Welcome to the repository for the Open Design workshops at COSCUP Conference. Design for Internet Shutdowns and Internet Freedom.

This workshop will bring together participants from diverse backgrounds, including designers, developers, product managers, and documentation writers, to collaboratively address issues in civic tech, privacy, security, and human rights-focused OSS tools.

The workshop is structured to ensure that participants, especially those new to OSS contributions, can effectively engage and make impactful design contributions. It will feature a series of guided activities and exercises, focusing on user research and usability needs identified in existing OSS projects. The event is hosted by Superbloom staff, experienced in design, UI/UX, product management, community engagement, and documentation work in OSS. Their expertise will provide participants with the necessary support and guidance throughout the workshop.

Key objectives of the workshop include:

• Demystifying non-code contributions: Educating participants on how to translate developer issues into design briefs and make meaningful design contributions to OSS projects.
• Facilitating hands-on contributions: Ensuring each participant makes a tangible design contribution to an OSS project by the end of the workshop.
• Promoting ongoing engagement: Providing resources and documentation to encourage continued contributions from designers to OSS projects post-workshop.

See the workshop structure on Miro here

The teams of OSS enthusiasts are tasked with making their design contributions known to the OSS tools that are participating in the workshop (Cofacts, Session app and Ceno Browser).

We are suggesting that these design contributions are added to the appropriate issues indicated in the OSS tool repositories and/or if the OSS tools are maintaining Design Files (Figma, Adobe or Penpot) then we encourage multiple locations for submitting design contributions created in the workshop.

The outputs suggested utilise a series of template resources created by Superbloom.design with generous and appreciated translation and design support by Tofus and Julia.

A photo of participants user journey maps from COSCUP 2023 Open Design Workshop.

Read the Blog here

See the workshop structure on Miro here (back up downloaded in July 2024)

See the photos from the workshop (with thanks to COSCUP photographers!)

To bring together different kinds of contributors (developers, engineers, designers and OSS enthusiasts etc.) to utilise design practices, methods and research to explore to topic of internet shutdowns and censorship in Taiwan and how OSS technology can be used and improved from their perspectives.

In 2023 the outputs from the workshop were a series of 'ideations' that were informed by:

1. Knowledge of the existing OSS functionality that help citizens in the event of an internet shutdown
2. The participants citizen knowledge of Taiwan's infrastructure, culture and people's attitudes.
3. The information and discussions held about the sample Personas, the user journey maps developed by the participants and their own experiences.

The participants developed, on paper improved personas, detailed user journey maps and ideas on how to intervene in the critical moments as an internet shutdown is prepared for, happens and then concludes into a preparation for the next phase. These documents were documented and stored privately as well as documented on HackMD notepads hosted by the COSCUP conference. In order to provide some safety and privacy for Taiwanese citizens participating in discussions around internet shutdowns - we have chosen to not host or link photos and information from the participants.

In 2024 we are following up with previous participants to better understand their thoughts on internet shutdowns, the design workshop and their outputs made. This information will be published and anonminity will be protected.