To make sure my subissions suited the project I analysed the branding and the users target.
The UI and graphic design is very simple and elegant. It uses different tones of blue. All the styles of the website were in a folder with multiple TypeScript files.
I decided to change the button to give it a similar shape to the logo which is a dialogue bubble. After doing so, I asked for feedback on the project’s discord channel
I didn’t get much more than a thumbs up but it still counts as one person approving the design. It gave me a bit more confidence. I wanted more feedback but I hope someone will communicate on the pull request.
We both got assigned and decided to move to discord
We started coordinating, adapting to each others schedules and time zones.
we went on a call the next day to share our ideas and started coding at our own pace, sending updates.
This was an interesting experience as we both had very ways of working. I sometime got frustrated to not receive any answers for a long time. It was good to learn about how to work in a long distance team.
This issue was tagged as a good first issue, and this project has been very popular lately so I felt very happy to contribute to it.
This issue asks to improve the UI of the website and particularly a button in one of the pages. It seems doable so I decided to post a comment saying I’d like to work on the issue. This is a good first issue as it doesn’t require any background knowledge on the rest of the project. Someone else did as well so we will be working together. The next step for me will be to get in contact with the other person to work together.
After getting assigned, I started getting set up to test the code on local and work on the issue.
I forked the project and followed the readme file provided to have is running locally and I have been testing some things. There was a bit of panic because the project uses typescript and react.js and I have never worked with this before. I should have thought about this before requesting the issue but it’s also a good way to learn. This is something I will be more careful about in the future.
I was assigned with another person that wanted to work on the issue. We started getting organised on how to work together. we found each other on the projects discord and got to know each other. The task is to improve some UI from the website, mainly CSS. In the end it is not as scary as I thought it would be.
The collaboration is a very interesting experience, my next step is to get to work together.
After researching I got a few ideas: +Contributing to Hydra (https://hydra.ojack.xyz/) a live coding open source project. I would like to add documentation translation. +I came across this project : https://github.com/LAION-AI/Open-Assistant and I really liked it. I also noticed the issues were well explained and they accommodated beginners to contribute. I thought it would be nice to solve an issue.
I got in contact on both sides to see if I could help with this. I joined their communities on discord and shared about my situation and why I was interested. Reaching out was the best way for me to get a sense of which community I felt more comfortable joining.
The first step was to get to know some interesting projects to contribute to. I have made some research in different places Browsing GitHub, looking at topics I am interested in such as 3D modelling, coded visuals. On social media such as reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/opensource/) and discord channels. Talking to lecturers and technicians from CCI Websites such as open source diversity, Good first issues
This was a very long process as I often got overwhelmed looking at issues and repos. Having 1 to 1 tutorials have been very useful to build confidence. I have very little insights on what project I could contribute to. It made me realise how important it is to attend events and stay up to date with the industry. In the future I will make sure to stay active and always look out for interesting events, projects and people.
I now need to brainstorm ideas and find what I would be interested in doing
After making the baby piano I had the idea of making a baby piano that plays a short melody when a button is pressed with LEDs lighting up
It was very usefull to make the circuit on tinkercad first because I had trouble understanding how I sould do it at first. I could try different circuit without the risk of damaging my equipement
This circuit is very fun, I really like the tone() method
This could become a toy playing a different melody when each button is pressed with some colourful lights. I have seen this kinds of toys made for babies before.