We have made an attempt at identifying GitHub issues and pull requests where input from a designer would be helpful to settle some decisions around a particular problem. For instance with the “design proposal needed” label or the “Outreachy design” one. It worked okay during the Outreachy contribution phase when a lot of designers were actively looking for ways to contribute, but I am not really convinced this is really the way to go.
There is no simple way in GitHub to “follow” a label and be notified of new issues that are tagged with it, so it does not feel like a very active way to call for help from designers.
How about we create a GitHub team for designers? It would be a group of GitHub users members of the OpenRefine org, that we could ping in discussions to notify them that there is an interesting product design question for them there. I would then imagine that many (if not most) of the people in this team would unsubscribe from notifications from the repository and only get notifications when they are mentioned (including via this team). It would give them a more relevant feed of GitHub notifications that they could use to guide their contributions.
What do you think of it? I would say that anyone could join or leave the team - it would not granting particular privileges. And of course it would not represent a commitment to participate in those discussions.
The idea of creating a GitHub team specifically for designers sounds promising and I agree that relying solely on GitHub labels is not the most effective method for actively engaging designers
Having a dedicated team for designers within the OpenRefine organization would provide a more streamlined and targeted approach to involving designers in discussions. By pinging the team in relevant discussions, we can ensure that designers are aware of design-related questions and can contribute their expertise.
The proposed approach of allowing team members to unsubscribe from general repository notifications and receive notifications only when they are mentioned via the team makes sense. It would help to focus on the discussions that require their attention and avoid being overwhelmed by an influx of general notifications.
Thanks for initiating this Antonin - this is very useful and great addition to the start of the internship for @Lydiaofficial. Next week she’ll research design contribution workflows and I expect we may get even more suggestions how to best use GitHub features in order to make contribution & communication between designers / developers easier.
