Open design: the opportunity design students didn’t know they were missing

What if you could work on real-world projects, shape cutting-edge technology, collaborate with developers across the world, make a meaningful impact with your design skills, and grow your portfolio… all without applying for an internship or waiting for graduation?

That’s what we aim to do with open design: an opportunity for universities and students of any design discipline. 

What is open design, and why does it matter?

Before we go further, let’s talk about what open design is. Many open source tools are built by developers, for developers, without design in mind. When open source software powers 90% of the digital world (PDF), it leaves everyday users feeling overwhelmed or left out. Open design wants to bridge that gap. 

We aim to introduce human-centred thinking into open source development, enhancing these tools to be more intuitive, inclusive, and user-friendly. Most open source projects focus on code contributions, neglecting design contributions. That leaves a vast number of projects without a design system, accessibility audits, or onboarding documentation. That’s where designers come in, helping shape better user experiences and more welcoming communities.

Open design is about more than just aesthetics. Open design helps to make technology work for people; that’s exactly what open source needs. Learn more about open design on our webpage.

We want to raise awareness for the projects,  the problems that currently exist, and how we can fix them together,  and encourage universities and students to become advocates of open design. 

We want universities to connect their students to real-world, meaningful design opportunities in a field that is currently lacking the creativity of designers. Our goal is to help and motivate students to bring their design skills into open source projects and become advocates, to make open design accessible, practical, and empowering! 

How Canonical helps universities access open design

We want to help universities help students to access:

• Real-world experiences: Students apply their design skills to global projects to create valuable, demonstrable outcomes, beyond hypothetical briefs
• Interdisciplinary growth: Empower students to gain collaborative experience with developers, and navigate real tech workflows
• Accessible opportunities: No interviews, no barriers; just impact, experience, and learning

We have provided universities with talks and project briefs, enabling them to prepare students to utilise their expertise and design a brighter future for open source. If you’re a department leader, instructor, or coordinator, exploring open source and open design will help you to give your students unique access to industry-aligned experiences, while embedding values of collaboration, open contribution, and inclusive design.

Why should students care?

If you’re a student in UX, UI, interaction, service, visual, HCI design, or any other field with design influence, you’ve been told how important it is to build your portfolio, gain hands-on experience, and collaborate with cross-functional teams. Open design is your opportunity to do so.

The best part is, you don’t have to write a single line of code to make a difference! Open source projects are looking for:

• UX/UI improvements
• Accessibility and heuristic audits
• User research and persona development
• User flows and wireframes
• Information architecture reviews
• Design documentation and feedback systems

If you’re in a design course, you already have, or are developing, the skills that open-source projects need. 

Open design is an opportunity to develop by collaborating across disciplines, navigating ambiguity, and advocating for users: skills employers value. With open design, you’ll gain confidence in presenting ideas, working with international teams, and handling feedback in a real-world setting, growing in ways that classroom projects and internships often don’t offer.

If you’re aiming for a tech-focused design career, open design is one of the most impactful and distinctive ways to stand out!

How can you start?

Getting started is easier than you think, even if GitHub looks scary at first. Here’s how:

1. Learn the basics of GitHub

We’ve made a video guide to understanding GitHub, and curated a list of other videos to get to grips with GitHub.

2. Find a project on contribute.design

It’s like a job board for design contributions. These projects are waiting for you. 

3. Understand the project’s needs

Most projects on contribute.design list what they’re looking for in .design file or DESIGN.md guidelines.

4. Pick an issue, or propose your own

Navigate to the Issues tab of the project repo, where you can filter for issues labelled for design. You can also use this tab to propose any issues you discover in the project.

5. Contribute, collaborate, grow

Start adding your ideas, questions, and solutions to issues. You’ll be collaborating, communicating, and making meaningful contributions.

You can explore more projects through the GitHub Explore page, but not every project will have a design process in place; that’s where your skills are especially valuable. If you don’t see design issues, treat the project as a blank canvas. Suggest checklists, organise a design system, or improve documentation. The power is in your hands!

Reach out to maintainers, join community discussions, and don’t hesitate to introduce design-focused thinking. Your initiative can spark meaningful change and help open source become more user-friendly, one project at a time.

View every project as an opportunity; you don’t need an invitation to contribute, just curiosity, creativity, and the willingness to collaborate.

Interested? 

We’re looking for universities and departments interested in introducing open design to their students. Whether that’s through a talk, module project briefs, or anything else you’d like to see, we’re excited to find ways to work together and bring open design to campus.

Are you a program director, a design department, a student group, or an interested student? Let’s talk!

Reach out at [email protected]