A designer’s view on how to research, prototype, test, iterate, and implement Contributor Flows for sustainable and meaningful participation in open source ecosystems.
“If you’re only designing for consumption, you’re complicit in control.”
— Inspired by Jarrad’s keynote at the All-Hands
After the IFT All-Hands, it became clear: if the goal is to scale open source, grow healthy communities, and build resilient ecosystems, then designing for users isn’t enough.
The real leverage is in designing for contributors.
This insight led me to reframe my UX design practice into something more aligned with this new direction. I now think of it as Contributor Experience Design (CX)—an evolution of UX focused not on use, but on participation. It’s about enabling co-creation, cultivating belonging, and designing for long-term involvement.
How UX becomes CX — a cheat sheet
| UX practice | CX evolution |
|---|---|
| Market research | Contribution research — Who’s already building, remixing, organizing? Where is it happening? What languages and stacks are in play? |
| User personas | Contributor archetypes — Those with initiative, not just needs. Big players, underdogs, superheroes and sleeping geniuses. Newbies and veterans. |
| Journey maps | Contributor journeys — From interest to PR. From solving puzzles to championing values. From autonomy to alignment—and back again. |
| User flows | Contributor flows — Mapping the key stages of contributor experience and ensuring they’re meaningfully connected |
| Usability testing | Participation testing — Friction audits and confidence loops. How contributors move through our systems. Where they stall, succeed, or drop out. |
| Metrics | From usage to impact — Forks, remixes, spin-offs, translations, memes. Participation in all its forms matters. |
Examples from the field
I haven’t yet found well-documented CX case studies that apply the full spectrum of practices—but even a light scan of the ecosystem reveals clear examples of CX thinking in action:
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GNOME’s Outreach Program: Built a full journey for contributors, from first contact to leadership
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Bundler: Adopted visible contributor norms resulting in more engaged participation
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Ethernaut (OpenZeppelin): Turned testing into an onboarding path, gamifying contribution
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Apache/MySQL: Lowered stack barriers, enabling widespread remixing and adoption
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OpenStreetMap: Built a culture of local ownership and active mapping
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Drupal: Created formal contributor roles, recognition pathways, and global meetups
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Home Assistant: Clear architecture docs and active community updates support contributors
(More details about the examples are available on request. Forum currently doesn’t allow me to add links)
My next steps
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Understand what makes contributors stay
Collecting metrics (PRs, forks, discussion volume) and conducting contributor conversations to identify patterns of sustained engagement in successful ecosystems. -
Map moments that unlock participation
Using journey maps to understand where curiosity turns into action—and where motivation drops off. -
Design paths that invite and support
Prototyping systems that guide contributors from interest to action—onboarding docs, contributor portals, and mentorship flows that create confidence. -
Spot and resolve contributor friction
Logging where contributors stall or shine—so we can improve flows, structure, and feedback loops. -
Share learnings to uplift the ecosystem
Preparing templates and case studies for other teams to adopt and adapt CX principles.
Why this matters
CX isn’t a cosmetic shift—it’s a fundamental reorientation of what design is for. It challenges the assumption that growth means more users. Instead, it asks: what if growth meant more builders? More remixers? More designers? More aligned collaborators?
Contributor Experience Design gives me a new design question:
Not just “can someone use this?”
But “can someone meaningfully join, shape, and extend this?”
Designing for contributors means shaping more than features—it’s shaping culture.
Culture is what carries projects forward when attention fades. It’s how ecosystems evolve, outlast their founders, and stay vibrant without central command.
Designing for contribution means:
- Inviting people into the process, not just the product
- Turning friction into feedback, not abandonment
- Creating loops that generate leadership, not dependency
That’s why I’m betting on CX. It’s not just a design method—it’s a way to build the future I want to live in.
My questions
I’d love to learn from others who are thinking about Contributor Experience Design—inside or outside our org. If you’ve worked on anything similar, I’d be excited to connect, share methods, or swap learnings.
Here are a few open questions I’m carrying:
- Are there any parallel or complementary initiatives already underway that we could cross-pollinate with?
- Have we conducted any structured contributor research outside our org?
- Do you see value in CX? What resonates (or doesn’t) in this framing?
- Are there overlooked contributors in our ecosystem who might be quietly trying to get involved? I’d be glad to reach out and start the conversation.
Thanks for reading—and for everything you’re building.