Blog – Superbloom

Communications Tools For Teams Like Yours (And Ours)

Superbloom is excited to share a communications toolkit designed for small tech and activist organizations, developed in collaboration with the Open Technology Fund’s Learning Lab. Recognizing the resource challenges nonprofits face, these tools are meant to help improve branding and outreach, ensuring your work gets noticed and understood in a crowded digital space.

182 Days To Create A Prototype

They have an idea. They have programming skills. And now they have 182 days to create a prototype. This is the Prototype Fund, a German government program to support open-source projects. Superbloom has been providing support for the teams on “everything but code” since 2018 – from UX design to fundraising and everything in between. This blog post is for Prototype Fund teams, and really, it’s for anyone hoping to do a lot on a development project in a short time. Here’s how you make the most of 182 days!

Design Contributions to OSS at COSCUP 2024

Co-designing Platform Policy For "High Risk" Content Creators: The Tech Policy Design Lab Approach

A Tech Policy Design Playbook was developed and published as the culmination of our work with the World Wide Web Foundation and 3x3 on Deceptive Design, and includes guidance on how to run community co-design engagements around tech policy design. Superbloom, in partnership with Dr Carolina Are, facilitated three community sessions around the risks to “high risk” content creators and being de-platformed from essential social and content platforms.

On Being a Coach: Support for Designers in Privacy and Security Open Source Software

In December 2022, Superbloom partnered with Internews and Okthanks to create resources that help open source software (OSS) teams better understand how design processes and user-centered activities improve usability, and therefore the security of open source tools. After publishing these resources and speaking about them to the wider OSS community, we found that designers and developers working in privacy and security OSS tool teams wanted to explore specific challenges through conversations with us. This led to the final component of the Adoptable project in the form of coaching.

How To Test Software For Usability And Usefulness When You Haven’t Finished Writing The Code

How do you find out if the software you are building is usable and useful for others? We’ve written this blog post about how to address this challenge! It is often easiest to try out the software when it’s been fully built, but this is also when any mistakes are most difficult to fix because so much has already been coded. This is a concern and a challenge for product managers, developers and UX designers alike.

Untangling Digital Spaghetti: Gina Giampaolo on CS&S Website Refresh

Requiem for Cyberspace and the Next Theory of Change for IoT

The dream of the ‘90s is over. We now have an Internet of Things thriving in physical space where our bodies live instead of a Cyberspace envisioned as a realm solely of the mind. That's cause for optimism as we consider how resilient organizations can collaboratively build a different future in this, our physical reality.

Feira 2023: Reflecting, Reconnecting, and Revitalizing

In September 2023, we were able to participate in Feira, the Global Gathering, a festival for digital rights defenders, convened by Team Community. The Feira was a three day social and networking festival hosted in Estoril, Portugal on September 15 - 17, 2023. The event, designed, modeled and named for the concept of a community market, was created to provide digital rights defenders with a space to connect with others in the digital rights community for informal meetups, discussions, and joy — particularly as this was the first time gathering in-person for most participants since before the start of the COVID19 pandemic.

From Policy to Pixels: Strategic UX Design and User Support for GDPR Implementation

Introducing our new report “From Policy to Pixels: Strategic UX Design and User Support for GDPR Implementation.” Supported by the University of California Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC), we conducted research to better understand how GDPR policy implementation is situated in current UX practices and how multi-disciplinary product teams reach design decisions

Superbloom's User Experience Toolbox for Risk Mitigation and Accessibility

Over the last six months, we’ve been updating our Usable Security Audit Methodology to better reflect our current practices, the advances in our fields of interest, and accessibility as a core principle. Through an inventory of our tools and practices, surveying the field to find similar work we admire, and workshops with close collaborators and community members, we revamped our approach, which we’re now calling our User Experience Toolbox for Risk Mitigation and Accessibility.

Open Design Workshop at COSCUP 2023: Understanding Internet Shutdowns and How Design Can Improve Tools

At COSCUP 2023, we held a workshop "The Design We Open - Network Disruption Hackathon" (The Design We Open Workshop - 網路中斷黑客松), a workshop focused on how we, as designers and configurers of technology for human rights needs can better understand Taiwanese citizens' understanding and experiences of internet shutdowns, and what is important in a partial or full internet shutdown.

Six Key Tenets for Open Source Designers

Being a designer in Open Source (OS) isn’t always easy or straightforward, neither is it the same for all designers. Different open source projects are set up differently, hence demand different outputs and engagements from designers. In this blog, we list the six main tenets for a successful design contribution to OS projects.

The Secret Life of Open Source Designers

Bringing Human Centered Design to the Decentralized Web

The Feira @ The Global Gathering 2023: Will You Join Us There?

The Feira @ the Global Gathering is a three day social and networking festival for digital rights defenders, hosted in an outdoor space in Estoril, Portugal on September 15, 16 and 17, 2023. Join Jamie Tomasello and Eriol Fox from the Superbloom team, Matt Stempeck from Civic Tech Field Guide and Caroline Sinders from Convocation there!

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Human Rights Centered Design: Respecting the Privacy and Security of Users While Still Sharing User Insights Among Practitioners

With support from the Open Technology Fund Secure Usability and Accessibility Lab, UX Designers, User Researchers, Digital Security Trainers and OSS tool builders gathered at RightsCon 2023 for the Human Rights Centered Design convening. We held critical discussions about the challenges and opportunities that sharing user insights could bring to how OSS tools for human rights needs are built in ways that are more context sensitive and specific, and share these insights here

Launching USER: Findings and Recommendations for Scientific and Research Open Source

Usable Software Ecosystem Research (USER) is a Sloan Foundation-supported research initiative that explores how open source scientific and research software (SROSS) teams understand, consider, and undertake usability and design opportunities in their projects. To read more about this project please check out Blog #1, Blog #2, our project website, and open repo.

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Meet Jasmine McNealy, Superbloom Board Member

We welcomed Jasmine McNealy to our Board of Directors in 2022. Jasmine brings extensive expertise in privacy, information, communications, technology, law, and policy to our Board. We interviewed Jasmine to learn more about her, her career path, why she serves on our board, and what our mission means to her. Be sure to check out our upcoming interviews with Board members Jackie Lu and Scout Brody, as well.

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Where Can You Find Us At RightsCon 2023?

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A Dev’s Guide To Design In Open Source Software

In 2022, Superbloom partnered with Internews and Okthanks to create resources that help open OSS teams understand how design processes and activities improve the usability of open source tools. This post outlines some key themes identifying challenges in OSS design adoption, and introduces the resources created in response to these challenges.

Making Design More Open: Superbloom At FOSS Backstage 2023

Join Us At MozFest 2023!

Superbloom will be hosting five sessions at the Mozilla Festival (Monday, March 20 - Friday, March 24 2023). If you’ll be there, we’d love to see you, meet you and get to know you. Come join us! Want to learn how to design a Tech Policy playbook? Are you interested in global tech transparency? Would you like to find out how shadow data affects you? Do you want to understand design’s impact on encrypted messaging? Are you looking for how to center human rights in usability? Join us and 1000s of others at MozFest 2023! This year’s event will be held in person in Amsterdam and online and the Superbloom team will be participating in five of the 360+ sessions. Intrigued? Read more in our post.

Learnings From OTF Shutdowns Getdown Gathering 2022

In October 2022, Open Technology Fund (OTF) brought together a group of around 50 technologists, researchers, usability experts, and digital security practitioners working on internet shutdowns. Together, the group engaged in many topics, ranging from understanding the lived experience of an internet shutdown to the challenges around technology interventions, and measuring and monitoring networks during a shutdown. An internet shutdown is when access to the internet is restricted, such that people are unable to use the internet or internet based services. This is an information control tactic that is increasingly being used around the world to affect the free flow of information. Our learnings from this session are outlined in this blog post.

Foundations Security Privacy Transparency

Introducing USER: Usable Software Ecosystem Research

Supported by the Sloan Foundation, we introduce USER, a research initiative that explores how open source scientific and research software teams understand, consider, and undertake usability and design opportunities in their projects. As part of our active work on this project, we are openly sharing our progress along the way in a series of blog posts.

2022 Superbloom Highlight Reel

2022 was a year full of shifts, adaptations and evolutions for so many in our community. For us, we launched a new identity, welcomed four new team members and three new fiscally sponsored projects, and partnered with many new organizations and funders. And, for many on our team, this year presented several opportunities to meet for the first time in person. These markers of growth and evolution could not have happened without the continued support from our community.

What's Next For 'Simply Secure'? Part 3: How We Built Superbloom

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Threats, Tests, and Trust: Designing for Mobile Surveillance Monitor

All Aboard: Getting Mainstream Users Up and Running on Decentralized Systems

Building Blocks: Funding Digital Infrastructure From the Ground Up

Join Us At RightsCon 2022

Would you like to hear how the move from deceptive design to trusted patterns is critical to our shared future? Would you like to learn more about how to make encrypted apps more inclusive and accessible? Do you need on the spot design and UX aid and advice to improve your tools? Simply Secure team members will be joining six sessions during Rightscon 2022: June 6-10. We’d love to see you, learn about your work, and collaborate. Come join us! .

On Starting Out In UX: An Interview With Stefanie Mühlbacher, UX Designer

[Open Call] Submissions for “Reimagining Digital Consent: A Discussion & Gallery Exhibition” at MozFest 2022

Every day tech platforms confront us with information about how our data is used, and pop-ups with language like this website uses cookies, accept and continue are an accepted part of the online experience. Consenting to sharing data is so strongly encouraged by the platforms that “opting in” or “opting out” is not the right framework because coerced consent cannot be meaningful. However, new privacy regulations such as the forthcoming Digital Service Act from the European Union and California’s Consumer Privacy Act are initial attempts to empower individuals to give meaningful consent to data collection.

Foundations Security Privacy Transparency

Keeping Everyone Safe: Quick, User-oriented Problem-solving with Mapeo

This fall, we had the pleasure of working with Digital Democracy on their application, Mapeo. Mapeo is a mobile and desktop app that enables indigenous communities to map their lands, sites, and resources, as well as record and monitor environmental and legal abuses by corporations and the state. The app is used by communities around the world, and due to the sensitive nature of the data being recorded, contributing to Mapeo can be high-risk for users. Our design challenge focused on user safety: how to protect end users in the likely event that a community mapper’s phone is lost, seized, damaged, or stolen.

Join Us at MozFest 2022

Are you stuck on how to build or communicate a feature? Not sure how to get user feedback? Want to learn more about how the consent user experience has changed? Are you eager to find out how to navigate design choices while prioritizing human rights? Is digital infrastructure funding a topic you are keen to hear more about? Want to dive deep into data colonialism? We have some answers.

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Finding the Balance

Mailvelope is a browser extension that makes it easy to use PGP encryption, whether you use Gmail, Outlook, or many other email providers. With the support of UXFund, Simply Secure worked with Mailvelope to support users who want to use an organization-wide PGP key to send an encrypted email. Kelsey Smith and Thomas Oberndörfer had a conversation in 2022, reflecting on the technical problem and the design process.

2021 Reflections

In 2021, Simply Secure challenged the status quo, brought a DEI lens to our our work with partners, explored opportunities for strategic programmative, evaluative, and design interventions in infrastructure, solidified partnerships to support global projects in design and usability, built and shared open resources, and actively engaged with our growing community.

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SSL, TLS, and FTP... Oh My!

FileZilla is a popular open-source file transfer protocol (FTP) certificates with explanation and reassurance. Here we share how we tackled a FileZilla Server team to complete user research and provide design recommendations toward the goal of guiding users on how to set up TLS technical challenge as designers through strategic knowledge gathering.

On Getting Things Done: A Conversation with Matthew Wild from Snikket

Making the Mindset Shift: An Interview with Digital Democracy Lead UX Designer, Sabella Flagg

Through the OTF Usability Lab, we were fortunate enough to work with Digital Democracy (Dd) on their application, Mapeo – a mobile app that enables indigenous communities across the world to document and map all kinds of useful data. We interviewed Dd’s Lead UX Designer, Sabella Flagg, to learn more about her journey to non-profit design work.

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Sustaining Values-Driven Software by Attracting New Users

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Dark Patterns in User Controls: Exploring YouTube’s Recommendation Settings

Bringing the Offline Online: Reviewing the Developer Experience of Awala

Technologies like Awala bridge digital divides and provide opportunities for people to connect safely, even when traditional infrastructure and politics might block their access. As part of the OTF Usability Lab, we performed a heuristic review of Awala and a review of the developer experience. Here we highlight the Developer Experience (DX), where we provided recommendations to make it easier for third-party developers to adopt the technology and suitable use cases.

Using Design to Overcome Structural Inequities in Peer Review

Inverting Power Imbalances in the Peer Review Process with PREreview

Reflections on the Mozilla Fellowships and Awards Impact Evaluation: Lessons for the Ecosystem

We interviewed 47 people and conducted 3 surveys to complete a 5-year retrospective impact report for the Mozilla Foundation’s Fellowships and Awards programs. You can read the full report here. The evaluation presents an in-depth look into the impact, strengths, and challenges of the Mozilla Fellowships and Awards programming, including recommendations for supporting leadership development in funding digital rights and internet freedom. Three key ecosystem findings: 1) Funding is essential and impactful, 2) Measuring impact is hard, and 3) Community is at the core.

Building a Toolkit for Funders to Grow their Digital Infrastructure Portfolio

Funders that offer better funding models and center the people that are supporting the infrastructure will make better funding decisions. We’re building a toolkit to help funders develop a robust understanding of digital infrastructure, and create or iterate on their own framework for funding.

Standing Together to Stop Online Bullying: Harassment of Women Journalists is a Community Problem

What's next for 'Simply Secure'? Part 2: Refreshing our name and identity

Designing for a Global Audience in the Age of Remote Usability Testing

Strength In Numbers: Designing to Help At-Risk Users Protect Against Phishing Attacks

Web Monetization: A Report on Barriers to Adoption

Design for Data Journalism: A Case Study

What's next for 'Simply Secure'? Part 1: Revisiting our name and identity

Data, Decision-Making, & Design: Measuring Internet Performance for Libraries and the Public Sector

Defaults and Customization: When Design Meets Open Source

A message to our community: save internet freedom tech

Introducing Decentralization Off The Shelf: 7 Maxims

Designing From the Ground Up: A Case Study on I2P

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Happy New Year from Simply Secure: 2019 Reflections

Open source & branding – a contradiction?

I Read About "Design For Trust"; So You Don't Have To

Designing for Power Users: A Case Study on NoScript

Trust & Responsibility 'Tea Time': New video series with World Interaction Design Day exploring design and trust

Trust and Responsibility have been big topics recently. In the lead up to World Interaction Design Day, we'll be helping to make sense of the conversation sharing some of our understanding, gathering resources, and convening some conversion. Let's start the discussion over some tea.

On Trust and Transparency: Perspectives from Luminate's portfolio

In June 2018, Luminate commissioned Simply Secure to conduct human-centered design (HCD) research focused on uncovering grantees’ experiences of the funding process. The report highlights insights, feedback — including anonymized quotes and comments, and recommendations synthesized from 20 interviews + 53 survey responses.

Tell us about your experience with investigative journalism tools

Underexposed

New: 3-minute video skill shares we call 'Design Spots'

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How to improve the UX of your documentation

How to User Research

Announcing our 2019 Underexposed Design Fellows

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Innovation Is About Putting People First

Prototyping Transparency: A Smart Charging Station

Four Concrete Security Tips for the New Year

Essential Non-technical Skills for Working in Security

What ‘90s London Raves Can Teach Us About Infosec

Your Software Can Help At-risk People, Too

Illustrated Quick-start Intro to Wireframing

Talking Across The Divide: Designing For More Than "It's Secure"

Safeguarding Research Participants With A Bill Of Rights

Model Release: Respectfully Sharing Stories

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When User News Is Bad News: Tactical Advice On User Feedback

How to User Research

Tradeoffs In Seamlessness: The WhatsApp Update

How to Design

Be a self-starter: UX educational resources

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How to Sketch Storyboards in 10 Minutes: No Drawing Skills Needed

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Opportunities

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Ninjas + Hemingway: Writing for User Interfaces

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Foundations Design

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All Your Base Are Belong To Gus

Hi, everyone! I’m Gus. I am pleased to be joining Simply Secure for a one-year fellowship. For the past year and change I worked for the Open Internet Tools Project, where I pioneered their work on security usability. OpenITP being an open source organization, I had the great joy of doing all my work in public, which means everything we did is still online and publicly available.

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Foundations Design

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Opportunities

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