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Does anyone know how can I contribute (as User Experience Designer) to the development process on GitHub?

I want to know how someone could include UX Research, Usability Testing, Contextual Inquiries and other planning and/or strategical activities from UX or AI point-of-view in the common process of projects being developed using GitHub.

Example: All the work in GitHub is based in code production, branches, pull requests, etc. I trying to find examples of projects where a UX Designer has contributed in environment like this, how the deliverables have worked, common approaches to user testing, better ways to communicate with developers etc.

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    Hi! Welcome to UX.SE! I'm not sure this fits the scope of this site. Maybe User Experience Meta would be a better place for questions like this, but check out the faq and tour pages to learn more about the best ways to use this site!
    – elemjay19
    Jul 8, 2013 at 23:57
  • Why are you targeting github?
    – rk.
    Jul 10, 2013 at 4:25
  • @marciobda I changed the rephrased the question to reflect more what I believe is being asked (it's not about joining contributing to open source but more about how to contribute to the development process on GitHub, right?). If this is correct I think the question has a good chance to be reopened.
    – greenforest
    Jul 10, 2013 at 7:32
  • @greenforest Yes, exactly!
    – marciobda
    Jul 11, 2013 at 12:41
  • @rk. I found some interesting projects in github and I was wondering how can I contribute any way other than just with frontend development. Or how could I use UX skills to start a new project there.
    – marciobda
    Jul 11, 2013 at 12:45

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If you are looking to contribute to open-source projects, its probably helpful to know what skills you have. A solid understanding of User Interfaces combined with some basic understanding of HTML+CSS will be beneficial.

Look at what open source projects you currently use, and examine what could be improved. Never talk about things which are "wrong" as many of the people involved in open-source are volunteers, overly attached to their work, or evangalists. Approach as a potential collaborator and file bugs or issues, talking about potential improvements.

From there, study up on how the current User Interfaces are created - HTML+CSS for web based tools, or toolkits like QT, GTK, Glade, XUL, etc.. for desktop applications. Then look at how you can create the changes necessary to improve the user interface. But always provide evidence. If you can talk about where the issues with the current design are, poll users for improvements, and implement them (even part way) there are plenty of open-source projects out their that would welcome your input.

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  • Thanks for the response, but Im looking for some kind of "framework" of how to do user testings, inquiries or even planning/strategical work to open source projects. I tried to find examples of projects where someone did this UX stuff in GitHub, but so far, none found =/ By the way, thanks also for toolkits recommendation. Im so focused in Web Interfaces that I rarely looked up for desktop applications UIs. I'll try to study them for now.
    – marciobda
    Jul 10, 2013 at 3:46
  • @marciobda github is a code versioning/repository system. You don't 'do' UX in it. You can do UX on the project that has its code stored in there, but that'd be outside of the github toolset.
    – DA01
    Jul 10, 2013 at 5:56
  • @DA01 Yes, I was hoping to find any successful UX case there, but I think you´re right. If I couldn´t find another answer in a couple of days I´ll mark your response as the right one. Thanks.
    – marciobda
    Jul 11, 2013 at 12:48

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