Programming for Humans

Short talk presented at Women Who Code Portland's Networking Night
https://www.meetup.com/Women-Who-Code-Portland/events/222804928/

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIvn3HkoD9Y&t=3280

Transcript

1. Programming for API design as UX design Humans
2. Emily Hyland Senior Software Engineer at New Relic Ruby & JavaScript
3. WHO this is for WHATit means WHYit’s a good idea WHENto apply it HOWit works
4. WHAT WHY WHEN HOW WHO
5. everybody code is for people, even when it’s internal or part of a side project
6. WHAT WHY WHEN HOW WHO
7. WHAT WHY WHEN HOW WHO
8. remote calls exposed
 to consumers API
9. remote calls exposed
 to consumers classes, methods, and variables in a codebase even when private API —
10. the subjective experience
 of using software ease of use and emotional connection user experience —
11. the qualities or properties
 of an object that define its possible uses or make clear how it can or should be used affordance http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/affordance
12. WHAT WHY WHEN HOW WHO
13. WHAT WHY WHEN HOW WHO
14. reusable knowledge a consistent interface lets you apply things you already learned
15. discoverability it’s easier to jump in when you can tell what something is for
16. empathetic & personal design patterns and best practices are abstract this is how they affect humans —
17. WHAT WHY WHEN HOW WHO
18. WHAT WHY WHEN HOW WHO
19. writing code step back every so often to consider your approach
20. code reviews you’re already in the
 right frame of mind
21. choosing tools look at the conventions
 and documentation
22. WHAT WHY WHEN HOW WHO
23. WHAT WHY WHEN HOW WHO
24. follow convention is there a pattern that’s already established?
25. imagine the user why are they using your code? what is their goal?
26. write the README before you write the code think how you’ll use it, not the implementation
27. WHAT WHY WHEN HOW WHO
28. WHAT WHY WHEN HOW WHO
29. Programmers often feel joy when they can concentrate on the creative side of programming, so Ruby is designed to make programmers happy. I consider a programming language as a user interface, so it should follow the principles of user interface. – Yukihiro Matsumoto