Write the Docs

I attended the 2015 Write the Docs conference about writing technical documentation. The event takes place in Portland, Oregon, where a variety of speakers are covering topics ranging from code samples to customer forums and more. I’d like to take a few minutes to just hammer out a few things that stood out to me; this isn’t going to be nicely organized.

Code samples are an important part of documentation, especially for one that’s targeted at getting developers to do an integration or build on top of a platform.

‘”If you ask what devs want, it’s more real-world code samples.”

Thinking like a customer is really helpful. Instead of asking: “What’s the use case?” — ask: “Why would a customer use this?”

Direct exposure to customers. A study found that developers given direct exposure to customers of at least 2 hours every 6 weeks produced better UX design.

Support forums. When responding, it’s good to have a QE (Quality Engineer) or developer on-hand. Look at the questions that have been answered on customer forums. Was it answered with a link to the docs?