BECKY TODD • SENIOR TECHNICAL WRITER • ATLASSIAN • @BECKATODD
Design thinkingBuilding a developer experience from scratch
Usability
Content integration
New info architecture, fully responsive site, refreshed visual treatments
Crafted content presented side-by-side with auto-generated content
Improve this pageContribution from the developer community
Research1• Who writes the docs? • Is content updated with each release? • What kinds of content do we have? • Who is using the content, and why?
“ Update the documentation on the site to include the current versions of everything. Some docs and tutorials are very out of date.
S U RV E Y F E E D B A C K
”
• Multiple starting points • 45 mins to finish (or quit) • 4 out of 5 devs failed • Most didn’t create usable code
User testing: Onboarding new developers
• Single starting point • < 30 minutes start-to-finish • All devs can finish • Produce usable code that can be
expanded upon
Goals Problems identified by user testing
Key takeaways• Users need accurate, up-to-date content • Navigating and searching are difficult • Writers want an easy-to-use process
Design2• Improve search and navigation • Update stale, out-of-date content • Refresh the design with users in mind • Make authoring easy for everyone
Focus areas
Collaboration Who can write content? What will the
workflow look like?
Usability How will we improve search and the IA?
How will we keep content up-to-date?
Repo management What will the branching strategy be?
How many repos do we need?
Content as code
Assets
How often do you publish content? Are your releases versioned?
ImagesHow frequently do you replace images, diagrams, and other visuals?
Releases
Do you have versioned zip files, videos, or other large files?
Keep contribution workflow simplecontribute mergeapprove (x2) publish
auth
orre
view
erap
prov
er
DEV
TW
PO
Publishing
Include setup, tools, style guides, and any other necessities
WorkflowCovers the writing and review process, including the roles involved
How to get started
Describes staging and publishing docs
Content toolkit
• Multiple starting points • 45 mins to finish (or quit) • 4 out of 5 devs failed • Most didn’t create usable code
User testing: Onboarding new developers
• Single starting point • < 30 minutes start-to-finish • All devs can finish • Produce usable code that can be
expanded upon
Goals Problems identified by user testing
User testing: Updated onboarding flow
• Single starting point • 30 minutes start-to-finish • All devs finished • Produced deployable code
Goals achieved
• Users felt it was much more appropriate, felt successful
• Devs used responsive mode on desktop
New learnings