03. Who is Documentation For?

Who is Documentation For?

When you hear the phrase technical documentation you might think of dry literature that is difficult to
understand. But good documentation isn't boring or unapproachable -- often it's written in plain English! Sometimes, it's even written as a series of guides or tutorials.

As it turns out, there isn't a secret ruling body that makes laws for what documentation should and shouldn't
look like. That's because unlike your code which is written for computers documentation is written for humans. Documentation exists to help us make sense of the code that we've written, which may not always be quite as
intuitive as we'd like it to be.

For instance if you're working a large open source library that other people can use, good documentation is absolutely essential for acquiring both users and contributors. If your documentation is good, people will want to use your library in their projects. If your documentation is great, people might even chip in and help you with your library.

Perhaps your project is a portfolio piece to help you land your first job. As a developer, in that case you'll want to document your work in a way an employer can easily skim and pull relevant information. Give some thought as to who is going to be reading your documentation. You'll want it to be easy for anyone to dive into your code and get it up and running without any hiccups!