I have been working for, and consulting to, small and large companies for the last several years, predominately ones solving business problems - I am not making happy marketing brochure websites. Over these years I have seen the industry/life trend of more and more data flow only to make worse user experiences, mainly because options for display are stuck in this menu/button paradigm. I see the growing trend of visualizations and multi-point interactions as one solution to the problem, a solution that should have great potential for UI designers to contribute to.

I am not a SDE kinda guy - so dreaming up and programming my own projects is way outta my scope. With my skill set, that is a big barrier to entry.

So my question is, how can a UI designer working in this point-n-click work make a shift out? Are there open-source community projects out there looking for designers, ones where I can ease in, learn the potential/limitations? If so, where might I find teams looking for some pro-bono/low-fee help?

There is a need for UI designers to work with the new interactive digital signage large-screen displays cropping up.  NextWindow is a company that has a nice multi-touch display, and has a multi-touch API free for developers.

I was on a panel at the Digital Signage and Kiosk Expo in April- I discussed user-centered design, usability, and access topics, and gave examples of large displays I’ve come across that have pretty bad touch interaction. 

Data Visualization people as well as people doing CSCW research are doing more with touch-screen and touch tables designs.  If you have time, do a search on my blogs for more information and links:

http://tshwi.blogspot.com
http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com