Humanizing Your Documentation - Full Talk

by Carolyn Stransky

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Humanizing Your Documentation @carolstran

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Why do we write documentation? Tyner Blain bit.ly/goal-driven-docs

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Tyner Blain bit.ly/use-case-docs USE CASE DRIVEN DOCUMENTATION

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Tyner Blain bit.ly/goal-driven-docs

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How to adjust the speed How to change the direction How to change the drill bit Tyner Blain bit.ly/goal-driven-docs

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How to drill a hole in a flat surface How to select the right screw How to stir paint with your drill Tyner Blain bit.ly/goal-driven-docs

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Who do we write documentation for? @carolstran

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Humans @carolstran

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@carolstran

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bit.ly/slack-docs Slack API Portal

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Making messages interactive Subscribing to Event Types Events API vs. RTM API Slack API Portal bit.ly/slack-docs

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bit.ly/slack-docs

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GOAL USE CASE Tyner Blain bit.ly/use-case-docs

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FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENT DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION GOAL USE CASE Tyner Blain bit.ly/use-case-docs

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FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENT DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION GOAL USE CASE Tyner Blain bit.ly/use-case-docs

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FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENT DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION GOAL USE CASE Tyner Blain bit.ly/use-case-docs

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This is cool @carolstran

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But it doesn’t happen @carolstran

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JavaScript @carolstran

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What’s going on? Why is this so confusing? Do people actually enjoy this? @carolstran

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No one wants to read your docs @carolstran

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No one wants to read your docs @carolstran

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People don’t mind reading docs… @carolstran

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… as long as they’re actually helpful @carolstran

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bit.ly/EthanMcQuarrie-tweet Ethan McQuarrie

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Killian McMahon bit.ly/kilmc-tweet

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bit.ly/jetleigh-tweet Leigh Momii

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bit.ly/jetleigh-tweet Leigh Momii

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bit.ly/jetleigh-tweet Leigh Momii

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If only developers cared about docs… @carolstran

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If only developers cared about docs… @carolstran

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Writing docs is only part of the job @carolstran

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WRITING @carolstran

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Insensitive language @carolstran

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If the programmer wishes to uphold the invariant, he must satisfy the function’s preconditions

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Problematic but common terms @carolstran

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Master / Slave Blacklist / Whitelist

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Think before you type @carolstran

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Primary / Replica Denylist / Allowlist

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bit.ly/alex-js

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alex bit.ly/alex-js

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Saying ‘simply’ or ‘easy’ @carolstran

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Don’t say it @carolstran

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bit.ly/dont-say-simply Be specific Jim Fisher

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bit.ly/dont-say-simply Be comparative Jim Fisher

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bit.ly/dont-say-simply Be absolute Jim Fisher

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bit.ly/dont-say-simply Show, don’t tell Jim Fisher

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bit.ly/write-good

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write-good *.md write good bit.ly/write-good

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Bloated language @carolstran

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Plain language @carolstran

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No content

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bit.ly/ashley-fronteers “No one has ever complained that something was too easy to read” Ashley Bischoff

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Unexpected errors @carolstran

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Address common errors @carolstran

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What might happen Potential reasons why What to do next @carolstran

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bit.ly/appleII-manual Apple Computer Inc

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Django Girls bit.ly/django-girls-tut

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You’re in too deep @carolstran

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Everyone is a beginner at some point @carolstran

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Take a step back @carolstran

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CODE SNIPPETS @carolstran

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Code snippets shouldn’t be screenshots @carolstran

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bit.ly/mdn-code

 for inline
MDN  docs

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MDN

 docs bit.ly/mdn-pre
 for blocks

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bit.ly/md-cheatsheet Markdown Cheatsheet ```javascript

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Watch for extra spaces @carolstran

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Foo / Bar / Baz @carolstran

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Meaningful placeholders @carolstran

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bit.ly/elibelly-reply “We can have variable names that are both meaningful and generic that expose their purpose via their semantics” Eli Schütze Ramirez

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var baz = [‘foo’, 'bar' ]

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bit.ly/js-array-mdn var fruits = [‘apple’, ‘banana' ] MDN JS array docs

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var array_name = [‘item1’, ‘item2’ ]

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STRUCTURE @carolstran

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Poorly defined structure @carolstran

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Mindful structure @carolstran

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Explain the feature Describe the use case(s) Recommend tooling @carolstran

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@carolstran

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@carolstran

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bit.ly/a11yfore HTML - Hypertext Markup Language Laura Kalbag

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> Some quote

---
Markdown Cheatsheet bit.ly/md-cheatsheet

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> Some quote

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Markdown Cheatsheet bit.ly/md-cheatsheet

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> Some quote

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Markdown Cheatsheet bit.ly/md-cheatsheet

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bit.ly/a11y-html h1 nav aside lang=“" Manuel Matuzovic

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bit.ly/react-gs React

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bit.ly/react-gs React

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bit.ly/shopify-dp Shopify Developer Portal

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Skip links @carolstran

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twilio.com/docs Twilio

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Twilio twilio.com/docs

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developer.mozilla.org MDN

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A11Y @carolstran

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Documentation is left out of the conversation @carolstran

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“Documentation is for developers”

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StackOverflow Developer Survey bit.ly/so-devsurvey One out of every 200 software developers is blind or hard of sight

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bit.ly/fcc-florian Florian Beijers, freeCodeCamp “The tutorials were undoubtedly good, but were completely unreadable for me”

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This is our responsibility @carolstran

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Anne Gibson, independent consultant bit.ly/pfa-anne “We may or may not be responsible for writing the HTML, but if the developers we’re working with don’t produce semantic structure, then they’re not actually representing the structures that we’re building in our designs”