We were third in line to check in to our dune buggy tour.

The US holiday weekend is a busy time for these sorts of operations.

Every hour, all summer long, these bus-length, skeletal vehicles departed with 20 tourists to see the Oregon dunes.

Our group, which included my family of five, was going to take up more than half of the next buggy that pulled into the parking lot. All we had to do was check in at the register.

Normally I’d take a look at my phone while I waited. But it was already zipped inside my shorts, which were under my pants.

So, I took a look around the place…

Next to me was a mannequin wearing goggles that looked like they’d keep the sand out of my eyes. Around the dummy’s neck hung a sign: “Don’t touch the mannequin!”

My kids were jumping around beside me as we waited our turn. I continued to scan the room.

There were a few similar warnings, filled with exclamation points of warning. Message received: don’t break anything! By the register, there was the classic, cliche message: “You break it, you bought it!”

I did what dads do and told my kids not to touch anything.

I waited my turn in line and didn’t buy anything (broken or otherwise!)

Without the signs, I could have walked away with some goggles. At least a pair for me. Who knows, maybe I’d have bought enough to protect all 10 eyes in our family.

A ride through the dunes without sand protection was on my mind, but nothing encouraged me to shop, to try things on.

You know what would be great? If Stripe opened a dune buggy tour company on the Oregon coast.

Wait—what?

Ok, maybe that won’t happen. But contrast the salty signage with Stripe copy-paste code on its original homepage:

Stripe encouraged developers to try it out. The API key was even filled in!

Not seeing the connection?

The calls to get a demo, sign up, or even drop a credit card for a trial… developers read those like the unfriendly signs in that beach town.

There are business reasons to choose all of these approaches, but it will be at the detriment to your developer experience—which is more than just your docs.

You want to start from the developer ideal and only stray from it for good reason.

For a quick assessment of where you stand, take the DX quiz to get a 1-10 rating.

Then, see what you can do to be more inviting to developers.

When you do it right, they’ll want to try on the equivalent of your goggles!