Hey, I'm Alexandra White.
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Blog posts on Work

November 22, 2022

Learn Accessibility on web.dev

Learn Accessibility on web.dev

I had the pleasure of editing Carie Fisher, the author of web.dev’s latest course, Learn Accessibility. Learn Accessibility gives web developers the essentials for building accessible websites and web apps.

To promote this new content, I interviewed folks who work to build an accessible web.

  • Melanie Sumner told me about her journey from spy to engineer, accessible design, Ember.js, and the importance of funding these efforts.
  • Olutimilehin Olushuyi told me about his move from the law to web development, building accessible community, and creating accessible layouts.
  • Albert Kim talked with me about mental health, building for neurodivergent people, the COGA Accessibility Community Group, and more practical wisdom.
  • Elisa Bandy told me about her work for Google’s internal teams, developing accessibility best practices for the web. Her blog post has yet to be published, but look for it in mid-December.

It’s an honor to work on Google Chrome’s developer relations team. I have the opportunity to speak with experts and offer a platform with a huge audience.

We highlighted additional resources as a part of ChromiumDev’s Accessibility Week.

December 18, 2018

Job Updates: Hello from Google

Job Updates: Hello from Google

In October 2017, I decided to apply to Google. It wasn’t the first time I had applied—I applied in 2011 when trying to get a job post-graduation in communications. Back then, I never received a response to my application and expected similar results in 2017.

Although I applied for a product Developer Programs Engineer position in New York, I ended up getting an email from their technical writer recruiter the following week. A year and one day from the day I submitted my application, I signed an offer letter. And 6 weeks after that, I finally went to Noogler (that’s what they call new Googlers) orientation. It was a long road to get here.

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July 03, 2018

Speaking Announcement: Write the Docs Prague 2018

In a few months, I’ll be joining the technical writers community at Write The Docs Prague. I’m thrilled to have been chosen and I look forward to meeting my fellow writers. Check out my intended abstract:

How to tear down existing documentation and rewrite docs that actually work

We all know what it’s like to look at a series of existing documentation and think, “how did this happen?” Be it a large swath of unorganized content or a lack of a clear strategy, the complications of bad docs aren’t just a curse for documentation editors. Our readers see it, too. It leads to confused support requests and possibly a loss of customers.

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January 17, 2018

Creating and managing instances with Packer and Terraform

Over the last three months, I’ve written a series of four blog posts about creating and managing instances with Packer and Terraform. It’s been a tremendous learning experience, and I couldn’t have done it without the help of some HashiCorp experts (and ex-pats). Thanks to Sean Chittenden, Paul Stack, and Justin Reagor for your advice, critique, and editing.

Below I’ve included excerpts from all of the posts. The source code for all of the exercises is available on GitHub.

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November 16, 2017

How to Create Step-By-Step Instructions with Visuals

How to Create Step-By-Step Instructions with Visuals

A few months ago, I wrote a post for five tips to create technical screencasts. Afterwards, I was ask by my former colleague Jessie to write a post for TechSmith about creating visuals for instructions.

Some highlights

Always consider your audience:

  • Are my readers already experts? Have they done this process before, if not exactly then in similar circumstances?
  • Are my readers internal or external? If my readers are within the same company, what language do we share that will help better explain the process?
  • What mood will they be coming to my content with? Am I creating this content for someone who is in a rush to get something done, or is this for a more casual learner who is just hoping to further their education on a topic?
  • What is most important to my readers? What is least important?
  • How do my readers prefer to learn? Do I know if a blog post is more successful than a video? Is there any analytical data to support these claims?
  • Are my readers native English speakers? If I use an idiom, will it hinder their ability to learn how to complete the process?

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August 24, 2017

Five tips for creating watchable technical screencasts

Five tips for creating watchable technical screencasts

As the documentation editor for Joyent, my work has been split in three ways: technical blog posts, screencasts, and actual documentation. I find the most fun with the first two—as important as actual documentation is (and it may be the most important), there’s little room for creativity and an editorial voice. Technical screencasts can have a bit of fun flair, but still must be accurate and (most importantly) instructive.

The more videos I’ve created, the more I’ve learned about how to craft watchable content.

1. Be as brief as possible.

Although there are instances where longer videos come in handy, such as in-depth step-by-step tutorials or publishing webinars, many users don’t have the patience to sit through long pauses or over-explanation of a topic.

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