DEV Community

Cover image for 10 useful sections to improve your Github README files
Saurabh Mhatre
Saurabh Mhatre

Posted on

10 useful sections to improve your Github README files

Hello everyone

Today we are going to cover a list of 10 important sections you can add to your GitHub projects for improving your README files.

So let's begin...

Section 1: Add title, description and socialify image(optional)

The title and description for a Github project can provide the user with basic information about the project.
Additionally, we can create a project info image using socialify service to improve project presentation.

Example:-
Screenshot 2021-08-28 at 11.46.29 AM.png

Socialify helps you showcase your project to the world by generating a beautiful project image that can be used in Github README

Section 2: Add shields io badges

Shields.io is a service for creating legible badges in SVG format, which can easily be included in GitHub readmes or any other web page.
This will help to provide project information in a condensed manner:-
Screenshot 2021-08-28 at 11.48.42 AM.png

Section 3: Project Demo

Project demo URL helps the viewer to see live projects easily. We can also use this to show live previews to prospective interviewers quickly during interviews.

Example:-
Screenshot 2021-08-28 at 11.50.58 AM.png

Section 4: Project Screenshots

Project screenshots help users to see the product even before opening the live demo link. For frontend/full-stack projects this is a must-have section.

Example:-
Screenshot 2021-08-28 at 11.52.01 AM.png

Section 5: Features

Features section can be used to list down all the advantages end users will have while using our project as well as some technical plus points for dev interviews.

Example:-
Screenshot 2021-08-28 at 11.53.45 AM.png

Section 6: Installation Steps

If someone wants to use our project for their own software development purposes, then installation instructions can help them in setting up the project correctly.

Example:-

Screenshot 2021-08-28 at 11.55.16 AM.png

Section 7: Contribution Guidelines(Optional)

If someone wants to contribute to our project in some way via pull requests or feature recommendations they will first go through contribution guidelines listed in the project.

Example:-

Screenshot 2021-08-28 at 11.56.36 AM.png

Section 8: Technologies used(Optional)

In this section, we can list down technologies or modules which we used while building the project to help others understand the creation components in a better manner.

Example:-

Screenshot 2021-08-28 at 11.58.14 AM.png

Section 9: License Information(Optional)

Here we can provide information about the licenses used in the project for others to know the usage guidelines.

Example:-

Screenshot 2021-08-28 at 11.59.13 AM.png

Section 10: Enter Support Information(Optional)

Here we can add links for asking people to star the project or support our efforts via donations.
Example:-

Screenshot 2021-08-28 at 12.00.31 PM.png

You can a sample repo with all this sections added here:- Stories Feed Github

Also I have recently created a tool which you all can use to add this sections easily in your Github README files using form based input:-

Project Demo:- README Gen
Github Source Code:- README Gen Github

Hope this article was helpful to you all. Follow me for more such articles in future.

Top comments (0)