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Contribution Guidelines
Decred Design is a combination of several disciplines. These guidelines aim to provide a starting point for contributions and becoming a prospective contractor. High level categories of Decred Design are the following.
VC is a wider discipline that covers communicating information about Decred through any visual means available – starting from text and image. Examples include marketing and pr materials, use of DCR identity in branding, instructional and educational content, advertisments, space design, printed matter, presentations, documentation, etc.
Common expertises for contributions are: visual and graphic design, motion design and animation, illustration and iconography, 3D graphics, creative-coding, front-end development, photography, creative direction, concept design, copywriting
The focus is on design and experience context of Decred software and platforms. On a high level, digital product design can be looked at as going hand in hand with the developers and other contributors, in an iterative process to solve problems in a functional manner. The work prioritises usability and technical feasability.
Common expertises for contributions are: research, interaction design and prototyping, visual design, motion design, systems design, testing, documentation and front-end development.
Design-ops is the operational intersection between the different design disciplines. The focus is on fostering a creative environment that enables quality work-experience for all the design contributors and address their issues. With a general support and coordination role in mind, design-ops aims to: enhance the quality and speed of execution; improve access to information and communications; improve coordination and avoid work collisions; maintain and improve a median quality across disciplines.
Examples of Contributing to Visual Communications
- Help out with maintaining consistency and quality of the materials used for communication and branding purposes. E.g. if a you notice any marketers or promoters in trouble with their visual content (technical issues, inappropriate use of logo or identity system assets, aesthetic issues etc)
- Help out the community initiatives that have little or no design to them. Any improvements in their visual qualities helps to represent the project in a better light.
- Propose new original visual content, storytelling, illustrations or other design innovation and assets.
Examples of Contributing to Digital Products Design
The meat of the work is around design of graphic user interfaces and web platforms; improving the interactions; creating visual and motion design; conducting testing, research and providing feedback; and thinking of ways to improve the experience.
- Review or test a platforms features as a user and provide feedback
- Compare the visual, interaction and motion design developments / mockups, etc with the currently implemented release and create issues to address inconsistencies
- Help to build use cases and define it's requirements
- Address platforms or parts that are not designed or obviously dated, lack attention
- Address blatant design mistakes and propose solutions to fix them
- Create proposals for implementing new or improved patterns. A proposal must include:
- A description of the problem this design proposal solves
- Relevant examples and drafts or mock-ups
- Discussion of the tradeoffs involved
- Discussion of the proposed solution
- Create proposals for implementing new or improved features. A proposal must include:
- A description of the problem this design proposal solves
- Relevant examples and drafts or mock-ups
- Discussion of the tradeoffs involved
- Discussion of the proposed solution
For those interested in becoming a prospective contractor, please start by reading through
https://blog.decred.org/2017/07/25/Decred-Recruiting/
“We are a community of doers, and that is fundamental to the growth of the project. In order to become a contractor, it is typical for a prospective contractor to:
- demonstrate an independent interest in Decred
- understand the basics of Decred by reading documentation or other educational content
- find a part of the project they feel they have the skills to contribute to
- check with Decred contractors before starting work, to avoid duplication of effort
- submit work for review
After the relevant Decred contractors have had a chance to review your work, they will give you feedback and may suggest that you be brought on as a contractor for the project. Prospective contractors should be able to complete the steps listed above with minimal assistance from existing contractors. While we aim to be as inclusive as possible, do understand that we have to maintain internal standards for work product, meaning not all interested parties will be asked to become contractors.
We obviously find it very encouraging to see individuals or corporate entities with strong resumes or credentials who are interested in becoming Decred contractors, but as a community of doers, what a contractor does for Decred matters far more than their prior employers or educational background. It is my personal experience that some individuals and organizations look really amazing on paper and are weak when it comes to actually performing work. “
Alongside the general contractor model, the approach for design is similarily meritocratic and any positions/titles need to be earned. When you've built a decent understanding of the project and the technology, please contact @linnutee or any other designers listed at decred.org/contributors.
A good introduction needs to provide a realistic overview of your expertise and ability, what are you best at; display of understanding the crypto-space and the project in general is (why and what to contribute); or examples of contributions. Portfolios are essentially looked at as a proof-of-legitimacy as well general relevancy.
All introductions will be reviewed by design-ops group to confirm a proposed task or suggest a good first contribution. Prospective contractors and those with interest of contributing will be on-boarded further in the work flow. A good demonstration of communications, ability, thinking and understanding will likely receive a recommendation for contracting from design-ops. Requests for doing work without any demonstration understanding; asking for payments ahead; portfolios clearly below a median quality or bad match of ability will likely be ignored.
We’re welcoming designers who can: maintain the current median work quality; bring something new and complimentary to the table; are somewhat experienced in working autonomously and managing oneselfs work. Working in a remote environment means we can’t do as much hand holding as one would receive when working locally. With the increase autonomy comes an increased responsibility. Every design contractor is responsible for the work done. Low quality work; plagiarisms, work without a reason and uncessary duplication of effort are seen as a waste of the development funds.
Values, principles, etc
- Balance creativity and objectivity
- Prioritise usability and technical feasability
- Know when something is wrong
- Keep in mind we are in the financial sector and base your design decisions accordingly. There’s a myriad of patterns meme’d into general psychology relating to scams and trustworthy financial matters.
Platforms http://github.com/decred/ TBA
Resources http://decred.org/brand/ TBA