Speaker

Taylor Barnett

twitter site

Taylor Barnett is a Community Engineer at Keen IO, an API platform that allows you to stream, compute, and visualize events from anything connected to the internet. She’s passionate about building great developer experiences with an emphasis on empathy and inclusion within documentation, SDKs, support, and other community focused projects.

In her free time, she helps organize Women Who Code Austin, advises student developer communities, and enjoys being active in Austin, Texas.
Austin, TX August 26, 2017
Breaking Down Barriers to "Hello World"

For any developer, the faster you achieve “Time to First Hello World,” the better the overall experience. Whether you are a developer just learning how to code or have 10+ years of experience, the first “Hello World” with a new API, framework, or programming language is an amazing feeling. This benchmark becomes even more important for beginners. Along with less access to help, mentorship, and other resources, just getting started can be very challenging and potentially detrimental. If beginners can achieve small wins early on, an entire world of possible projects they can code on their own opens up.

In this talk, we will explore the barriers beginner (and experienced) developers face when getting started with a new API, framework, or programming language. We will also discuss strategies for better documentation, examples, and tutorials that break down these barriers and ensure success early on. Lastly, we will talk about why it is important and mutually beneficial to care about beginners using your API, framework, or programming language.