas which will scare the living snot out of developers. I've seen the wonderful, amazing designs and ideas flow in this channel, and this is exactly what this kind of channel if for. But there is a And what do I do now part of the design process in an open source context.
- Step zero,
Pick the one
- Choose one design change you really want to make. Pick something small and something that seems innocuous to start with. Like the position of existing buttons. - Step one,
Put on crown of leadership
- Write an issue in the GitLab issue tracker with your initial proposal, include screenshots. Make it clear that you're not just throwing this over the wall and will stick to the issue until it's programmed. You are the leader, so you should keep on top of things. - Step two,
Stomp Toe Test
- Post the issue to the mailing list (and chat if needed) to see if anyone squeals in pain. People may comment, not all of it will be threading on toes stuff. Modify the design if needed to accommodate the consensus of the community but... - Step three,
Don Girdle of hope
- You may get negative comments if they're not relevant or are mostly about the opinions of other people. You need to be strong enough to resist the temptation to give in to people telling you it can't be done, or shouldn't be done, or there are more important things to do. Some design changes need more armor than others. Be open to people joining you, but ask that they commit real work and not just opinion if it looks like it's dragging on. - Step four,
Raise the banner
- You need to find a developer to make your design a reality, if a programmer hasn't been seduced by your initial proposal, this is where you can expand on the design. Make decisions (proactively) and generally try to provide as much of the non-programming work that's possible. Develop relationships with developers, buy them beers (or whatever) at hackfests and generally schmooz the living hell out of people. You may also hire someone personally or talk to the board about doing some kind of funding project if you think that is a realistic proposition (but a funding project is another project you'd be expected to be a leader in). You can also find it useful to learn which developers have worked on features in that area before. 1.Step five -March to victory
- You need to keep on top of the developer and check in every so often (not too often) but just to see how long things might take and etc. Until the feature is in and you can test it and others can test it. Small changes can get to this point quite quickly. - Step six -
Defend the castle
As new releases come around, you may need to make sure your change is kept around or isn't forgotten. So make sure it's merged into master and that any problems are being dealt with.
Audience
Designers, UX, UI
Title
- How to contribute to Inkscape UX
- Introduction for designers on contributing to open source projects
Author
Martin @doctormo Editor/ghost-writer: @zigzagmlt
Publication Channels
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Website -
Twitter post ( @ ryangorley ) -
Facebook group post ( @ t1mj0nes ) -
Mastodon post ( @ ryangorley ) -
Forums ( @ brynn or @ Lazur ) -
google+ ( @ prokoudine, @ ryangorley or @ CRogers ) -
deviantArt ( @ doctormo or @ Lazur ) -
openClipart ( @ Lazur )
Edited by Mihaela Jurković