OEP 70: Shared Design Collateral Contribution Requirements

sdaitzman · September 9, 2026, 2:59pm

Hi everyone! I’m seeking feedback and input on a new OEP covering open design contribution requirements for contributions to the Open edX platform. I’d especially love to hear from frontend engineers, product/UX designers, product managers, and anyone else who regularly works with proposed feature designs for Open edX.

I’m grateful that @sarina and @brian.smith for acting as arbiters for this proposal, and sharing early feedback.

github.com/openedx/openedx-proposals

OEP-70: Shared Design Collateral Contribution Requirements (#813)

master ← sdaitzman:oep-0070-shared-design-collateral

opened 08:34PM - 27 Jul 26 UTC

sdaitzman

+153 -0

## Summary This OEP establishes that contributions to the Open edX platform t…hat include design work must be contributed back into the shared Open edX Figma instance, under open access for reuse. It applies the collaboration model the community already relies on for code contributions to design contributions. Design contributions should have a single source of truth, versioned work in branches, and maintainer review before merge. It includes a requirement that "Any accepted product proposal that includes design work must submit its design collateral to the shared Open edX Figma instance for the project to be considered complete." ## Amnesty for existing work The requirement applies going forward only. Design work predating this proposal is granted amnesty: contributors are **not** required to retroactively migrate legacy files to meet the format of standard reference files, though doing so is encouraged. This mirrors the precedent set by OEP-34 (Lint Amnesty), where new violations are disallowed while pre-existing ones are forgiven. ## Status and what I'm asking for Status is **Draft**, and I'm looking for an **Arbiter**. Once an Arbiter is assigned we can set review dates and move this to Under Review; I've suggested a two-week review period in the header. ## Open questions These are called out in the OEP itself and I'd especially value input on them: - Exact licensing terms and access mechanics for contributed files. - Whether the requirement applies to all design contributions or a defined subset or tier. - In particular, the question of which code-level contributions will result in a significant enough change in UI that they should require design maintainer review. - The support and resourcing model (e.g. a pilot and training) to help contributors meet the requirement. - Does the contribution process balance ease of contributing to the shared Figma instance with a reasonable degree of design review and access control? - How might this process adapt in the future, particularly as design tooling shifts over time? ## Number Claiming **70**; 69 is claimed by #805. ## Review 👀 **Open**: TBD **Closes**: TBD Rendered preview will be linked by the `docs/readthedocs.org:open-edx-proposals` check once it builds. ## AI Note 🤖 Per the Open edX AI Contribution Policy: I wrote the substance of this proposal myself, drafting it from recent Shared Design Collateral project meetings, working group notes, and similar. I used Claude Code to provide some structure and phrasing options, and to convert that draft into the repository's reStructuredText OEP format, and generate the initial version of this ticket summary. I've closely reviewed all of this content and corrected issues I noticed.

Abstract

This OEP establishes that design collateral contributed to the Open edX platform must be contributed back into the shared Open edX Figma instance, under open access for reuse, as a condition of the work being considered complete. This applies to all design contributions to the platform. It applies the same collaboration model the community already relies on for code to design: a single source of truth, versioned work in branches, and maintainer review before merge.

Review Period

Open: September 9, 2026
Closed: September 23, 2026

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tCRIL Funded Contribution - edx-sphinx-theme Deprecation Collaborative Proposals	0	307	February 7, 2023
Design Working Group - Feedback / Scheduling Survey Design design , ux , feedback , frontend	0	28	October 13, 2025

OEP 70: Shared Design Collateral Contribution Requirements

Abstract

Review Period

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