FOSDEM 2025 recap - The Open Source Design community is still going strong!

Introduction

FOSDEM 2025 now marks the eleventh year that Open Source Design have applied for, and been able to run a devroom focused on Open Source, Design and the intersection of these.

The devroom in 2025 ran for a half a day on Sunday from 13.00pm until the end of the conference at 17.00pm. Most talks had a good/full turn out, apart from the one at the end of the day (many folks from overseas head home on Sunday evening!). We had 9 speakers total with 8 talks of 20 minutes each with 5 minutes for questions, though many talks could have been much longer and involved topics and Q&A was full of rich insights, perspective and discussions. All the talks were recorded and will be available on their individual pages on the FOSDEM website. https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/track/design/ (this website will be archived once FOSDEM 2026’s website is live. When that happens please search for ‘FOSDEM 2025’ in a search engine and look for the archived site)

You can also find every design devroom from 2015 onwards by visiting the yearly specific website of FOSDEM e.g. https://archive.fosdem.org/2015/schedule/track/open_source_design/ https://archive.fosdem.org/2018/schedule/track/open_source_design/ etc.

One aspect of 2025 that this author is particularly proud of, is that we had a majority (7) people that were femme presenting/women speaking (and two masc presenting/men) speak at the Open Source Design devroom. This is a fantastic ratio in terms of diversity of genders to speak at an OSS conference.

The Talks

Design in 5 mins (okay, 20 mins): ecosystem mapping and user research? what is it and how to do it!

Design in 5 mins (okay, 20 mins): ecosystem mapping and user research? what is it and how to do it! Delivered by: Antonia Valencia Caroline Sinders Caroline and Antonia gave insights and personal experiences of how ecosystem maps and user research have benefited the OSS projects that they have been involved in. Including working on user research across a harassment procedure at Wikimedia.

Thunderbird: Building a Cross-Platform, Scalable Open-Source Design System

Thunderbird: Building a Cross-Platform, Scalable Open-Source Design System Delivered by: Laurel Terlesky Laurel walked us through building out the comprehensive and explorative design system for Thunderbird as well the aspirations the team have for more open source design contributions to the tool.

CLI Design for Designers and Developers

CLI Design for Designers and Developers Delivered by: Harmut Obendorf Harmut took us on a journey through the interfaces that developers and coders use and how to ensure that you are optimising the options at your disposal for making these interfaces the best experience for the specific circumstance.

From Accessibility to Inclusion - Interdisciplinary Design

From Accessibility to Inclusion - Interdisciplinary Design Delivered by: Raashi Saxena Raashi takes us through the differences between accessibility and usability, along with ways in which the two complement and support each other in the design of open source tools and the unique opportunities open source communities have for serving disable user needs.

Piracy, and Open Source: Reimagining Creativity

Piracy, and Open Source: Reimagining Creativity Delivered by: Zekun Yang A fantastic personal account from Zekun on her journey as a designer using the proprietary tools pressed upon us as designers and the opportunities and expectations open source design tooling can have on design and designers. Shining light on the cultural differences across countries and the inequalities present in our tools.

Towards Free-Fair-Patterns: Free to Use, Free from Deceptive Patterns, Fair for All

Towards Free-Fair-Patterns: Free to Use, Free from Deceptive Patterns, Fair for All Delivered by: Lorena Sánchez Chamorro Lorena explores the ways in which we practice design in both manipulative and anti-manipulative ways and how we can strive for better treatment of users using fair patterns and ethical interfaces.

The Engineer’s Guide to Design: Merging Technical and Creative Skills in Open Source Projects

The Engineer’s Guide to Design: Merging Technical and Creative Skills in Open Source Projects Delivered by: Khushi Garg Khushi takes us through their experiences from engineer to designer before and during their time at Red Hat as a product designer. Inviting us to better understand the perspectives all roles can bring to the creation and betterment of OSS.

XWiki: Improving web accessibility with respect to backward compatibility

XWiki: Improving web accessibility with respect to backward compatibility Delivered by: Lucas C

Lucas closes the open source design devroom this year by taking us through his journey in making XWiki more accessible without breaking the backwards compatibility of the experience and technology. Quotes from attendees

What the audience said…

This year, many folks approached the volunteers at the devroom with comments, thanks and support requests. Here are some of those quotes from people that came to the OSD devroom:

“I’ve been coming to FOSDEM for 10 years and the open source design devroom is one of the best rooms”

“I’m looking to change from software development to UX design and I didn’t think it was possible until after this Dev room”

“The open source design devroom is one of the most accessible devrooms in terms of topic. I might not understand design in the same way as designers but I can always understand and appreciate the topics in the room”

“I’ve been coming to the open source design devroom for the last 3-4 years and I’m so glad there are other designers doing work in this space and are excited to speak about it”

If you’d like to send us a review or quote from your experience of the FOSDEM Open Source Design devroom please email us on core@opensourcedesign.net - feedback, compliments and critique is how we keep our volunteer energy up year on year and we always hope to improve experiences of people at FOSDEM as best we can.

You can also email us if you’d like to be involved in the Open Source Design Devroom as a volunteer next year. We always need help with the following:

  • Applying for the FOSDEM devroom and stand in September/October every year
  • Promoting the call for talks to people in the open source design space
  • Helping up develop fundraising processes for travel stipends and raising funds to distribute to speakers and volunteers
  • Communications and liaising with selected speakers ensuring they have their talks prepared and everything they need to attend FOSDEM in Brussels.
  • Volunteering in the Devroom at FOSDEM in Brussels. Hosting the room, Introducing speakers, tech and audio support, ensuring the room is safe and space is monitored and cleanup.
  • Preparing banners, posters and stickers for handing out to attendees.