About This Talk
Designers are still relatively rare in the Open Source Software space and those that have been around and active are burning out and struggling to peer support each other effectively. I see mentoring designers, new to open source software as a key way in which we can make OSS sustainable generally and specifically for the designer community in OSS.
OSS is also a fantastic way for designers to work on projects they love or build skills in certain areas on real life actual projects instead of 'speculative portfolio projects'.
Speaker
Eriol Fox
Senior Designer · Simply Secure
Eriol is a senior designer with 10+ years of experience in design, technology and human rights and has been leading projects and teams for the last 5. Their bachelor’s degree was in Time-based media or ‘making art with computers’. They then pivoted into a design career while doing volunteer community work in Cardiff UK across Environmental, Education, Asylum Seeker and Arts issues and gained their masters in Visual Communication at the University of South Wales. Eriol has worked in insurance, finance, legal, housing and family tech sectors before moving into the open-source software and human rights as a designer at Ushahidi and Open Food Network before joining Simply Secure. They also help maintain the Open Source Design community and are a PhD researcher looking at how designers get involved in human rights centred open-source software. They are most happy when working as part of a team of designers, developers and product folks with a focus on collaboration.