Key Processes Enabling Designers to Design with a Community

Nomothetic Research on Design Implementation in Open Source Software Development Communities

Abstract

Digital information networks are rapidly growing as a space for meaningful social interaction and collaboration. Internet ”open-source software development” (OSSD) communities are localized around a common idea and share an ethos for software development collaboration. It is observed that design contributions in OSSD communities are fairly unsuccessful. Paper proposes a set of processes for improving a designer’s competence to contribute meaningful design solutions to OSSD communities. Conclusions are aimed to contribute to understanding relationships between designing and community dynamics in general.