Community summit 2017 discussion points

The summit is approaching and we need to have a series of discussion points. Over this week, lets get points and then vote in next week’s meeting.

From the make.community blog:

1) Each make.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ project team creates a list of relevant topics/issues which are relevant for the progress of the team and the WordPress open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project as a whole, prioritizing topics or tasks which are sensitive enough to specifically require in-person discussion.

2) Each team rep will post their final discussion topic list on the Community Summit blog: https://make.wordpress.org/summit/. Deadline: December 20th

Tammie Lister 5:21 pm on December 8, 2016
Some points to discuss:
- On boarding of new designers: how do we recruit and get people introduced?
- Retention of designers: why do we have such a low rate and what can we do about it?
- Diversity: how do we reflect the diversity of our users in those designing?
- Pattern library: the need for this is getting more, how can we make it happen?
- Contribution days: how can we have a format that works for even when a designers isn’t there (this relates to on boarding)
- Outreach inside WordPress: how can we find and also send designers easily to all areas of WordPress. If we are the design team for all of the community, we need to address this and outreach.
- Vision: how can we pan out and look more at the entire vision of the project from a design view? Should we focus on workshops, zoomed out planning and thinking?
- How do we make space for all designers? Design is a wide subject with many roles. How can we make space for UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it., UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. and beyond?
- Outreach outside WordPress: what can we do to attract contributions and become known outside our bubble?
- How do we make research part of our process?
- How do we establish a proper design process across the entire project of WordPress?
- How do we establish a culture of productive design critiques?
Mel Choyce 5:23 pm on December 8, 2016
- How can we, as a team, best support the design needs of coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., and the design needs of the community?
- What does it look like for WordPress to be design-led, and how can we as a team lead that effort?
- How do we attract and retain new design contributors?
Mark Uraine 5:24 pm on December 8, 2016
- Design Philosophy – what is it? Are we expressing it publicly in ways that attract other designers?
- How is the Design Team, or WordPress is general, impacting design in the world? What are we planning to do proactively?
- How do we engage new designers? Right now SVNSVN Apache Subversion (often abbreviated SVN, after its command name svn) is a software versioning and revision control system. Software developers use Subversion to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. Its goal is to be a mostly compatible successor to the widely used Concurrent Versions System (CVS). WordPress core and the wordpress.org released code are all centrally managed through SVN. https://subversion.apache.org/. is old, and there’s nothing engaging on .org design-wise.
- How do we make onboarding easier for designers? Pattern libraries, interactive Codepens?
- Can we formulate simple steps to get people creating themes based on the APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways.? Can we talk about the API in ways designers can understand?
JoshuaWold 5:32 pm on December 8, 2016

When I’ve encouraged people to try building their own website, and told them about WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/, there is often this feeling of fear that I get from them. It feels complicated to them. Then, if they hear about some of the other big website builders out there, and go to their pages, they feel like that’s a much easier route to go.

Ultimately I try to talk through the pros and cons of either route, but I wonder if there’s things we could do to remove the feeling of high barrier to getting started with WordPress.
- JoshuaWold 5:38 pm on December 8, 2016
  
  If we think about where WordPress it today, and what it will take to bring more awareness and people to using the platform, I feel that design can help support this.
Nick Halsey 9:00 pm on December 8, 2016

How do we envision the experience of managing a site in the future? Is it fully frontend-based (partial examples include front-end editor, customize)? Is in independent from the site itself (wp-admin)? Some combination of both?

I imagine this topic will begin to be discussed in the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. context in the next few months, but the broad question for whether sites should be managed from the frontend or a backend would benefit from focused in-person discussion of various potential setups. This has global implications for the experience of actually using WordPress.