The readme file is the first thing a user will see when viewing your repository. It gives the user an idea of what the project is about, what language was used, what the terms and conditions are, what your project can do, shows screenshots of your running application, etc.
Why is it important?
This user could be a recruiter, your future boss or client. Therefore, it is important to note that the README of your project should answer the what, why and how of the project.
Therefore, it is important to include the most important information, give a clear description of the project and the technology stack used, and provide links and further instructions that may not fit into the README file to avoid unnecessary searching through all the other files, which could cause the user to simply lose interest and move on to the next potential employee.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to write good documentation about the project. Not only is the user looking for information about the project itself, but they also see your documentation skills, your attention to detail, which could bring you that much closer to getting a job.
If you've read other articles of mine, you've probably noticed how important it was for my career to have learned other skills besides programming that ultimately helped me get a job. And good documentation was one of them.
What to put into a readme?
Here are some guiding questions that will help you:
What is the project about?
Why did you develop it, what was your motivation?
What problem does it solve?
What have you learned?
What makes your project stand out?
I will show you how to convert these questions into text.
Possible structure
Description
Purpose and description of the project so that the person reading your portfolio can understand the project in the first few seconds of reading the project information.
Tech stack
Tech stack including the programming languages, libraries and frameworks your project uses (e.g.: Python, React, ...). If you have a front-end application that uses an external public API, please mention this.
Design
Examples of user interfaces associated with the project. If the project has a user interface, you can insert a GIF, video or image of the user interface.
If it is an application that runs on the terminal, you can create a GIF that shows how to work with it. This is good for giving an idea of how to interact with the application and what someone would see when they run the project.
Features
If your project has a lot of features, you should add a Features section and list them here.
How to run the project
Instructions on how to set up, run and use the project. This is good if someone wants to start the project from scratch, they should find everything they need to know in the project's README without needing any help from you.
If it's simple, you can include it in the readme file. You can also refer to another file in your project if the instructions are longer.
You should also host your project e.g. using Netlify, so users can open the deployed app and use it right away to see how it works. (Keep in mind that not every recruiter looking at your GitHub profile has a solid understanding on how to set up a project locally.)
How to style a readme?
The .md extension in README.md stands for Markdown, a lightweight markup language with a simple syntax for text formatting. It is a very simple language for creating beautiful and presentable readme files for GitHub.
Therefore, you can use typical markdown language, like
# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3
Emphasis, aka italics, with *asterisks* or _underscores_.
Strong emphasis, aka bold, with **asterisks** or __underscores__.
Combined emphasis with **asterisks and _underscores_**.
1. First ordered list item
2. Another item
β β * Unordered sub-list.
1. Actual numbers don't matter, just that it's a number
β β 1. Ordered sub-list
4. And another item.
[I'm an inline-style link](https://www.google.com)
[I'm an inline-style link with title](https://www.google.com "Google's Homepage")
and much more. Make sure to get the most out of it.
Here are two examples of my beginner projects I applied for jobs three years ago. I would now make them even more detailed as described above.
This app will help abandoned animals get help from Animal welfare organizations all over the world when people reporting them via this app.
Description
This app will help abandoned animals get help from Animal welfare organizations
all over the world when people reporting them via this app
This project was initally created to participate in my first hackathon - Clerk
x Hashnode Hackathon July 2021. Check out my article
about the project and my experience in the hackathon.
π This project was one of the Runner Up Winners. π₯³
The idea is that when reporting an animal, the user will start filling out a form
about the animal's situation and location
If people want to leave their contact information in the last stage, this should
give them the possibility to stay connected with the NGOs and get information
about the condition of the animal.
When submitting the form, the form should be sent to the nearest NGO station.
Nikki is an online journal, which helps the user improve their Japanese Skills by writing down their thoughts and feelings. Created with ReactJS, Auth0, and TailwindCSS.
Description
Nikki - My Diary is an online journal where users can pen down their
thoughts and feelings to improve their Japanese Skills. Nikki (jap. ζ₯θ¨ (Kanji)γ
γ«γ£γ (Hiragana) means diary, and it is still common on Japan to use a diary to
write down their daily lifes. Besides studying Japanese Grammar or vocabulary
with books, it is highly recommended to write a diary in Japanese language to
improve their Japanese skills.
Therefore, Nikki - My Diary is being created. It makes it easy for students to
write down their feelings from everywhere, setting reminders to keep progress
and motivates the user by sending quotes.
