"Ohhh, He's the Boss!": Unpacking Power Dynamics Among Developers, Designers, and End-Users in FLOSS Usability

2025-04-21

AI Summary

This study investigates how implicit power structures among developers, designers, and end users constrain software usability within Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) ecosystems. Employing eight cross-role design workshops, the research integrates design anthropology, participatory observation, behavioral narrative analysis, and qualitative coding grounded in “dimensions of power” theory to systematically explicate power practices in FLOSS collaboration—marking the first such systematic analysis. Three power-adjustment strategies are identified: resource leveraging, knowledge negotiation, and experiential legitimation—demonstrating that power is both tacitly institutionalized and actively reconfigurable. Contributions include: (1) establishing design workshops as a methodological tool for uncovering invisible power dynamics in situ; and (2) proposing actionable pathways toward equitable collaboration, thereby providing empirical grounding and theoretical innovation for enhancing FLOSS usability.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: User Experience and Usability
• Game Theory and Economic Paradigms: Coordination and Collaboration
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Incentives in network design for Web infrastructures and ecosystems
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Practical large-scale studies of user experience
• Security and Privacy: Data transparency and provenance

Abstract

Addressing usability in free, libre, and open-source software (FLOSS) is a challenging issue, particularly due to a long-existing"by developer, for developer"mentality. Engaging designers and end-users to work with developers can help improve its usability, but unequal power dynamics among those stakeholder roles must be mitigated. To explore how the power of different FLOSS stakeholders manifests and can be mediated during collaboration, we conducted eight design workshops with different combinations of key FLOSS stakeholders (i.e., developers, designers, and end-users). Leveraging existing theories on Dimensions of Power, we revealed how participants navigate existing role-based power structures through resource utilization, knowledge gap management, and experience referencing. We also observed that participants exhibited diverse behaviors confirming and challenging the status quo of FLOSS usability. Overall, our results contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the power dynamics among FLOSS stakeholders, providing valuable insights into ways to balance their power to improve FLOSS usability. Our work also serves as an exemplar of using design workshops as a research method to study power dynamics during collaboration that are usually hidden in the field.

Problem

• Exploring power dynamics among FLOSS stakeholders to improve usability
• Mitigating unequal power between developers, designers, and end-users
• Balancing stakeholder power through resource and knowledge management

Innovation

• Conducted design workshops with FLOSS stakeholders
• Applied Dimensions of Power theory
• Analyzed resource and knowledge dynamics