An important thing to note is that users don’t go to Frequently Asked Questions pages, you have to lead them there.

For a long time FAQs have been misused, instead of real and relevant content, companies put questions they “wished” users would ask (WAQ, Wished to be Asked Questions).

It’s very important to put user needs first, just cover topics that are really important to them. Otherwise it’ll be just another page trying to hide the solution from them.

Which, by the way, won’t solve the problem at all, leading to future problems, like unnecessary support requests, or lost sales.

People don’t go looking for FAQs. So you have to interlink it wisely in places where users may need help. Like using them along with search pages.

Another example you cloud consider is you may ask the users what kind of problem they have, then suggest a few FAQ searched items based on the user keywords.

Also note that; FAQs are great to provide complete answers, but if you just want to tell users how features work, or which type of data they should put in a registration form just go with tool-tips or something like that.

Cheers and good luck with FAQs!

Design an Effective FAQ Page Or Section — Maye Edwin was originally published in Maye Edwin on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

​1. Preloading

Preload is a declarative fetch request that tells the browser to request an important resource as soon as possible.

The browser assigns a higher priority level to the resource and tries to download it sooner while not delaying the window.onload event.

Preload resources by adding a <link> tag with rel="preload" to the head of your HTML documen​t.

​<link rel="preload"  href="main.app.css" as="style">

Use ​​as to specify the type of content to be preloaded. It allows the browser to:

• Prioritize resource loading more accurately.
• Match future requests, reusing the same resource if appropriate.
• Apply the correct content security policy to the resource.
• Set the correct Accept request headers for it.

2. What types of content can be preloaded?

Includes;audio, embed, document, fetch, font, image, object, script, style, video, track and worker

Including a MIME type

The browser will use the type attribute value to work out whether it supports that resource, and will only start downloading it if this is the case, ignoring it if not.

<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>Video preload example</title>
  <link rel="preload" href="sintel-short.mp4" as="video" type="video/mp4">
</head>

Browsers that support MP4s will preload and use the MP4, making the
video player hopefully smoother/more responsive for users.

Browsers that don’t support the MP4 can still load the WebM version, but don’t get the advantages of preloading.

​3. Cross-origin fetches

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing is​​ a mechanism that uses additional HTTP headers to tell a browser to let a web application running at one
origin (domain) have permission to access selected resources from a
server at a different origin.

A good case is that; this applies even if the fetch is not cross-origin in font files. Because of various reasons, these have to be fetched using anonymous mode CORS

<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>Web font example</title>
  <link rel="preload" href="fonts/cicle_fina-webfont.woff2" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin="anonymous">
</head>

4. Prefetch

Prefetch is intended for prefetching resources that will be used in the next navigation/page load (e.g. when you go to the next page) but at a lower priority than other important assets needed for the current page.

You to the browser : “This is fine, but isn’t useful for the current page!”

In addition, browsers will give prefetch resources a lower priority than preload ones — the current page is more important than the next one.

<link rel="prefetch" href="for-next-page.js" as="script">

Learn more about preloading content on this pwafire.org devdoc and in depth at mozilla dev docs here

Cheers!

Preload Critical Resources To Improve Loading Speed (Javascript & CSS) was originally published in Maye Edwin on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I had an opportunity to speak on How To Grow Better Together at 2018 SSA GDG Summit to Community Leaders from over 30 countries in Africa. Here is an overview of the little but important tips any community leader should adopt!

Genesis of communities

Any existence of a developer community or just communities is to allow people with same interest to connect, share anything on a common subject and learn from each other.

But what is important is that if we have success within that particular community, then the question is, is everyone of the members contributing to or part of it?

How to GROW better together

As much as each community is unique in its own way, atleast the three aspect discussed here will always remain constant.

Lead — What are you building yourself? Encourage your communities. And that means if it’s a developer community, share your commitment. It doesn’t make sense to lead a cycling club when you don’t know how to cycle.

Inclusivity — Give equal opportunities to everyone to share, learn and grow. Empower everyone to have a platform to engage, it’s important. Collaborate with other communities in your city. Your community is just part of the larger developer ecosystem.

Visibility / Showcase — Shout outs, articles, feature videos, blogs, photos; all these will make everyone of your community members feel at home and part of a caring family. Everyone matters. Even if what they just do is to group people for an awesome group photo, that’s quite something!

Having the above three tips at your finger tips as a community leader will allow you together with your team build a great developer learning community that empowers everyone to succeed in what they do as part of your community!

And by the way : )

Remember to also have a community guidelines documentation to also help your community members remain awesome devs for life! Check out GDG Eldoret’s community guidelines page for a snapshot.

Cheers! Be an awesome community leader! Find the presentation slides available here

Growing Better Together — Tips For Successful Developer Community Leaders was originally published in Maye Edwin on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I had an amazing 2018. Speaking at The Big 5 Construct East Africa was a blessing for my personal development and my life’s mission; to leave the world a better place than I found it.

Here is an overview of what my session was all about. But I bet, the live session was even much better. Was so engaging. Haha. All credits goes to the owners of all photos used.

The Big Construct East Africa consisted of 220+ exhibitors from 33 countries, 40 CPD certified workshops (mine included) and 7000+ construction professionals. My session had the largest ever registration. So honored to be part of this.

What’s exciting about today with Design and Construction?

21st century takes us into the Era of Connection. All those processes from project design to implementation are being merged!

From Building Information Modelling (BIM), Mobile Devices, to Virtual Reality and the usage of Drones in construction sites, Technology is transforming the building sector and industry professionals have no choice but to keep up with new trends and technologies around them.

Designing and Construction were two different stages, however, as technology continues to evolve, we’re seeing the two phases slowly converge.

1.0 Building Information Modelling, getting cloud powered.

In this era of connection ; BIM, increases predictability and reduces project risks by putting data at the center to connect teams, insight delivery and assets.

Data in the cloud brings together designers, contractors and all those teams and puts information at the center of the project. Everyone can visualize inputs from each player. And that’s beautiful.

Connected Teams

Connected teams stay in sync from wherever they are. Whether in the office or project site and can quickly resolve issues and improve outcomes.

Advancements in technology have shortened and made easier the overall process with tools for designers to create incredible plans quicker than ever. They also allow construction teams to collaborate and build easily and safely.

2.0 Virtual and Augmented Reality — Gather data captured from drones, sensors, and laser scans.

By bringing BIM and Augmented Reality together, the construction industry is geared up to have an enhanced view of the different phases of the project life cycle and thus have enhanced outcomes.

For the first time in history, architects and developers can now render a building at 1:1 scale in a three-dimensional space using either virtual or augmented reality.

These technologies enable architects to show clients and contractors their plans in fully immersive environments, allowing them to convey a more accurate depiction of the initial vision and design.

Construction staff can wear smart helmets to help them better understand complex building plans, and large equipment can be driven remotely by off-site users to plumb-align building materials in real time.

Virtual reality (VR) is used in the construction industry to provide a fully immersive experience for architects, contractors and clients. It is most prominently used with building information modeling (BIM).

Often during this process, digital models may be produced by 3D laser scanning and photos collected by drones or other technologies and are assembled to create a vivid set of life-like, three-dimensional images that, together, form a simulated environment.

By using a set of virtual reality glasses, users are able to see these 3D models come to life and immerse themselves in the finished building design.

3.0 Use of Drones — Collect Data as a Pro : )

With drones, you will be able to capture data as quick as needed and enable real-time data feeding. There is so much Drones can do together with BIM, VR and AR

The use of drones is becoming common in large-scale construction sites. Drones are fitted with advanced cameras that are able to capture better images and details that improve communication between them and software on the receiving end.

Think of a construction site as in the photo below. Now you want to collect data, just any kind of data; name it. Say track project progress generally. How would you do it? I know you have some random ideas. Then think of a Drone coming. Easy?

4.0 Use of Mobile Devices

Information and data available in real-time on any device, anytime, anywhere you are. All is the magic of the Cloud.

With easy-to-use applications, these devices enable construction industry workers to access, view, edit, and share vital project information even while working on site from anywhere, anytime on any device. Everything available on a single touch of a display.

Some construction site-specific devices, with screens that are better lit for viewing in broad daylight, have already been designed to help individuals working on site to communicate with their peers in offices miles away from a project site.

Wait, is Africa ready for this technologies?

This is happening in different parts of the world already. What lacks is governments’ will to adopt policies that will allow use of some of these technologies in Africa.

One exciting technology that is really not widely adopted for commercial use in Africa is the drone technology. Having the best government policies would really be a boost to all these amazing trends happening in the Construction Industry.

And that’s all : )

So, with all these, that means that there is a lot being saved from time, resources, better assets management and ultimately quality design and construction.

Thanks to Rubina Carol DSouza for reaching out and giving me an opportunity to be part of this amazing conference in the region! Can’t wait for more!

How Technology Is Bringing Design And Construction Into The Future — Big 5 Construct East Africa… was originally published in Maye Edwin on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Just a little overview of little things I achieved in 2018 all around building developer communities, open source, speaking at events and the travel episodes I had.

N/B : This Article is still in draft, more content to be added by end of week.

So, for 2018, I wasn’t going to miss writing my yearly review as it were in 2017. This is the year that I achieved my goals by the first half of the year. Thanks to THEE.

Community, it was incredible I say

2018 has been the most admirable year for myself. From doing what I love; writing open source little code, travel and speaking on international stages in Uganda, Kenya and the United States.

Now, let me keep the long talk short. So in May, I received an invitation from Google Developers to attend two different Summits, the Global GDG and Community Groups Summit and Google’s Annual Conference, Google IO 2018.

Speaking on Community Leadership in Sunnyvale California

I had an opportunity to speak at the GDG Summit in Sunnyvale, California on how to Build Great Learning Developer Communities.

I also was at Google IO 2018 and for an Invite only Community feedback session with the top Google Product leadership where I gave feedback on Chrome as a product, Google’s web developer technologies and Google Assistant

Well, that was one of my most high profile engineering indoor meeting with a huge company like Google. Honestly, I felt great. I met awesome people at Google like, Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith.

Attending the International Women Techmakers Summit in Nairobi, Kenya

I had an opportunity to be part of the Women Techmakers Summit that happened in Nairobi Kenya. This time not as a speaker. Haha. But as an attendee. Privileged to join awesome women doing great things with technology in Africa. That was great yet again!

Speaking at the SSA GDG and WomenTechmakers Summit, Nairobi Kenya

I also had an opportunity to speak on How To Grow Better Together at this year’s SSA GDG Summit to Community Leaders from over 30 countries in Africa.

Speaking at DevFest Mbale in Uganda, the River Nile visit

Late in November I also had an opportunity to go speak at a DevFest in Mbale, Uganda. It was my second visit to Uganda.

I met new people, made friends and toured quite enough of Uganda. I also couldn’t miss to visit the source of River Nile. It was beautiful I say!

I was speaking on how to build progressive web experiences and doing Developer Outreach for an amazing project, PWAFire.Org. Just to add up on an amazing work Marta Wiśniewska has done in Poland with PWAFire.Org

Finally, once again met Robert Johns, doing what we do best; empowering the developer community with little skills we have. Thanks to Hassan and Nazrin of GDG Mbale, Uganda for the invite!

Building of a new developer community, EngineOne Developers Nairobi Chapter

I had an opportunity to be part of yet another amazing developer community that aims to spark a conversational developer ecosystem around the future of technology with possibilities that likes of Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain are bringing entirely in how we are going to build software.

With local chapters in South Africa, Nigeria, Mozambique and among others, Kenya couldn’t miss this loop. I am glad that our Local Nairobi Chapter is growing and that we have an exciting developer community with it.

We even had an opportunity to get featured in iHub’s (Venue Sponsor) yearly review as an active Developer Community. Read more here. We have progressively grown to a community of 335 members. And that’s incredible!

Cheers to Guidione Machava for such an amazing opportunity you gave together with the Lepsta team. 2019 is going to be even much more lit!

Join our amazing community on Meetup here

The Big 5 Construct East Africa, speaking on Technology, Design and Construction

I also was a speaker at the Big 5 Construct East Africa conference that happened in Nairobi at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre on how technology is bringing design and construction into the future.

This event consisted of 220+ exhibitors from 33 countries, 40 CPD certified workshops (mine included) and 7000+ construction professionals. Wow, this was incredible! My session had the largest ever registration. So honored to be part of this.

Lead Organizer for DevFest Rift Valley, 2019

To close that party down for Community, I had an opportunity together with an awesome team here, to host Developers for our Annual Developer Conference in the Kenya’s Rift Valley region. 2019 is already announced!

That’s always awesome. It was our second year hosting DevFest Rift Valley. Have a tour of the entire event here. Thanks to Aniedi Udo-Obong and the entire Google Developer Ecosystem in the SSA for the support!

My Open Source 2018, the creation of PWAFire.Org

So 2018 is also a great year for me in my personal development as a software engineer. Project PWAFire.Org is the main open source project I have been working on for the last one year. Now with Marta Wiśniewska.

With Project PWAFire.Org, you will be able to learn how to build progressive web experiences and how to easily implement some of the amazing features we have already made the source code open source for and also from our developer docs directory

I am excited about contributing to the building of the modern web and more specifically a Progressive Web First. Learn more about PWAFire.Org here.

In mid January, I am running a free 101 hangout on Building Progressive Web Features And How Best To Do It with classes running from 101 to 105. If interested, just DM me your email address and Country of residence on my Twitter Handle

Now, Bye Bye!

To conclude, I would like to say thank you to everyone of you who has held my hand this year and in any way contributed to my growth this year! I am super thankful to you all! So grateful!

PS : Will be adding little more content : )

Can’t wait to face off 2019 bigger!

My 2018 in totality; Community, Travel, Open Source, Love : ) was originally published in Maye Edwin on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Code Refresh is a beautiful refreshed VS Code Color Theme with pretty cool features ;

So with #100DaysOfCode in mind, I thought of creating some tool on a totally new platform. Then came VS Code Extension idea.

To begin, I just created a sample VS Code Extension that only Greets people with my name. Check the source code on Github here.

After a few sample extension walk through on VS Code devdocs, I decided to go the VS Code Theme way. That’s how I started building Code Refresh.

Features // Code Refresh

Code Refresh is a beautiful refreshed VS Code Color Theme with pretty cool features ; a few listed below ⚡⚡

- Beautiful

- Less Eye Strain

- Fresh

- Progressive

- Just new

- Free

- Open Source

- PR welcome

How to install ?

Install Code Refresh. It’s available in Visual Studio Marketplace! OR

Launch VS Code Quick Open ( Ctrl + P ), paste the following command and press enter.

ext install mayeedwin.codereresh

Enjoy!

Head to the Visual Studio Marketplace and Install “Code Refresh”! A beautiful free Dark Theme Extension and let’s meet on GitHub !

I just published my first VS Code Extension Theme — Code Refresh was originally published in Maye Edwin on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Digital well being of your target users matters a lot. It’s important to note this. It’s users first.

Fast, speed

Let your target users find that web resource they look for in the shortest time as possible. It’s not about having a user spend a lot of time on your site. That’s not the Web we want.

Integrated

User experiences on the web should feel like an integrated part of the user’s device; whether the user chooses to reach through a browser window or not, the experience should feel true to how the user interacts with the device.

Reliable

The web must be reliable. Using some of the Pre-Cache and Cache Strategies available, avail resources that the user requests for even in the poorest internet connection.

Engaging, users in sync

Use features like Push Notification and Web Badge API ( API in beta testing in latest Chrome version ) to keep the user in sync with the latest and fresh content in your web app.

Avoid using push notifications to push away your users. Use push notifications in the right manner. Push value to your users. Push what’s necessary and promptly.

Cheers! Article still in writing!

Find more Github resources by PWA Fire Developers on this Github Resource.

Building Progressive Web First Experiences - Tips was originally published in Maye Edwin on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We are focused on helping web developers build amazing web experiences by providing simple tool-kits and web codelabs that helps you build amazing progressive web apps with best web practices.

We also have a Github Resource Hub on our Github Repo from which you can get more resources you need for great web experiences starter kits. You can also add more resources you would want to share to it.

We want all users (reach) to be able to engage with the best possible experience (capabilities) for them — Dion Almaer

Become a contributor

Learn about www.pwafire.org in depth. Go to our Github Repo, ask questions, stream issues and become a contributor. We’re open source.

Progressive Web Apps Developer Resources was originally published in Maye Edwin on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Project PWAFire.Org is a product of community. Every time I had to curate web codelabs for my talks on web. Then I thought of a github repo that would make things easier for me and finally we had PWAFire.Org.

We have built an open source javascript and json bundle that allows you to convert your existing website into a progressive web app or build one in a few.

We recently released another project, PWA Fire App. Starter Web App designed with progressive web app best practices and packaged ready for your existing or new project use.

We now have over 25K instances on our web codelabs and developer directories. This is giving us so much energy. And we got a super amazing lady co-creating and curating PWAFire.Org; Marta Wiśniewska 🤓

We are focused on helping web developers build amazing web experiences by providing simple tool-kits and codelabs that helps you build amazing progressive web apps with best web practices.

Checkout or web dev tools here 🤓 and web codelabs

Being community driven, we are super excited presenting talks and codelabs and sharing about what we think about the future of the web and what we are doing to contribute to it everyday ( Kenya and Poland 😀 )

Checkout recent talks and codelabs in Kenya during IO Extended Eldoret 2018 and in Ukraine and Poland during the Angular conference and Meet.JS workshop respectively 😛

During this year’s Google IO18, I had an opportunity to meet Google Chrome’s Dion Almaer and Ben G and shared about PWAFire.Org . I am thrilled to see it growing and how excited they were.

Author codelabs at PWAFire.Org 😜😝

We are collecting and curating web codelabs as well. If you want to PUBLISH a web codelab here, let’s just get started

Why We’re So Excited About Progressive Web Apps And The Web ️ was originally published in Maye Edwin on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

And that information could be things like the icons that you want to be used, the description of your web app, the short name to be used like on like a home screen for instance or on the start menu, web app long name.

All this information is put in one file where it’s accessible by browsers in any sort of build system that may want to create an installable PWA for you and can be used by browsers to do installation from the web browser as well.

There has been a lot of modification to the Web Manifest. They have evolved to add support for “categories” which can be used in a web app store context where you want your PWA findable as a productivity app.

There are all sorts of things like screenshots, things to do with description as I mentioned above. The different sizes of icons which are more appropriate for different platforms.

You can setup your start page so your PWA starts from your desired page or directory from wherever it’s launched from, say desktop or a mobile device for instance.

There are also bits that you can add to basically describe how your whole progressive web app should look like. Talk of theme color and what sort of the initial orientation is. There is Minimal UI option, Standalone option. Standalone seeds all of browser control over to the developer.

And that’s basically what a Web Manifest is. It’s just a JSON file with information about your Progressive Web App.

toDOs

To automatically generate a complete web app manifest for your PWA, use PWA Fire Web Manifest Tool available here.

Cheers!

So what’s a Web Manifest ? — Progressive Web Apps was originally published in Maye Edwin on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.