usability

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!

Provides checklists, guidelines, and templates for common communications tasks, geared towards civic and/or nonprofit tech organizations.

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.

Outlines Superbloom's approach to evaluating and mitigating risks in software projects through practices focused on accessibility, usability, and security. It provides a framework of tools and guidelines to help teams build trust with users while designing human-centered and rights-respecting digital experiences.

In March 2023, Superbloom attended FOSS Backstage conference in Berlin with support from Open Technology Fund. In this blog, we reflect on a design workshop we hosted for non-designers, “Making Design More Open” and share our key learnings and takeaways.

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.

With support from Internews, our team helped improve a VPN that helps human rights defenders and journalists access the internet safely. We implemented a unique usability testing process that protects user privacy and overcomes typical remote testing challenges.

Here's the difference between the current "design for trust" discourse and how trust actually works.

Why informed consent helps us design better technology – and why it's not enough.

A roundup of some of the interesting research presented at SOUPS 2019.