Here's what it would take to get me to make bring my product design/interaction design skills to open source software:
* Easy way to and keep track of 'what projects are underway now and which need HCI or UX expertise'?
* Way to speak with the team over email or IM about what UX challenges there are, and learn the constraints
* Confidence that designers will be adequately recognized for their contributions
Reading the thread here makes me realize that we're all so specialized--and this is a big part of the problem. UX designers need to learn to use a command line, need to learn to do at least some coding. Likewise, software engineers (including open source contributors) need to become more discerning about the basic principles of human-computer interaction and user interface design (not just visual styling). Once both roles start to become generalizing specialists, better collaborations will just happen.
Reading the thread here makes me realize that we're all so specialized--and this is a big part of the problem. UX designers need to learn to use a command line, need to learn to do at least some coding. Likewise, software engineers (including open source contributors) need to become more discerning about the basic principles of human-computer interaction and user interface design (not just visual styling). Once both roles start to become generalizing specialists, better collaborations will just happen.