From Idan:

The open-source world is and always has been focused on code; attention and respect doled out in exchange for patches. As a result, many open-source projects want for design love but don't know how to secure it. We scare off potential contributors from the many fields beneath the aegis of “design”: user experience, user interfaces, usability, interaction design, information architects, graphic design, typography, and other roles assumed by the authors of our markup and styling.

Django can be a model citizen among open-source projects in changing these attitudes and coaxing contributors out of the woodwork—not just for the benefit of the framework, but for the constellation of 3rd party apps which make Django great. Other FOSS communities have made efforts that we can learn from, and the fight to change perceptions is less uphill than you might think.

This talk will cover:

• Misconceptions of “Design.” What is design, and what do designers do?
• A brief trip down memory lane, and how Django came to be relatively designer-friendly.
• “I don't get it: what is the BDesignFL role?”
• Process and tools: How can Django better engage designers, for core's benefit and for the benefit of your projects. How can we help these contributors get over the “suck” threshold?
• What parts of core are ripe for love from designers? What 3rd party projects?

Thanks to Idan for stepping into this new role and sharing his expertise with us. I can't wait to see the talk and to see what we can do to improve the role of designers in open source over the next year!