Month: July 2016
Cassandra at the Keyboard: Whistleblowing and Working
I originally gave this talk at Open Source Bridge 2015. I then almost completely rewrote it and gave it at Write/Speak/Code Chicago in 2016. Content notes This essay will contain references to the following topics. If that’s something you prefer not to read about, I totally understand: Discussion of sexual harrassment Discussion of sexual violence…
Lady Speaker Clothes Crisis
There are about a jillionty articles on how it is difficult to dress as a woman while maintaining standards of professionalism, temperature control*, comfort, pockets, and compliance with the male gaze. This is a post on one specific form of dressing: Dressing to be speaking on stage. Personal style If it’s not something that you…
The Seven Righteous Fights: Now What?
This is the conclusion to my series The Seven Righteous Fights. For an introduction, see The Seven Righteous Fights: Overview. Hopefully I have convinced you that these fights are worth having, worth putting some of your capital and effort into. But now how do you do that? You can’t fight alone and win. You’ll burn yourself…
The Seven Righteous Fights: Accessibility
This is the seventh fight in my series The Seven Righteous Fights. For an introduction, see The Seven Righteous Fights: Overview. We all use computers different ways. Does your software allow that? Here are some ways you can add accessibility with relatively little effort. Take your glasses off. Can you see any of the interaction…
The Seven Righteous Fights: Acceptance
This is the sixth fight in my series The Seven Righteous Fights. For an introduction, see The Seven Righteous Fights: Overview. Have you shown this product to any actual humans who are like the users? Acceptance is the act of testing your vision against the user’s needs. It’s not about whether the software works, or…
The Seven Righteous Fights: Affordance
This is the fifth fight in my series The Seven Righteous Fights. For an introduction, see The Seven Righteous Fights: Overview. Affordance is what the interface makes easy and obvious. Affordances tell us all sorts of things about the tiny interactions we have with the world, and with software. Most people talk about the affordances…
The Seven Righteous Fights: Documentation
This is the fourth fight in my series The Seven Righteous Fights. For an introduction, see The Seven Righteous Fights: Overview. I’m a technical writer, so you knew I’d get here. Documentation is not a secret! I often deal with product and business people who want to put the documentation behind a login. They want…
The Seven Righteous Fights (LISA 16)
Usually we think of compound interest as what adds magically to our retirement or makes our student loans last forever. But there is also a compound interest of technical debt, where a project is made harder and more expensive because of early “cost-saving” choices. I think it’s empowering for developers and other people involved in…
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