Git for Humans – Alice Bartlett at UX Brighton 2016

Summary

Alice, a senior developer at the Financial Times, emphasizes the importance of collaboration between developers and designers in her talk about Git. She explains Git's functionalities, highlighting its role in project management, version control, and collaboration. Despite its reputation for being unfriendly and jargon-heavy, Alice showcases how Git empowers users to track project histories, experiment with changes, back up work, and work collaboratively. By demystifying Git, she encourages designers to leverage its capabilities, enabling them to make meaningful contributions to development processes.

Takeaways

• 😀 Git is a version control system that helps manage project files and track changes effectively.
• 🛠️ The command-line interface of Git can be intimidating for beginners, leading to a fear of using it among designers.
• 📁 A Git repository (repo) is simply a folder that contains files of interest managed by Git.
• 📸 A commit represents a snapshot of the repository at a specific point in time, allowing users to document their progress.
• ⏳ Git allows users to navigate their project's history and retrieve previous versions of files, making it easy to undo changes.
• 🌳 Branches in Git enable users to experiment with new features without affecting the main project, promoting safe exploration.
• 💾 Regularly backing up work is crucial, and Git facilitates this through remote repositories like GitHub.
• 🤝 Collaboration is enhanced in Git, allowing multiple users to contribute and merge their work seamlessly.
• 📝 Good commit messages are vital for understanding the context behind changes, providing clarity for future reference.
• ✨ Despite its complexity, mastering Git empowers designers to make small code changes and actively participate in development.

Q & A

What is Git and what is its primary function?

Git is an application that runs on your computer, helping you manage work done on projects by taking snapshots of files in a folder called a repository.

Why do designers often find Git intimidating?

Designers often find Git intimidating because its interface is primarily command-line based, which can be unfriendly, and it is filled with jargon that can be confusing for beginners.

What are the two main objectives Alice aims to achieve in her talk about Git?

Alice aims to help attendees understand what Git is and to encourage them to feel confident in making changes using Git, thereby empowering designers with the ability to update projects.

What is a commit in Git?

A commit in Git is a snapshot of the entire repository at a certain point in time, along with metadata such as who made the commit and when, along with a commit message explaining the reason for the changes.

How does Git help users 'time travel' through project history?

Git allows users to travel back in time through their project's history by checking out previous commits, effectively restoring the state of the repository to that point without permanently deleting later changes.

What is the purpose of branches in Git?

Branches in Git are used to create separate lines of development that allow users to experiment with changes safely. They enable users to work on new features or fixes without affecting the main codebase.

What is the difference between Git and GitHub?

Git is a version control system that operates on your local machine, while GitHub is a web-based platform that uses Git for version control and adds features for collaboration, such as commit graphs and social interaction.

What is the significance of a commit message in Git?

A commit message is significant because it provides context for why a change was made, which is crucial for understanding past decisions, especially when revisiting older commits.

How does Git facilitate collaboration among team members?

Git facilitates collaboration by allowing multiple users to work on the same project simultaneously, manage changes through commits, and merge those changes safely to avoid overwriting each other's work.

What should users consider when backing up their work using Git?

Users should back up their work regularly, ideally in a location separate from their main computer, to protect against data loss from incidents like theft or damage, and they can use remote repositories like GitHub for this purpose.