 theoretical part of why we started on the road to open source design, and now we're going to switch microphones, so sorry Yeah, sorry that took some work When we were Trying to get in this open source mindset or trying to design up to open source our design process we first Thought of the challenges that come with design and what makes design hard and if we look at design at what it Actually is from an artistic perspective We got to these three points and well, they're pretty straightforward if you go to the next slide They're great. It's what brought us these things. It's it's it means creative freedom, and that's yeah, that's that's awesome But unless you're an engineer or unless unless you look at this from a from a Engineering perspective or when you're trying to do to design software then the exactly these things become kind of a bummer because Their design lacks boundaries. It's subjective It's isolated of much of it is done in isolation. So all these things that were great qualities before suddenly become a problem And you see it here people and we notice the same thing in our company. We grew pretty fast. So we had these designers Working on our products, but we're roughly doing the same thing but not really understanding each other So that equal problems And you see it in our four main products here We have our client platform. We have our e-learning platform our Website and our plug-in our WordPress plug-in and as you can see they're roughly the same, but they were all were all created by designers in isolation not really Having the same context having the same knowledge of what we were doing. They were working in isolation Luckily Open source is the answer or at least to us and getting in into an open source mindset really helped us addressing these issues First we forced ourselves or open source thinking empowered ourselves to Create somewhat of an arena a little less violent one than this one Well, we wanted a place where design can be practiced in the open And and a place that really empowered us to be transparent about what we were doing as a team So this is a very important pillar for for us and the second one is We wanted to create a playing field so we wanted to create a playing field and which was something of a system with clear rules clear boundaries Which thought thought everyone on the team To do to do the same things So they they started to speak each other the same language and that empowered us to create work that was transferable transferable, sorry, so you got The design from one designer and the other designer automatically understood what he was doing and how could how he could contribute to it So these two pillars actually their transfer transparency and transferability are Vital ingredients in this journey to open source For us But the main takeaway here is that this really starts inside your company walls Sorry, you have to switch again Last time Thank you. So this was the more accurate part and now Tim is going to talk about our actual yes, because this all sounds very smart, but we didn't know any of this before we started and it was a process to get to being able to present this to you today and Yeah Because when Yo started about seven years ago, it was a small company. It was roughly the people you see here This looks a little more elegant to them. Maybe then it was it was a little startup in an office somewhere everyone was in the same room and That meant that the lines were short everyone could you know, actually if they needed to discuss a problem They can just turn this way discuss it with the founder or with the designer or with the marketer or whoever was there so That was very easy to to have everybody on the same page, but As we started growing this became more of a problem Because when you have one designer that one designer has all the context for all the designs that are being made Even if there are other people that have to offer input, that's the one that's doing the design So everything by that nature should be pretty consistent When we were two designers it was still pretty consistent. It was lucky that they were married So that helped And but when we got three designers and over it's it started to become a bit of a problem We had different generations people coming from different work fields So then we started to see the design differences that were in screenshots before people had different influences different preferences And even if we were still in the same room at that time the each individual designer had assignments that may be Targeted another part of the company. So I could be working with marketing Erwin could be working With Someone else in the company and we wouldn't really know what the other was doing. We sort of had a shared Sort of understanding of what we were trying to do with the designs But there wasn't a really clear guideline on How it should look and what it absolutely shouldn't look like So we had this problem. We have very great designers. They're making great work But how do we really make a team out of them? and our Answer to that was to create the design meeting which Luke spoke about an arena in which we could Discuss design tools discuss everything that we were working on and Sort of get closer to get our get more on the same page about what we were doing And in the beginning it was just us sitting on a couch looking at designs talking it over That was already very helpful, you know when we were designing sometimes we just get into our own space and keep going So this was good to sort of break it open a little bit and we had our team lead there to discuss things The design meeting once it sort of started to take off it got interesting for other people in the company Because design is of course a very interesting field is very visual so people can just walk in and look at some cool stuff So we started getting people from developments coming in and wanted to see people from marketing Yeah, and This was good because we were getting more Outside perspectives more diversity people coming in from different disciplines Really talking things over So that was good And at that point we started getting close to a design system, so we started codify What are the things we're designing and what should they look like what shouldn't they look like which elements are we using? What should be the structure of a page or of a plug-in? But we have one big problem Which I'll get to afterward talking about this part and The design system is kind of based on material in the beginning because you know it was we didn't really know where to start So we took something that we saw a lot material design a lot of people using Android and in Gmail You're confronted with it a lot and it looks good and the benefit of the material design is that it has this entire philosophy behind it and we could sort of Use that as as the foundation for what we were trying to do because it kind of looked like what we were doing But they really thought things through exactly what the elevation should be in your colors and whatnot to do so that was very helpful and Slowly we started adapting this to our own style But the big problem here was That the decision-makers were not involved in this process We were sitting together and the meeting got bigger and bigger. So we got the feeling like you know, we're really Really making decisions here, but we weren't we still had to pass those by the actual decision-makers And sometimes they were like no, we're not gonna do this. It's fun what you've cooked up here With these 10 people in this corner of the building, but we should do it this way. So Our solution was to also involve them in this process and we found that they've found that very Pleasant to be part of it and to think in this way and we could also make decisions right on the spot And so that was very helpful, but it got a little big This was the corner of the building where we used to do our design stand up But as more and more people got there it got a little bit crowded And it was time to make it like an actual part of our process so For example, this was the like the first slide in our presentation before we When we were just a small group should you just open Google slides? We dump a couple of screenshots in there and that's fine but we started to also design the slides and the process around it and the most important thing we did with that is to also switch it from Focusing on the person what the person has done to Focusing on what has happened in this area in this for this product or this project that we're doing Because it it kind of turned into a stand-up at some point and people were sort of You know, you could see if someone had done a lot or if they hadn't done something that week It's what kind of got a little personal and I was not good We wanted to have an open arena where we could all come at it for the same playing field Yeah, and so By making it focused on the subjects we could all Stand back and take a look at it and comment freely on the things we were doing And so that's worked out very well for us. This is a little bit where we're at right now Doing these meetings every two weeks. You can see on the right. There is yours to walk the founder of the company and So he's involved directly in the process and he likes talking about these design Much faster and much more consistently Yeah, and so now we're finally getting towards a design language When we all speak the same language and we understand why we're trying to design these things and That was kind of our goal because when we started thinking about open source design We had this image in mind of like eventually we got a It would be really great if we could open source how we designed so that people outside our company could also Contribute designs we have contributors on our github repos that contribute code and fixes for our products But not design, you know, they can do a suggestion, but they they don't know how it should look That's still up to us But if we could open source it then they could also be involved in that step of the process But at the beginning we had no idea how to get there and I will finally understand it through these steps We get very close to doing this So the next step for us will be to make the design system easily editable for people that are not designers We have someone working on it now And that's it's built up the entire design system based on our feedback and he's making a design kits that we can use in sketch So we have all the elements that we Commonly use in our designs that we can just drop in there and change the colors change the fonts and everything will be Exactly like it should so there's no more confusion when people have to Implement it So make sure to document the changes because we want to know where we came from why we make these choices What the philosophy is behind the colors we use or the type of buttons and So we're looking to document that more clearly And then eventually like I say we want to make it available to people outside our team and outside our company So My marketing has a nice idea for something on a page. They can look at the design system and say I want to use these components immediately look good And what will be even better? What's we're still trying to figure that out as if we can actually connect it to the react components we use in our design in our products So that the design actually is also reflected in what we actually build and what the developers used to build the product And then eventually we hope to reach the open-source design for our company Thanks for listening Sorry, why didn't we choose what? Oh the arena So your question is why why did we choose such a sort of violent imagery for the thing we Yeah Yeah Yeah, that's a good question. I guess it's just that's what it feels like I have to say that you have thought of it better than we did You've thought it more through now. It's actually it's it's For me an arena is something where where things are discussed So where people can be invited to to join and to discuss things and No, we didn't have that violent imagery of the concept or Then then you yeah, you can say we actually with the playing field what I was trying to say is That it it that it is actually fun to contribute to a playing field where Usually when you look at designing you say well design needs to have rules of boundaries You tend to say well, well, that's boring. We you know, it's an impact on my creative freedom and it takes it takes a lot away from design, but I think That it can be fun to Such a playing field add to it contribute to it. I think that is where the creative creativity lies So I think the imagery for the playing field was a lot more positive No, but I didn't have any negative in in rotation with the arena. So Out that answers your question. Yeah, sure after we started doing this because The reason we started the design meeting was mostly to get the designers to talk to each other you know to and that just talking helps with better understanding with the other person's coming from and What we've definitely seen is that now that we have a bit of a common language to talk about our designs It's not so subjective anymore. So it's not like I don't like this. Maybe it should be a different color purple We know These buttons have this color for this reason That's why they should be like this and if we don't like how it looks in this design Maybe we should consider changing the color of these buttons across everything, but then it's more of a considered Thing plus it adds in a layer of professionalism because we we were and I was Things together. It was very personal, but it because these were very important steps in in a more professional look at and at Design and the way we practice design. So that changed the culture. Definitely. Yeah, yeah Definitely like like I said material was a whole design system. We were like this is awesome because they also have the react Link-up like this is what we we'd love to have but then it's like, okay Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Yeah, and we're we're we still have a long way to go as well So we're we're always trying to learn from those examples definitely have all the answers ourselves. So this is I hope it came across that way But this was a humble version of how we want to do things because we don't have all the answers and we're Definitely not there yet that that that's utopian open-source arena a graphic that Tim showed you There yet, so we're so we're still yeah, that's a good question Yeah, I think in the beginning we were absolutely not aware of this and it was just by the virtue of that the room We were in was very small that we couldn't invite everyone because we'd have 10 more people there I Started looking at because we have three people from the marketing team and it was like maybe it should be just one Trust and and then we started transitioning a little bit more. Okay It has to be simple, but maybe not everybody. That's just interested in looking at what we're doing so that definitely helped but and there is a distinction between adding value to the process and Just wanting to to update the company on what you're doing. So that is openness as well feeling of what the design team is doing. I think that is valuable In that it that it adds to the value in terms that it That it generates revenue. So Definitely need people that make decisions so great ideas, but in the end you just need someone and And with us, it's still it's still yours He's our product chief product officer. Do they say that correctly? So he calls a shot in the end So we do a lot of the thinking for him But in the end he has a general idea of what he wants and then he calls a shot. So So there are two in our process. There are two Directors involved that that coldy shot. So leadership is very important still Yeah, it used to be that the design meeting was the place especially I have enough information to make the decision Sort of transitioning into So it also was kind of a thing we started because we liked sitting together and discussing these things and not that It's an official process were like We've kind of lost the creative spark in this or something. So now we're thinking yeah, but we could just start another thing That's that we do before that like you say just sit together with the designers say alright These are the projects. So what we're going to do about this. What are we going to present as these things? Okay, and then we go to the design meeting. I think it's going to be our next step to really implement something like that Yeah, go on. Yeah, I think we're not nearly there yet in that ideal situation But what we started to do because we were making these slides for the meeting instead of just Opening sketch or Photoshop and sharing what we're working on with we have to think about how we're presenting what we're making Put them in order in the slides and then the slides can later be viewed by everyone in the company And we updated with the the decisions we make during the meeting and so that everyone even if they can't be there They can see oh, this is what happened in this design meeting. Okay, and then they can come to us Maybe if they have questions, but we'd like to formalize that more to actually write down the decisions and put Our gonna do that next yeah So so a lot of the issues and can be can be read and followed there. So yeah Yeah, actually it's someone in our design team This week sent us abstract and it looks really interesting because that's one of the challenges We had for the versioning especially and how we're gonna document these things because we can right now We have a bunch of sketch libraries and all the designers can use them But nobody that doesn't have sketch can use them. So we try to look at like material has a website and abstract it could also be very interesting in Documenting the changes and versioning and so we're definitely looking into more of those tools And if you have more suggestions, we'd love to hear them as well. Yeah, we'll have to figure it out Yeah, cool. Yeah, we'll be around so Yeah, that's definitely true