Erioldoesdesign

I had a complex weekend since on Friday evening i gave a workshop about 'Safety and Security Online as a Trans person' alongside some amazingly skilled and knowledgeable collaborators. This was pretty overwhelming and hard. Not just because I'm not trained as a digital security trainer (though I've done plenty of user experience work with digital security trainers and so much work on the FOSS, local first and privacy/security technology space.) It felt like a very fragile and vulnerable space because of course it is speaking about how we protect ourselves from people and entities that wish us extreme harm. Many people just want to know they can exist and speak about their human rights in person and online without the risk of institutional harm but saying that it's unlikely (dependant on vast criteria) felt inauthentic to me. I'm consistently impressed and relieved by the tools and technologies that can support our freedoms but I’m also immensely nervous and scared every. single. day. that people want to harm us and other they are pushed to hate. My heart hurts so much even after the solidarity and support from this workshop.

Excited to speak in Manchester today at a convening about creativity and AI with a focus on OSS. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creativity-and-ai-free-and-open-source-ai-tools-and-platforms-tickets-1980191928363 organised and hosted by https://www.creative.manchester.ac.uk/

But nervous to speak on my design practitioner perspective on the relationship between AI + OSS + Creativity!

Hey internet friends - A very excited toot to say that I joined Lockdown Systems Collective and get to make cool stuff alongside other amazing folks in digital rights 🐢

I'm doing this alongside my regular day job in FOSS (which i've not talked about publicly much yet!) but If you want to get more information on our work at Lockdown Systems, you can follow the collective here on Mastodon: @lockdownsystems@infosec.exchange

and on our website https://lockdown.systems/donate/
and also while you're at it why not donate if you have something to spare!

Stay tuned for the design, UX and usability efforts of myself and the team there and super excited to combine this work with my better design in OSS advocacy! 🫶

#LockdownSystems

RE: @sustainoss@hachyderm.io

Come along and join me and others with much more exptertise in AI and talk about AI and how it factors into sustainability (or not!) for FOSS

I'm speaking on the 26th of April (tomorrow!!) at https://www.oggcamp.org/ in Manchester speaking about my much loved Open Source Design Diary studies project! which you can read here:

https://github.com/sprblm/Diary-Studies-Designers-in-OSS/

This study is now a few years old and i'd be great to get another one of these done. Please reach out if you'd like to see more data and insights from design, usability, user research etc. being done in OSS!

#oggcamp #oggcamp26 #oss #opensource #opensourcedesign

“I’m really nerdy about digital sovereignty as a topic right now. This was raised at penpot festival in 2025 and it’s a huge topic...largely about what companies own and do what with our data.”

Check out the penpot ambassador community hours video recording here: https://bit.ly/penpot-ambassador-03-26

#OSS #opensource #penpot #ossdesign #opensourcedesign

“When you give user insights and feedback to FOSS - that’s an open source contribution!”

Check out this conversation with Canonical.

In this video, Open Source Designer Eriol Fox dives into the pragmatic world of design and usability within the FOSS ecosystem. We discuss how product designers and user researchers are driving long-term software sustainability through accessibility and smarter design.

This conversation covers the full spectrum of modern design development: from CLI design (Command Line Interface) and the "contributor-user" pathway, to why industry leaders are prioritizing design systems to keep their projects healthy. If you’re into Linux terminal workflows, human-computer interaction (HCI), or just building better digital commons, there's something here for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP0gkjIhezs&t=1s

#OSS #opensource #ossdesign #opensourcedesign

I'll do a proper post about this video soon with like a social media image an everything but for now I'd like to amke sure everyone knows how comfy the penpot hoodie is and i will never remove it unless i have too 😆

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP0gkjIhezs&t=387s

Penpot have announced their ambassador program and I’m excited and honoured to be part of the first cohort of ambassadors alongside some fantastic and inspiring folks. https://penpot.app/ambassador-program

Check out the announcement: https://community.penpot.app/t/penpot-ambassador-program-is-live/10405

I’ll be building community where I'm based here in the UK but also wherever my connections to open source software and design take me and my work.

I’ve long been a supporter of Penpot and design needs reliable and dedicated tools and teams that support the growing need for design in open source software and transparent and open source design as a practice.

I can’t wait to get working on our collaborative library and share the liberating and collaborative nature of open source design facilitated via Penpot! 💖✏️

Come and join all the ambassadors Penpot Community Hours, 20th March at 3PM UTC.
Sign up here: https://app.formbricks.com/s/ko5b815vsd5d5sz2gq8tiu8i

And of course, check out penpot here https://penpot.app/

#opensource #penpot #design #opensourcedesign #penpotambassador #foss #oss #collaboration

An image that sums up the journey of this particular week doing design work in OSS.

Myself and https://iamkingsleey.framer.website/ lead a session at https://chaoss.community/chaosscon-2026-eu/

We wanted to understand how the health of OSS and their communities are affected by design, usability and designers invovlement.

#oss #ossdesign #opensourcedesign #designinoss #design #chaoss

We want to continue understanding how design and designers affect the OSS projects they get involved in but so far we're understanding in what ways design/designers can be measured and observed in OSS.

Find out more about the workshop here: https://teamup.com/event/show/id/RxyUFnvu9dZ56oVZGvDNq8f2wENdAd

I had a great time summarising some key points for inclusive and usable design in OS for the OSS sustainability lab.

An element of design that doesn't often get spoken about in the wider product space is how 'taste' and 'good taste' is a colonial hangover of design and how organisations and companies with power, money and influence, typically those that benefit from power over the marginalised global majority get to set the 'design tastes' and trends.

OSS and Hacker culture can fight that and be a space for everyone to modify, define and equitably design for people. OSS doesn't need to emulate big tech in either aestehics or design pratices but it should be a concious and aware choice if they decide to.

https://oss-sustainability-lab.com/curriculum/#curriculum

#oss #ossdesign #opensource #opensourcedesign #design

RE: @opensourcedesign@mastodon.social

Come along!

So, who wants to play DnD and/or other TTRPG's at #fosdem #fosdem26?

RT for reach because fuck my free time i guess /jk /lh

Was a joy supporting the https://www.edgelands.institute research sprint around the topic of 'Digital Safe Spaces'. Speaking from an openness, open source and human rights centered design perspective about digital privacy, access and buulding platforms that prioritise care and responsibility for citizens.

https://www.edgelands.institute/blog/towards-an-urban-digital-social-contract-insights-from-a-research-sprint-on-digital-safe-spaces

Honoured being listed alongside some other foundational researchers and many people who i admire the work they do in the digital rights and open source space.

Really enjoyed this one when i watched in person! Fantastic work from the design folks at Canonical 💖

https://youtu.be/ubwPWA7ZRZE?si=bBdX6diopPpVdOcY

I updated my 'UX/Design maturity in FOSS' diagram that I started like 3+ years ago. I feel like there's still a lot of nuance missing and would welcome anyone that wants access to the penpot file to edit/iterate :)

Wanna talk about UX and UI in #OSS? at the #OSSsummitjapan #OSSsummit or wanna nerd out with me about Open Source home automation and Home Assistant?

I'm here all conference to hang out, learn and help advocate for open source design!

On my way for #opensourcesummitjapan #osssummit #oss

Really excited to see folks I haven't seen in a few months and catch up on global OSS news and get a better understanding of the Japan OSS ecosystem.

Also excited to tell folks in person about my new role and org I just joined before I do any kind of social media blast.

Beautiful passport case gifted by a wonderful and well travelled friend x

RE: @ethicalsource@fosstodon.org

Please consider giving to a very much needed org that do critical work in OSS.

RE: @opensourcedesign@mastodon.social

Submitttttt!!!!

I'm here at the #devconnect https://devconnect.org/ conference to record some podcasts for SustainOSS and to learn about design and let people know about
https://opensourcedesign.net/ and the community of open source designers.

Also to see if anyone wants to contribute to https://opendesign.guide/

come say hey if you wanna chat!