Open Source & Design Don’t Mix

That’s what came into my mind when I read this post earlier today, which in turn reminded me of this post from 5 months ago. Although there are exceptions, it would seem that there is a lack of good design when it comes to open source projects and I can’t help but wonder why.

Perhaps contributing to an open source project isn’t as beneficial for a designer. As a developer you could go through your commit history, showing a potential employer each line of code you contributed — assuming its version controlled — which you can’t do as a designer.

Perhaps it’s a discovery issue. You can look for projects over at Github, but finding projects to contribute to as a designer is tricky. To my knowledge there isn’t anywhere dedicated to getting open source projects matched up with designers.

Really though, I think it comes down to two things: understanding and communication, or rather, a lack of them.

To me it seems that the main reason developers want designers to contribute to their projects is to make them look better, which isn’t what designers do. It’s part of what designer’s do, but it comes second to function. If you want a designer to work with you on a project, expect them to discuss how it’s going to work as well as how it’s going to look. It’s worth mentioning that if you bring in a designer after a project has started, they might want to challenge decisions already made when it comes to how things work.

There’s two parts to the communication problem: communication of the concept and communication between the designers & developers on technical topics. A big part of the problem is the developer not being able to articulate the broad concept and goals of their project in a non-technical way, which means the designer isn’t going to get excited about the project and it’s probably not going to work out.

If there’s a problem explaining the concept, there’s also going to be problems getting stuff across later down the line when it comes to making technical decisions. If a designer can’t articulate why something should function in a certain way to a developer, an educated decision can’t be made. The same goes if the roles are reversed.

Perhaps the biggest issue, or the final nail in the coffin, is evaluation of design concepts. Quite often Open Source projects are very democratic, there might be several solutions produced and then a general concensus is reached through discussion on what the best solution is. That’s not so easy with design.

Design certainly has logic to it, there are better solutions and worse solutions, and it’s rarely as subjective as people would like you to believe. Here’s the thing though: people value aesthetics so much that they’re willing to ignore flaws in the function of a solution. Another problem with this process is you quite often end up compromising on design concepts, ending up with a frankenstein design where the resulting concept doesn’t fit together.

How Open Source & Design Could Work

A Three Step Guide

The project should start with a discussion revolving around concept. The designer — note: singular — and developer(s) should be absolutely clear on what they’re trying to achieve from the start.
The designer must be trusted to make decisions beyond aesthetics.
Before decisions there should be discussion with everyone involved, then the person with the most authority in the relevant area makes a decision based on the points raised in the discussion.

Elaboration

Starting a project without everyone involved understanding what the project is trying to achieve is going to hinder the decision making process. If the person making the decision understands the project differently from the rest of the people involved, chances are the decision made is going to be bad for the project.
There should either be one designer or a team of designers specialising in different areas working under a lead designer. You don’t want to be choosing from multiple design concepts; it’s better to work as a team, producing one solution that’s the right solution.
If a designer isn’t trusted to make decisions regarding functionality they aren’t able to deliver their best work.
It’s very important to consider all view points before making a decision as this gives the person making a decision the best chance at making the right one from the options available. Having one person making the decision rules out unnecessary compromise.