Last year, we had the opportunity to speak at Regent’s UX Conference (Regent’s University London’s conference to showcase UX work by staff, students, and alumni), where we engaged with students to make them aware of open design and their ability to contribute design skills to open source projects. The talk sparked great discussion, and we were thrilled when two students, Khaula Akhtar, and Yaprak Tanrikulu, chose to take on our open design briefs as part of their final-year dissertation projects.

Both students worked independently on their projects, gaining hands-on experience in a real-world work. They explored the growing role of design in open source and brought fresh thinking to areas where design is often overlooked.

This post celebrates their thoughtful work, shares reflections from their design journey, and invites others to consider contributing to open source projects!

If you want to explore the project briefs yourself, they are open for anyone to explore, think about, and attempt to solve. Whether you’re thinking of ideas, writing them on a napkin, or developing your solution, there are no limitations to your creativity here! Get the briefs here (PDF).

Khaula Akhtar: Improving UX designer participation in open source software

Project brief: A master’s final project for Canonical that explores how to make non-code contribution pathways in open source more welcoming, engaging, and rewarding for UX designers.

Objective: To identify the key barriers and motivations influencing UX designers’ participation in open source and translate those insights into practical and evidence-based recommendations for improving contribution pathways.

Check out their project presentation!

Reflection from Khaula

What motivated you to take on an open source design brief for your final year project?

I chose this brief because open source plays a huge role in digital infrastructure, yet UX work within these communities is still underrepresented and often undervalued. I wanted to understand why designers struggle to participate and what could be changed to make these spaces more inclusive and collaborative. Canonical’s question about improving non-code contribution pathways felt meaningful and aligned with my interest in design as a social and organizational practice, not just as an interface problem. The project was a chance to dig into the culture, incentives, and workflows that shape real-world contribution, which made it a challenging but rewarding topic. I was motivated by the idea that my work could help create clearer paths for designers and potentially make open source more human-centered.

What surprised you most about open source?

I was most surprised by how strongly developer culture influences every part of the contribution experience. I expected some technical bias, but I did not anticipate how deeply it shaped language, decision rights, and even what counts as a meaningful contribution. It was eye-opening to see how much design work gets reduced to visual tasks and how little visibility research, content, and information architecture receive. At the same time, I was surprised by the amount of genuine goodwill among contributors. Many designers are interested in giving back, learning and collaborating, even when recognition is limited. This mix of strong community spirit and structural misalignment helped me understand why participation can feel both inspiring and challenging at the same time.

What was the biggest challenge you encountered during the project, and how did you tackle it?

The biggest challenge was the analysis phase and bringing enough participants together for interviews within a short time frame. Recruiting designers with actual open source experience required a lot of outreach and scheduling flexibility, and I had to rely on professional networks and snowball sampling to reach people. Once interviews were collected, the next challenge was learning how to apply reflexive thematic analysis properly. It was my first time working with this method, and I initially struggled with coding consistently and avoiding over-interpretation. I tackled this by keeping a reflexive journal, revisiting transcripts multiple times and creating an audit trail to track how my ideas developed. Regular check-ins and re-reading the literature also helped me stay grounded and confident in the themes I was building.

What advice would you give other students considering contributing to open source through design?

My advice would be to approach open source with patience and a learning mindset. The environments can feel technical at first, but designers bring valuable skills that many projects genuinely need. Start with projects that clearly welcome UX work, because good documentation, UX labels and approachable maintainers make a big difference. When contributing, keep your proposals clear, connect them to existing components or patterns and explain your rationale so developers can understand your thinking. Open source runs on transparency, so the more you show your process, the smoother collaboration becomes. Most importantly, choose a project that aligns with your interests so you stay motivated while navigating the learning curve.

Yaprak Tanrikulu: Unifying the Juju ecosystem

Project brief: A project to unify the Juju ecosystem by creating a centralized, user-focused documentation and learning platform that simplifies onboarding, enhances discoverability, and improves the overall usability of Juju’s tools and resources.

Objective: The objectives of this project focus on understanding the challenges newcomers face within the Juju ecosystem, evaluating and improving the accessibility and discoverability of its documentation, designing a structured learning path for new users, and exploring how different documentation formats and platforms influence the overall user experience.

Check out their project presentation!

Reflection from Yaprak

What motivated you to take on an open source design brief for your final year project?

I was drawn to the open source design brief because it offered an opportunity to work on a project that has real-world impact and is deeply collaborative by nature. Open source communities thrive on transparency, inclusivity, and shared ownership, values that align closely with how I see design as a discipline. I wanted to explore how design could play a role in improving accessibility and usability in open systems, and how it could help bridge the gap between contributors with different skill sets. The idea of designing for a global audience, while contributing to something that anyone can build upon, was incredibly motivating.

What was your approach to designing a more unified documentation experience?

My approach began with understanding the ecosystem of users involved; maintainers, contributors, and newcomers. I conducted user research and mapped out their pain points when navigating and contributing to documentation. From there, I developed a modular design system that emphasized clarity, consistency, and discoverability. I focused on creating a structure that could adapt across different open source projects while maintaining a cohesive visual and information hierarchy.

What was the biggest challenge you encountered during the project, and how did you tackle it?

The biggest challenge was realizing that open source communities have very different needs, and that a one-size-fits-all documentation solution wouldn’t work. Users of the Juju ecosystem have varying levels of experience, which makes it difficult to design a structure that supports everyone equally. To address this, I created a Learning Hub concept that categorizes lessons and resources based on user experience levels. This way, new users can easily identify where to start and see if a lesson has any prerequisites, while existing contributors can quickly find advanced materials relevant to them. By organizing the content in a progressive, user-centred way, the documentation becomes more inclusive and adaptable to different learning journeys within open source communities.

What advice would you give other students considering contributing to open source through design?

My biggest advice would be to approach open source work with curiosity and not get sidetracked by technical details or unfamiliar terminology. For those new to open source, there are often many unknown concepts and terms, so instead of getting caught up in definitions, focus on understanding the general idea and the broader purpose behind the project. Open source design is as much about listening as it is about creating, it’s a dialogue between diverse contributors with shared goals. Start by understanding the community’s context, participate in discussions, and learn how decisions are made. Don’t be afraid to share your early ideas and invite feedback; openness is part of the process. Contributing to open source through design is a powerful way to grow as a designer because it pushes you to think inclusively, work collaboratively, and design for impact beyond a single user group.

🎉Congratulations to Khaula & Yaprak!

We’re incredibly proud of both students for their initiative, insight, and thoughtful work. Taking on open design briefs independently, and part of a dissertation, shows a deep commitment to using design for real-world impact.

Their projects offered us valuable insights into how emerging designers interpret open source challenges, reminding us of the importance of clear pathways, supportive communities, and space for creative exploration. Seeing how they approached ambiguity with curiosity has reinforced our commitment to making open design more accessible, and we hope to continue building partnerships that empower the next generation of designers to shape the future of open source.

We hope this experience has opened the door to future engagement with open source communities, and we encourage them to continue advocating for design in tech, sharing their work, and building on the foundations of open design!

Interested in running a project like this?

Are you part of a university looking to bring open source design into your curriculum? We’re looking for academic partners who want to give students meaningful, real-world experiences while contributing to the global open source ecosystem.

Reach out at [email protected]

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