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Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

codecademy.com

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Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#1

Post by zds »

I've been a longtime member @ HN, but I haven't been a developer. In fact, my only HN submission has been one asking how to learn to code (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=820741). My cofounder and I decided to solve the problem by making a simple, interactive way to get started with Codecademy. We'd love your feedback. If you're interested in helping us to get more courses up (on any topic!), please send us an email at HN@codecademy.com.

Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code
codecademy.com

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#2

Post by zds »

I've been a longtime member @ HN, but I haven't been a developer. In fact, my only HN submission has been one asking how to learn to code (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=820741). We decided to solve the problem by making a simple, interactive way to get started with Codecademy. We'd love your feedback. If you're interested in helping us to get more courses up (on any topic!), please send us an email at HN (at) codecademy.com.

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#4

Post by OmarIsmail »

I actually had a similar idea to this and you guys have executed wonderfully on it!

Starting with Javascript is definitely the way to go, as I strongly believe it's the language of the future (and right now actually). One request for courses would be intermediate/advanced javascript for people that already know how to program.

Also I think you should reach out to library developers (backbone, underscore, jquery, etc) so that instead of having a static readme/how-to they can create a course on how to use their library. I know that would get me up to speed on them a heck of a lot faster and would be super useful.

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#6

Post by reemrevnivek »

Beautiful! But if I keep trying to explore after the "You've completed this lesson! Start the next one." message, I get

    ERROR: Cannot read property '_id' of undefined
In my opinion, exploration in this context is extremely important. The guided tours are nice, but I'm confident that you don't want to limit people's use of the site

Also, "You're doing great! To continue, you'll need to register or sign in. Otherwise all that awesome progress you've made will be lost. Sign In\Register (it's free)" was a complete surprise, and felt like a roadblock (in spite of the "it's free" message.

If a user types through enough of the pages to get this message, they probably are enjoying the site and want to keep working with it. Why not include a "Not now" option in this dialog?

That way they can choose to join when they step back when they are done and say "Wow, that's a nice site! I want to come back later and keep working on this. I guess I ought to register!", rather than a "Meh, I've only invested 2 minutes, guess not".

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