Terry “Tofus” Wang

Django Skorupa

In this episode of Sustain Open Source Design, Django Skorupa is joined by guest Tofus Wang, a UX designer and open source enthusiast from Taipei. Tofus shares his journey into open source, which began during his high school years. Currently, he is a junior UX designer at National Taiwan University, where he also studies economics. Tofus discusses the g0v (GovZero) hackathons, the challenges and opportunities of contributing to open source as a designer, and how non-coders contribute in meaningful ways. Press download now to hear more!

[00:06:11] Django and Tofus discuss how contributions in open source design are often harder to track on platforms like GitHub, but they are equally important, and many g0v participants are not coders but contribute in significant ways. He also explains using HackMD, a note taking platform.

[00:12:13] Tofus reflects on his contributions as a high school student, participating in g0v School001 project, which promotes hackathons and the spirit of civic hacking to high school students in Taiwan.

[00:14:53] Tofus discusses his participation in Da0, a study group exploring decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Although not fully developed, the project brought together people interested in blockchain and its potential applications for grassroots communities.

[00:17:30] Tofus highlights the vital role of design in open source. He worked on visual design projects for multiple initiatives, including creating an interactive UI for Da0’s reputation accounting system.

[00:19:54] Django and Tofus dive into projects such as the Plurality Book, an open source book exploring the future of democracy and technology. Tofus worked on the visual design for the book and helped refine its logo.

[00:22:39] “The fundamental technology of digital technology is actually the collaborations of the people.”

Special Guest: Terry Wang.

Milan Guenther

Richard Littauer | Memo Esparza

In this episode of Sustain Open Source Design, host Richard Littauer and co-host Memo Esparza are joined by Milan Guenther, President of the Intersection Group and co-founder of Enterprise Design Associates. Milan discusses his career, which spans working with major enterprises like Google and Toyota, and his focus on transforming organizations through enterprise design. The conversation delves into the intricacies of enterprise design, the role of open-source tools like 'Edgy,' and the challenges and successes of applying these concepts in both large and small teams. Milan also highlights the importance of visualizing and uncovering enterprise misalignments and touches on the intersection of various design disciplines. Additionally, the upcoming conference in Rome is discussed, promising further insights into the world of enterprise design. Press download to hear more!

[00:01:57] Milan mentions his past venture in designing a patented innovation for flight decks, his current work with enterprises like Google, SAP, and Toyota, and his entry into consultancy with friends in 2009.

[00:03:29] Milan shares his perspective on design, emphasizing the role of creativity and making improvements through observing and modeling.

[00:04:25] Memo asks Milan about his proximity to the term “business design” and how his work might be diagrammatically represented, alongside discussing the dynamics between small and large teams within enterprises. Milan explains the concept of business design, enterprise design, and their differences, and mentions “Team Topologies” as a useful framework for organizational design.

[00:10:09] Memo inquires about successful patterns in team dynamics, whether structured methods like Scrum or more flexible approaches yield better outcomes in different contexts. Milan responds, emphasizing the effectiveness of smaller, less structured teams in software development.

[00:12:36] Richard mentions Milan’s book on design patterns in enterprises and asks about the Edgy project. He explains the origins of Edgy, starting with a book titled “Intersection,” which was an introduction to designing better enterprises. Edgy was make open source hosted on a wiki, and licensed under Creative Commons to ensure it was accessible for both personal and commercial use.

[00:16:02] In response to Memo’s inquiry about the artifacts used in their processes, Milan describes diverse tools utilized depending on the user’s background and needs.

[00:18:14] Richard is curious about the adoption and contribution to Edgy and Milan shares that while there’s been significant use among consultants and some large organizations, there are also instances of failed trials.

[00:20:19] Discussing smaller, open-source minded projects, Milan mentions the integration of Edgy with the Archi tool, an open source architecture modelling tool.

[00:23:33] Milan clarifies that the Rome event takes place in Rome, Italy in September, marking the 10th anniversary of their conference on enterprise design. He describes the event as a gathering for discussing and sharing ideas about enterprise design.

[00:24:56] Discussing the sustainability of the Edgy project, Milan explains that while the project itself doesn’t generate direct revenue, it supports their consultancy through connections, collaborations, and the adoption of their work. He provides insights into how the non-profit association supporting Edgy operates.

[00:28:07] Find out where you can learn more about Milan, Edgy, and the conference.

Special Guest: Milan Guenther.

Stephen Okonkwo

Richard Littauer

In this episode of Sustain Open Source Design, the OSCA 2023 series, host Richard welcomes Steve Okonkwo, a multidisciplinary designer who actively contributes to the Open Source Community Africa (OSCA). Steve sheds light on his role in enhancing user experience through thoughtful design, particularly for OSCA, and shares his dedication to continue elevating the design team's work. Richard and Steve discuss the Sustain sub-event, the importance of design in open source, and the intricacies of conference planning around open source products. Steve also touches on the significance of research, the need for transparency in open source communities, and his personal journey and future aspirations within the design landscape. Press download now to hear more!

[00:01:12] Steve tells us about his career as a multidisciplinary designer and his work in open source. He discusses his focus on improving user experience through design, including website and brand identity design for OSCA.

[00:02:03] Richard compliments the OSCA’s branding, particularly the orange logos, and Steve mentions that OSCA has been his primary focus, and he plans to continue supporting their design team.

[00:03:02] There was a large attendance at the last OSCAFest and a Sustain sub-event. Steve tells us he was the design facilitator for the design side of Sustain.

[00:03:31] Steve highlights key points from OSCA discussions, including the growing opportunities for designers in open source and the importance of contributing to project aesthetics.

[00:05:22] The conversation shifts to the iterative nature of web design and user experience, and Steve emphasizes the importance of research and testing in design updates to prevent overwhelming users.

[00:06:29] Richard discusses the uniqueness of working with open source communities and the need for transparency. Steve talks about his approach to working with open source, emphasizing transparency, communications, and commitment to quality.

[00:08:00] Richard asks about building a conference around open source products, and Steve shares insights from OSCAFest, including showcasing new tools like Penpot.

[00:10:06] Richard inquires about challenges in designing the OSCA festival, and Steven mentions issues with physical artwork and space design.

[00:10:53] What’s next for Steve? He talks about his current role as a multidisciplinary designer in Spokane, Washington, and his aspirations in open source design.

[00:11:57] Find out where you can find out more about Steve’s work on the web.

[00:05:11] “They always say in the tech industry, the web is never done.”

[00:05:37] “Research is a very important part of design.”

Special Guest: Stephen Okonkwo.

Veethika Mishra

Richard Littauer | Django Skorupa | Victory Brown

Hello and welcome to Sustain Open Source Design! The podcast where we talk about sustaining open source with design. Learn how we, as designers, interface with open source in a sustainable way, how we integrate into different communities, and how we as coders, work with other designers. In today’s episode, we are joined by guest, Veethika Mishra, a Senior Product Designer at GitLab, who shares her career path, emphasizing her move from closed to open source design work. She shares valuable insights into the design process at GitLab, which involves continuous interaction between designers and product managers and active participation of the user community. We discuss the power of open source contributions, the importance of community engagement, and the challenges faced in integrating external designers. Go ahead and download this episode now to hear more!

[00:02:37] Veethika discusses her career path and transition from a secretive and proprietary organization to open source companies like Red Hat and GitLab.

[00:04:25] At Red Hat, Veethika was part of the team that worked on the landing page for the developer console of OpenShift, which she greatly enjoyed. However, she wanted more engagement with the open source community, leading her to GitLab.

[00:06:10] Richard asks Veethika about any potential advantages of design in a closed source environment, and she responds that she doesn’t miss anything from her time in such an environment and considers some practices within these companies as absurd.

[00:08:03] Django asks Veethika to talk about her research experiences, and she explains that research in an open environment provides a more accessible and authentic dataset, which benefits the product design process.

[00:11:15] We hear about Veethika’s GitLab’s experience and the continuous learning process to ensure valuable community contributions.

[00:13:29] Richard asks about the user base and the number of designers at GitLab, which Veethika reveals they have 30 million+ users, four designers in the CI/CD UX, and possible over 30 designers across the company.

[00:14:05] Discussing the integration of designer input within developer teams at GitLab, Veethika describes GitLab’s publicly documented product development flow.

[00:16:19] Victory questions the collaboration between volunteer and employed designers at GitLab, and Veethika explains that while most designers working on different problems are GitLab employees, there are contribution guidelines for UX. She also mentions GitLab’s Pajamas Design System as a more accessible and familiar space for designers to make contributions.

[00:20:12] Richard asks about handling the potential backlash from unpopular design decisions. Veethika responds that there’s no guaranteed way to mitigate such reactions but mentions that engaging with the community has made her a better communicator and designer.

[00:21:03] We hear about the types of design contributions GitLab encourages from the community as Veethika explains the flexibility in contributions to Pajamas, and she details the process of making contributions via the Web IDE on the Pajamas website.

[00:22:46] Richard asks about the barriers to open source design roles and how to overcome them. Veethika shares her opinion that the main barrier is the lack of open source ethos within many organizations.

[00:25:19] Django asks if the scenario has changed over the years regarding open source design roles and Veethika notes an improvement in designer participation in open source.

[00:26:45] Veethika tells us her views on Penpot Fest.

[00:27:32] Veethika shares her hopes for the future of open source design, emphasizing the need for a deeper understanding of the socio-political impact of technological decisions and the diversification of the open source community.

[00:29:21] Find out where you can follow Veethika and her work on the web.

[00:10:17] “When you combine open and when you make it more visible and discoverable for others to see, these two things combined make a lot of impact.”

[00:23:06] “If an organization isn’t practicing open source development methods, then they have no reason having a designer that really cares for open source.”

[00:23:16] “It’s only when they live this ethos of openness when they realize the scale of impact this can bring to their business, not just to the community.”

[00:24:51] “We can keep pointing fingers at others and not realize that it’s also us who have a certain obligation towards the society and it’s larger good, and open source is the only way to make it happen at this point.”

[00:27:04] “Penpot Fest was really different!”

[00:28:39] “We need to diversify the community that’s behind open source projects.”

Special Guest: Veethika Mishra.

Jan C. Borchardt | Elizabet Oliveira | Peter Hanekamp

Pia Mancini | Eriol Fox | Victory Brown | Perrie Ojemeh

Welcome to Sustain Open Source Design, broadcasting live from Penpot Fest in Barcelona, Spain. Today, Eriol, Pia, Victory, and Perrie are hosting, and they have three guests joining them. Our first guest is Jan C. Borchardt, co-founder and design lead at Nextcloud. Jan provides insights into five key strategies for open source design at Nextcloud, highlighting the challenges and rewarding aspects of facilitating easy software user onboarding. The discussion takes us to Jan’s involvement in connecting designers and projects in need of design through a job board, diversity initiatives, and experiences in global conferences. Our next guest is Elizabet Oliveira, Senior Product Designer at Xata, who shares her diverse roles and experiences. She provides insights into design systems and their necessity in startups, and her transition from a developer to a designer. Our final guest, we engage with Peter Hanekamp from Kaleidos, discussing open source strategy. The conversation delves into audience targeting, integration plans for Penpot and Taiga, the benefits of open source for designers, and their strategy for maximizing value creation and facilitating community growth. Hit download to hear more!

Jan:

[00:02:40] There’s a discussion on the role of designers as strategists, considering design beyond the visual aspect and towards strategy and problem solving.

[00:03:53] Jan discusses his involvement in the open source design community, connecting designers and projects in need of design through a job board.

[00:05:32] He tells us there are plans for the design community to work on updating the outdated website and provide more value to its users.

[00:07:04] Jan also works on a diversity initiative, reaching out to new communities outside the European sphere, He also emphasizes the value of participating in conferences in regions outside Europe and the US, such as FOSSASIA and OSCA FEST to gain new perspectives and ideas.

[00:08:57] The discussion moves to the importance of designers attending various events both developer and design focused, to broaden their perspectives and influence.

Elizabet:

[00:14:03] Eriol brings up design systems, and Elizabet gives insight into her experiences with design systems. She also explains her frustrations with design systems with her role mainly involved with fixing bugs, dealing with feature requests, or updating old components.

[00:16:37] Elizabet mentions using Chakra UI and shares her prediction that Xata might either move away from their current design system, Chakra UI, or customize it extensively.

[00:19:21] Elizabet emphasizes the importance of exploring variety and creativity as a designer, and she tells us about some personal projects she created, like React Kawaii and Cassette Tape.

[00:21:36] Going back to Elizabet’s journey, she started as a developer, creating her music promotion materials, and later transitioned to design because she liked it more.

[00:23:20] We hear how Elizabet stays connected with the design community.

Peter:

[00:28:59] Eriol brings up the audience for Penpot and Taiga and asks Peter to explain the challenges faced in reaching their target audiences for both these tools. He also talks about the audience for Taiga.

[00:30:54] Peter tells us while there are no plans to merge Penpot and Taiga, they’re looking into building integrations between the two.

[00:32:19] Peter shares Kaleidos’ journey from a team of developers to including more designers, emphasizing the difficulty of creating a good interaction between these two roles, and he talks about the benefits of open source for designers.

[00:34:41] We hear Peter defining growth for Penpot and Kaleidos as getting more users, getting more active users, and getting more people being fanatics of their tools. He shares his personal journey in Kaleidos and their strategy moving forward which involves maximizing value creation and facilitating community growth, which they believe that power user functionality should always be free.

Special Guests: Elizabet Oliveira, Jan C. Borchardt, and Peter Hanekamp.

Dima Davidoff | Madeline Peck | Michal Malewicz

Pia Mancini | Eriol Fox | Perrie Ojemeh

Welcome to Sustain Open Source Design! We’re at Penpot Fest in Barcelona, Spain having some insightful conversations. Today, Pia, Eriol, and Perrie are joined by three guests. We start off with Dima Davidoff, a product designer, who shares his experiences working as both a freelancer and full-time. He sheds light on his usage design tools and highlights the potential of open source alternatives like Penpot, emphasizing the importance of trust and community in the design world. Next, we speak with Madeline Peck, the team lead for the Fedora design team at Red Hat. She shares her work with several open source programs, stresses the importance of community involvement and outreach in design, and touches on the necessity of greater diversity and inclusion within open source communities. Finally, we speak with Michal Malewicz, a designer with over two decades of experience who now focuses on teaching. He shares his experience working with different types of companies, the importance of solid fundamental design skills, and emphasizes critical learning for designers. Hit download now to hear more!

[00:01:19] Our first guest is Dima Davidoff, a Product Designer, who discusses freelancing alongside his full-time job and the differences in design tools used.

[00:04:04] Dima shares his frustration with the lack of migration tools from Adobe XD to Figma and questions his trust in the company.

[00:05:38] Eriol reflects on the evolution of design tools and emphasizes the importance of community to the development of the tool. Dima advises starting with open source tools for financial reasons and the ability to contribute to the development of the tool, an encourages designers to contribute to open source projects like Penpot.

[00:08:57] Dima highlights the importance of user-centered design and the value of open source in listening to user feedback and delivering features promptly.

[00:11:32] Our next guest is Madeline Peck, who’s an Associate Interactive Designer at Red Hat and the team lead for the Fedora design team. She mentions using open source programs like Inkscape, Penpot, Blendr, and Krita.

[00:12:33] Madeline talks about involving the design community in Fedora and Red Hat’s work and mentions using different social media platforms to spread the word, such as PeerTube, and the importance of sharing tutorials and engaging with social media to reach a wider audience an promote open source.

[00:14:58] Madeline discusses moving away from the logo work and focusing on creating brand identity and asset libraires for teams using tools like Penpot.

[00:18:00] She talks about the need for more diversity and inclusion efforts in open source, particularly in terms of representation and creating a welcoming environment for marginalized benefits.

[00:19:44] Madeline shares her transition from college to working in open source and the benefits of using open source tools like Inkscape, as well as the need for more open source awareness in educational institutions.

[00:21:42] Eriol discusses the challenges educational institutions face in adopting open source tools and the potential impact on design education.

[00:22:42] Madeline suggests highlighting the cost savings and the sense of community and collaboration in open source as reasons for students to consider using open source tools and expresses interest in cross-platform collaboration in open source.

[00:26:32] We welcome our third guest, Michal Malewicz, a Designer for 24+ years, who now focuses on teaching other designers.

[00:27:09] Michal discusses his experience working with both small startups and large corporations, preferring startups right now. The agency is run by his wife, and they focus on projects they are passionate about.

[00:28:55] We hear a funny story from Michal about how he started teaching by accident after speaking at a conference, and then being asked to teach at a university.

[00:30:25] Perrie asks Michal to talk about some challenges he’s had to face, and one is junior designers being focused on trendy tools like Figma and skipping fundamental design skills.

[00:33:04] Michal advises designers to follow only a few design influencers and be critical in their learning process.

[00:34:44] Michal talks about creating neologisms or hashtags to make design concepts more accessible, and he expresses support for Penpot and their goal of allowing design freedom and self-hosting options.

Special Guests: Dima Davidoff, Madeline Peck, and Michal Malewicz.

Iván Martínez | Karl Hütt

Pia Mancini

iBienvenido a Sustain Open Source Design! La Inteligencia Artificial en Acción: Impulsando el Futuro Empresarial "¿Quieres descubrir cómo la inteligencia artificial está impulsando el futuro del desarrollo de productos y abriendo nuevas oportunidades en el mundo empresarial? Grabado durante el PenPot Festival en Barcelona, en este episodio tenemos el honor de entrevistar a Iván Martínez, CTO de Ontruck, una destacada start-up española a la vanguardia de la innovación, trabajando para reducir las emisiones de CO2 en medio de transporte. Ivan hala de su último proyecto: Private GPT. Una innovadora tecnología similar a ChatGPT, pero que está enfocada en trabajar encima de una gran base de datos, ofreciendo también mayor seguridad de datos y la información privada. Además, Ivan compartirá su visión sobre el poder de la inteligencia artificial en el desarrollo de productos y su convicción de que la comunidad de Open Source es fundamental para impulsar el progreso y el impacto de esta nueva tecnología en la sociedad. ¡No te pierdas esta conversación, únete a nosotros ahora mismo y no perca ningún detalle!

Transformando el Futuro: Memri, IA Regenerativa y Privacidad de Datos. ¡Explore como la IA Regenerativa, la aplicación Memri y el control de datos por las grandes compañías impacta el futuro de la industria! Acompáñanos mientras exploramos el proyecto Open Source de Memri, un tipo de asistente personal basado en IA y desarrollado por la empresa de Karl. Además, adentrémonos en el fascinante mundo de la IA Regenerativa y descubramos cómo puede abrir nuevas puertas hacia un futuro más prometedor. Este episodio te brinda una visión única sobre el potencial transformador de la IA y cómo podemos navegar los desafíos de privacidad de datos en un mundo cada vez más conectado. ¡No te pierdas este episodio revelador y cómo podemos dar forma a un mundo mejor a través de la tecnología!

Special Guests: Ivan Martínez and Karl Hütt.

Alonso Torres | Máirín Duffy | Martin Owens

Pia Mancini | Eriol Fox | Victory Brown | Perrie Ojemeh

Welcome to Sustain Open Source Design! In this episode, we are live from Penpot Fest in Barcelona, Spain. Pia, Eriol, Victory, and Perrie are hosting, and they’ll be interviewing three guests. Our guests joining us today are Alonso Torres, a Front-end Developer at Penpot, Máirín Duffy, a Senior Principal Interaction Designer at Red Hat, and Martin Owens, an Independent Free Software Developer at Inkscape. We’ll start with Alonso where we explore the origin of Penpot as a personal innovation project within Kaleidos, and the importance of workflows, community involvement, and Penpot as an alternative to proprietary tools like Figma are highlighted. Then we shift focus to Máirín, where she explains the concept of designing upstream in open source, she shares the benefits of open source tooling, she talks about her current project Podman Desktop, and the evolution of the community design team and how they collaborate with different open source projects. The episode concludes with Martin, who fills us in on being an Independent Developer at Inkscape, he shares his experiment of funding open source development, dives into the influence of companies on open source projects and discusses measuring impact, and the significance of relationships within the open source community. Hit download now!

Alonso:

[00:02:38] Alonso emphasizes that workflows are crucial for Penpot’s team, especially when considering how the tool will be used by distributed teams.

[00:04:17] Alonso clarifies that Penpot is not a direct competitor to Figma but rather an open source alternative, and they prioritize features based on community feedback and needs.

[00:05:22] The majority of core contributors at Penpot are employed by Kaleidos, and they follow agile methodologies, work collaboratively, and have regular meetings to discuss design handoffs and prioritize features.

[00:07:21] Alonso acknowledges that collaboration between designers and developers can be challenging, especially in open source projects. He suggests using tools for effective communication and mentions the need for improvement in this area.

[00:08:37] Alonso expresses his excitement about being at the festival and highlights the impressive organization and diverse communities present.

Máirín:

[00:13:10] Máirín explains the concepts of upstream and patching in open source, using analogies and examples to make them more accessible to designers unfamiliar with the terminology.

[00:16:22] We hear about the evolution of the community design team and how they expanded their services to collaborate with different open source projects, fostering user-centered design and bridging gaps between projects that might be competitors in a company context.

[00:18:51] Máirín shares an example of collaboration between Podman and Podman Desktop teams at Red Hat, highlighting the value of bringing end-user use cases and perspectives to the development process and how it benefits both teams.

[00:21:48] Máirín advises designers not to worry about dogma and encourages them to be open to the practical reasons for adopting open source tools.

[00:24:06] What’s been the highlight of Penpot for Máirín? She mentions Martin Owen’s talk on the SVG standard and the proposal for a separate editable SVG standard.

Martin:

[00:26:02] Victory and Perrie interview our third guest, Martin Owen, an Independent Inkscape Developer, and a free software advocate. He shares his interest in finding practical solutions that enable freedom in software development without compromising the path to achieving it and explains an experiment he’s been running.

[00:26:50] He explains his experiment of not taking private proprietary software contracts but instead seeking direct funding from designers and users of Inkscape. Martin discusses how companies that pay for open source software development have a significant influence on feature choices and decisions.

[00:29:23] Martin explains his three main groups of clients.

[00:30:43] Martin addresses the challenge of prioritizing user requests.

[00:32:26] Victory asks Martin to highlight any lesser known Inkscape features, and he mentions exploring the extensions and python-based functionalities and watching video tutorials on YouTube.

[00:33:34] Martin mentions that tracking metrics is not a priority for the Inkscape project, but he gauges impact through millions of downloads, positive feedback, and seeing the artwork created by users.

[00:34:26] If you’re interested in looking at Martin’s work you can go to his YouTube account for videos and you can help fund his work on Patreon.

[00:34:53] Martin emphasizes the importance of relationships within the open source community and suggests that developers form connections with non-programmers to better understand their needs and the impact of their work.

Special Guests: Alonso Torres, Máirín Duffy, and Martin Owens.

Eriol Fox | Katie Wilson | Meag Doherty

Welcome to Sustain Open Source Design! In this second part of a series of podcasts about the user work, Eriol is joined by Katie Wilson and Meag Doherty to discuss their project, Superbloom, which delves into design and usability in scientific and research open source software. Today, they shed light into the ideal user type of open source software tools, the focus on software maintainability in design, and how software complexity plays into its perceived value in decision-making, and how it may impact the progress of open science. They also discuss the necessity of usability in decision-making, and how it may impact the progress of open science, and they highlight their experiences at various events and initiatives that underscore the importance of continuing conversations around these topics. Hit download now to hear more!

[00:01:14] Katie Wilson, a Design Researcher at Superbloom and Meag Doherty, the Deputy Chief User Experience Officer at the All of Us Research Program, introduce themselves and we’ll hear what their relationship is to the project.

[00:04:17] Eriol introduces the topic of end users and discusses the discovery that most open source software tools, including those in scientific and research domains, seem to have an ideal user type with particular skills and capabilities.

[00:07:05] Katie continues the conversation, mentioning that when asked about design, many open source software projects focus on making the software as maintainable and contributable as possible, thus often perceiving the users as fellow programmers or contributors.

[00:09:25] Eriol shares one last thought on the usability chapter and comments on how complexity in scientific and research open source software could be viewed as a safety aspect that validates their relevance in the field.

[00:11:30] Meag segues to the potential impact of these findings. She emphasizes that usability is not an afterthought but central to the decision-making process, and poor usability could hinder the progress of open science.

[00:12:59] Katie addresses UX best practices in the context of scientific software, suggesting that the tool’s complexity might dictate its user experience.

[00:14:52] Eriol talks about accessibility. They explain that designers view accessibility from a different perspective that scientists or researchers in the open source software space. However, for non-designers, accessibility is understood, as broadening the tool’s application and potential discovery of science and research.

[00:19:21] The conversation shifts to Meag talking about incentives, particularly within university settings and academic groups. She stresses the importance of understanding incentives and looking for windows of opportunity to implement usability improvements.

[00:20:13] Eriol describes some work done by their colleagues, who created a series of informative zines distilling complex research findings into six-page summaries.

[00:22:50] Katie discusses an ecosystem map they developed to visualize interconnected projects, institutions, and contributors within the scientific and research open-source software space.

[00:24:15] Meag talks about a trip to an open source science retreat in Germany where the focus was on the usability of software used by research software engineers daily. She also mentions more of their work was shared at the Software Sustainability Institute’s Collaboration Workshop and at JupyterCon 2023 in Paris.

[00:27:24] Eriol affirms the importance of welcoming new people into the space to sustain and improve usability design, highlighting the need to include people from the peripheries of science, research, and open source.

Isaac Sixtus Chizaram (Isaac Zara)

Richard Littauer | Django Skorupa

Hello and welcome to Sustain Open Source Design! The podcast where we talk about sustaining open source with design. Learn how we, as designers, interface with open source in a sustainable way, how we integrate into different communities, and how we as coders, work with other designers. Our guest today is Isaac Zara, an open source enthusiast who works at Flipside as a brand designer. Isaac shares his journey into open source, his work as a brand experience designer, his experience mentoring designers in open source projects, and his design philosophy. He also gives us a glimpse of what’s next for him which includes personal branding projects and how he plans to integrate storytelling into brand designs. Hit download to learn much more!

[00:02:51] Isaac tells us why he considers himself a designer first, a human second, and an open source designer third.

[00:03:35] We hear Isaac’s journey through open source and how he got started.

[00:06:00] Isaac was on the design committee for Drupal, and we find out what he designed for them.

[00:07:34] At Flipside, Isaac works as a brand designer, building the brand identity and making the visual assets cohesive across all marketing channels.

[00:08:54] We learn about the community being quite different in the Web3 space, using VLC, and how he feels we need more people with this open source beauty mentality in Web3.

[00:10:57] Isaac emphasizes the importance of building a brand system that will stand the test of time, which involves developing an identity that is timeless and consistent with the brand’s values. Also, he notes that open source projects can only stand the test of time with the support of a community and a process that makes it easier for people to take over where the designer leaves off.

[00:14:21] As a brand designer, he talks about the importance of creating brand guidelines for open source projects to maintain consistency in visual design and recommends making the brand guidelines accessible to everyone involved in the project.

[00:16:20] Isaac discusses the role of design in attracting new users and contributors to open source projects.

[00:18:32] We hear the role of design in attracting new users and contributors to open source projects.

[00:22:25] Isaac explains the way to sell a product is by communicating the value to people out there and the importance of creating a visually appealing pitch to investors. He also brings up CHAOSS, CHAOSS Africa, and Ruth Ikegah.

[00:26:42] While Isaac hasn’t specifically worked on open source projects looking for financial contributions, he notes that it’s important to make funding accessible and easy to navigate on the project’s website to encourage financial support.

[00:28:14] We hear about his experience mentoring others in open source projects and his approach to design.

[00:29:02] What’s hard for Isaac about design in open source?

[00:31:11] We hear what’s next for Isaac, such as his personal branding projects and how he wants to incorporate storytelling into his brand designs.

[00:32:09] Find out where you can follow Isaac on the web.

[00:03:09] “What gave me the privilege to contribute to open source because I had a design skill.”

[00:14:30] “Devs call it documentation, we call it brand guidelines.”

[00:17:04] “It’s hard to create something that will be cohesive if there’s no guide. Just imagine when you walk into an open forest without a compass.”

[00:21:07] “It can be hard to translate your greatness you have within you, if they’re not seeing you speak visually.”

[00:22:45] “As a brand designer, I see myself as a value maker, as an innovator.”

Special Guest: Isaac Sixtus Chizaram.