this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2023
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I would like to help an open-source project with UI design and UX design. I have over 18 years of experience in the field and have worked with desktop and mobile software on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and Windows Mobile/Windows Phone. Unfortunately my knowledge of Linux is very limited but I'm eager to learn. Could you help me find a project? @thelinuxEXP @linux @macrumors @windowscentral @windows

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[–] [email protected] 72 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Have a look at KDE , it is a super welcoming community.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago

This. KDE community seems to be very friendly and Plasma could really need a little polishing. Especially the default Breeze theme.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

@coolmojo thanks, I'll check it out!

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

I think that one of the projects that needs it the most right now, a complete overhaul, is FreeCAD.

It needs a good, competent UX designer. Nothing has changed UX wise for like 6 years. Everyone who begins to use it quits saying that it is the biggest hurdle.

It is literally the only real classical FOSS CAD software and they have no UX designer as far as I know.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

@JustEnoughDucks thanks for pointing that project out, my husband is a heavy CAD user so he could help test it too. I'll look into it, see how I could help.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You have my vote for freecad

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Everyone who begins to use it quits saying that it is the biggest hurdle.

It's really not. The main problem with FreeCAD is the topological naming problem (available in a fork) and the lack of assembly support in the core (available as add on). Those make it a pain to build anything more complex and they make refactoring a nightmare. Following that you also have the problem that the geometry code is not very capable and the software will just refuse to perform some actions that would results in multiple bodies.

That's not to say that the GUI isn't in need of polish. Back in 0.19 it had obvious issues like conflicting keyboard shortcuts between modes and without a tutorial you might have a very hard time finding the window that even allows you to build stuff. So there is plenty of room for improvement, but one shouldn't be under the illusion that there is some professional CAD solution hiding under a bad UI. It's would still be a very basic CAD tool even with a highly polished UI.

But as they say, every journey starts with a first step. It's certainly a project that has plenty of UI issues and could benefit from improvements.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's a nice little project called Lemmy, have you heard about it?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

@gary_host_laptop I am reading up on it right now! Are you part of it?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (3 children)

You posted to it lmao, by @ ing [email protected]. Fediverse!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (5 children)

You actually posted to a Lemmy instance from your Mastodon one fwiw.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I'm also a UI/UX designer who'd love to help out! 🥸

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’m pretty familiar with Material. Wondering how (specifically) I can help. I’ve used and followed some open source projects but I’ve never contributed.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This advice is pretty universal. First things first, install the app and get familiar with. Then write down all the ways you believe that the app could improve. Then break the list down further to figure out what are the goals and how they're obtainable. Check those new list items against the Material You guidelines. After that, your list should be smaller, items that can be grouped together, should be. Figure out if you need to make a mockup to help illustrate your advice. And then create issues on the project GitHub, the more the better. Afterwards, shoot the developer a private message or email and explain that you're a UX designer and you're hoping that you can contribute in a meaningful ongoing manner.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Solid advice, thanks. I think I’d best be able to help out on react (maybe native) or web apps, or the iOS space since I don’t have a daily driver android device (but if I did I’d jerboa looks fun) but I can help with UX on any platform

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

There's a few lemmy open source iOS clients, I suggest finding the one you like the most. There's some listed here, just scroll down to the iOS section: https://lemdro.id/post/4319

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

This is a great project as well that could use some guidance on UI https://github.com/nightscout/AndroidAPS

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

ah perfect, and yes material design was the foundation of my education as a designer! thanks for sharing

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Glad I could help.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

This is actively looking for material design UI help https://github.com/thetwom/toc2/discussions/74

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Same. We should form a collective lol. (I have some dev experience also)

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The biggest problem you will run into isn't your skills but the willingness of the people who run various projects to even entertain or accept your ideas or input at all, regardless of your credentials or anything else. You could have the best, most logical UI design for an app and they often won't even entertain the thought of it what-so-ever. This goes double if you lack the ability to actually code it yourself using whatever frameworks and things the project itself uses.

I've worked extensively with various open source projects over the last 30 or so years and that's always the biggest barrier of them all.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I think hard data can help with convincing, doing various UX studies and A/B tests.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@fernandolins @thelinuxEXP @linux @macrumors @windowscentral @windows please lend a hand to https://yarn.social. This is their flagship instance: https://twtxt.net/. Their main developer is legally blind, and truly could use help with UI/UX.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Owncast, the foss twitch alternative, is an incredible project and they've been looking for design help for quite some time... https://owncast.online/

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

@lps That's very cool, I didn't know about that one. Thank you for the suggestion.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

This is a cool project!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

This is a very cool project! Appreciate you bringing this to my attention.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Third one there is actively looking for UI help https://github.com/thetwom/toc2/discussions/74

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@jackpot Thank you very much for the list, I'll investigate them

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

first one here literally just came out, second one seems okay and is very popular, third desperately needs it, fourth is ancient

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Come help BOINC. BOINC is a software used by scientific researchers to distribute large computational workloads to the computers of volunteers. It is used by projects researching cancer drugs and mapping the galaxy just to name a few things. It works well and has been around over a decade, but is rough around the edges. Your work could have a HUGE impact. The main client and server are in C++, there is also an Android client written in whatever Android apps are written in. There are even some bug bounties which you could get paid for if you fix.

If you have any questions, drop by the discord. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@makeasnek That sounds really interesting, I'll read up on it. I don't know any C, C++ or Java/Flutter/Android stuff, all I can help with is providing mockups, high fidelity specs and prototypes for the screens. I am working on learning how to use more dev tools.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Gotcha. I don't think they have the dev time right now to implement what might come from mockups, even through a new UX has been on the list of needs for a while now. As much as it would be cool to have a new UX vision to rally around, I just don't think much could be done with it. I would want your time you're volunteering to go somewhere useful of course :).

If you are interested in learning C++ though, there's a number of low hanging fruit issues that might be good things to tackle once you get past the hello world stage.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The programming language Go has only few UI building options. One of the few that does not rely on a browser running underneath is fyne. I like its programming model a lot, but as you likely see in the example screenshots: something is off. I can't put my finger on it. I assume it's a mix of different subtle visual cues, spacing, etc.

So if you are willing to work on a UI framework (with bonus points if you are interested in doing a bit of Go programming), I think contributions to fyne would be very cool (so far the maintainer(s) were open to suggestions and input, so I also assume designer input is welcome :-)).

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Take a loot at https://opensourcedesign.net It's made for people like you

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Improve the home page of Lemmy... I think the buttons on top take too much screen space

[–] adamnejm 5 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You could help us at Organic Maps. We are in need of UI designers. Contact me or biodranik on Matrix if you are interested: @g_mate8:matrix.org and @biodranik:matrix.org

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Organic Maps is so nice, thank you for all your hard work 🥰.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

There are already a lot of great suggestions posted already. I thought I would toss in https://mauikit.org/ which is working in making a convergent UI for desktop and apps.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Would be nice if this app got a modern UI fork or clone.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you are looking for something impactful , libretexts (A platform for open source text books) , and alovoa (website for dating and meeting friends) seems good

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