Finding the right expertise is hard when you’re a small open-source team. Dr Tracy Gardner, the computer scientist behind browser-based 3D creative coding tool Flock XR, needed UX design and software testing skills the team couldn’t cover internally. Through Commons Caretakers, she got both — a UX reviewer who spotted problems the team would have taken months to find through classroom testing, and a testing specialist who built an automated test suite that gave Flock XR the confidence to ship into schools.
“The money is nice, that makes an absolutely huge difference. But one of the real benefits is the services that you can access as well.”
Tracy built Flock XR to fill a gap she’d identified in creative technology education for young people. The tool lets children aged 7 to 14+ create projects in a web browser using coding and 3D modelling. But building a platform like that means handling 3D rendering, user interface design, and software testing — areas where a larger organisation would have dedicated specialists.
When NLNet Foundation accepted the project for funding, the grant brought access to Commons Caretakers. Tracy decided to request as much help as possible.
The challenge
Flock XR’s team is small. UX design and automated testing were two gaps they could not fill internally. Without a UX specialist, the team relied on time-consuming in-person testing with young people to find interface problems. Without automated tests, they had no way of knowing whether a change had broken something until they were standing in a classroom.
Discovering Commons Caretakers
The services were not immediately obvious. Tracy recalls spending time on the NLNet website trying to understand what was available. “It is a little bit cryptic,” she says. “I remember kind of spending a bit of time puzzling over it. You know, what is this? How does it work? Can I really get access to this? Is this real?”
She watched videos, read through the available services, and began submitting requests. The first was for UX support. After some correspondence, Commons Caretakers matched Flock XR with Miroslav, a UX design specialist who had experience with other 3D tools.
The testing support arrived from a different direction. NLNet approached the project directly. “We hadn’t actually requested that,” Tracy says. “Actually, NLNet came to us and said, would you like some testing?” Julian, a testing specialist, joined the project and began working with the team.
The process
What separated Julian’s contribution from typical open-source volunteer help was that he could work independently. In Tracy’s experience, some offers of help end up requiring significant mentoring time from the project maintainer, limiting the net benefit.
“I think it was that moment when Julian said he’d go off and do something and he did the thing and I had only provided information to get him started but he was able to completely take that and make things happen.”
Julian and the Flock XR team settled into a working pattern that mixed video calls with GitHub issue tracking. Julian would raise an issue, ask whether the team wanted him to investigate, and then deliver results independently. Tracy describes him as “kind of like an extended member of the team.”
The UX review from Miroslav followed a similar pattern. He reviewed competitors, examined how other 3D tools handled similar design challenges, and brought that analysis to Flock XR. Miroslav could identify design issues immediately that the team would otherwise discover only through time-consuming in-person testing with young people.
The outcome
The team can now try things and find out whether something broke — rather than discovering regressions after the fact, in front of a class of children.
“We’ve been able to really reach a wider audience than we were able to before. We were able to get a lot more stability and know that it’s going to work when you go into a school. That’s been really important for us.”
When the first NLNet grant concluded and Flock XR secured a second round of funding, the team asked whether Julian could continue. He could, and did, without a new service request. The next phase focuses on integrating the tests into Flock XR’s DevOps pipeline so they run automatically.
More than a deliverable
The relationship extended beyond the formal engagement. Julian carried over between grants without needing to be re-requested, saving the team the overhead of onboarding a new contributor. Tracy now mentions Commons Caretakers and NLNet’s broader support services when speaking publicly about the project.
“Take this really seriously. This is genuine. I mean, it might look like it’s a bit too good to be true. Are you really going to get somebody on the project who will actually add value? But in my experience, it has really paid off. There is real expertise there. And it is like having another person working part time on your project. They’ll really join your project, take it seriously and really contribute as a member of the team.”
Could Commons Caretakers help your project?
Flock XR extended its team with specialist testing and UX expertise through Commons Caretakers — without the overhead of hiring or the uncertainty of volunteer contributions. If your open-source project could use that kind of support, get in touch.
Get in touch with Commons Caretakers
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