It was great at #KCDC to meet up with @jeremydmiller - who owns Wolverine - and Chris Patterson - who owns Mass Transit and have a meeting of #dotnet minds in the messaging space. Some useful insights.

After running around the sponsor area, I'm back to attending sessions at #kcdc. Next up: Jennie Ocken talking about how estimates are evil but can be used for good.

Time to find out how the CVE sausage is made with Theresa Mammarella at #kcdc

I was feeling a little sad about missing #KCDC;
Then, I saw the awesome speaker badges that I missed out on;
Now, I think I will cry myself to sleep.

Don't call your readers stupid by calling something easy. Express your confidence in the user by telling them in plain terms what to do.

The example in the image is contrived because no one on earth has called YAML simple.

- @bmac #kcdc

Also, avoid marketing copy. Stick to things that are provable.

Use "confident casual" as your documentation tone. 1:1, as if you were talking to a smart junior colleague who's smart, motivated, and just needs to know how to do the thing. You don't need to pretend you're in a lecture hall and attempt to use words to burnish your authority. You already have the authority; you wrote the docs. And no "we"; you as the author aren't adding a user to the database or configuring the server. - @bmac #kcdc

"in case you haven't noticed, I like verbs." - @bmac #kcdc

Talking about writing better docs, focused on workflows, with @bmac #kcdc

Time to talk about the intersection of testing and being wired differently, and more...from Karen Todd (KarenTestsStuff on various places). #kcdc

Watch for people unmuting in Zoom because if someone is wanting clarification badly enough to hop off mute that's significant. And watch for typing indicators/chat. And look at the camera rather than the screen when presenting. - Tori Brenneison

#kcdc

If you can keep the middle of the room engaged, you're keeping the room engaged. - Tori Brenneison #kcdc

When preparing to teach, think about who you're teaching to and what condition they're in so you can tailor your presentation to the abilities and limitations of the audience. - Tori Brenneison #kcdc

Time to talk API versioning with Poornima Nayar at #kcdc

Use display fonts for headers, not body text, because they aren't particularly readable. - Kathryn Grayson Nanz #kcdc

Leading (as in the metal, not the contrast to following), or line height, is the vertical equivalent of kerning. - Kathryn Grayson Nanz #kcdc

Use white space to give the eye somewhere to rest and tame the chaos of your layout - Kathryn Grayson Nanz #kcdc

Word clouds are not a great visual design pattern, but they're a good example of pulling user attention based on size/color, vs. letting folks read in a standard "Z" layout - Kathryn Grayson Nanz #kcdc

Use element sizing as a visual funnel to direct users' attention.

Braaaaaaaaains are cool, and work to make some logical order of elements e.g. on a web page - Kathryn Grayson Nanz #kcdc

Consider adding a high contrast theme for users with visual disabilities - Kathryn Grayson Nanz #kcdc

As someone who uses high contrast themes relatively often, yes please.

Images are an important part of your design, allowing for balancing out other parts of the page. So keep them in mind as you design rather than treating them as an "image goes here" box. - Kathryn Grayson Nanz #kcdc