Designing an API from scratch can be a daunting task, but focusing on developer experience (DX) can act as a guiding light for API designers. In this session, we will explore the topic of interaction design and how it is changing the way we design web APIs today.

1. The “I” is for Interaction!
Applying a Developer-Centric Approach to API Design
Ronnie Mitra
Principal API Architect - Europe
Layer 7 API Academy

3. API Management
on-premise virtual cloud

4. API Academy
Mike Amundsen Ronnie Mitra

5. The “I” is for Interaction!

6. Ok. It isn’t really.

7. Interaction
Design

8. Usability
Human-Computer-Interaction
User Experience Design
Goal Oriented Design

9. A user-centric view of design.

10. http://www.flickr.com/photos/58754750@N08/5541472392/

11. Well designed products are easier
to use.

12. Good design matters for Web APIs
too.

13. We want:
“Frictionless” integration
High rates of adoption
Low cost integration

14. Focus on the developer experience
(dx)

15. Portal
API

16. Why is this difficult?

17. Reason #1
We project our own perspective.

20. Your code is not your API.
Your data model is not your API.

21. Reason #2
We project our own biases.

22. Never use SOAP?
Why?

23. Consider keyboards…

24. http://www.flickr.com/photos/yvettemn/139890573/

25. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathanpberger/7126054997/

26. http://www.flickr.com/photos/novemberborn/286773981/

27. It doesn’t matter that you don’t like
SOAP.

28. What matters is what your
developer base thinks!

29. Reason #3
We make bad assumptions.

30. API publishers are also developers.

31. Reason #4
We lack the time and money
required for design

32. “Best practices”, patterns and
standards become shortcuts

33. Am I RESTfull enough?

34. So, how can we do better?

35. Developer-centric design requires
effort and diligence.

38. Design with the developer in mind.

39. Ask them.

40. • Interviews
• Surveys
• Listen
(blogs, presentations, tweets)

41. "If I had asked people what they
wanted, they would have said
faster horses.“ – Henry Ford?

42. • Observe
• Prototype
• Historical Data

43. Consider all aspects of the DX:
Registration
Security
Troubleshooting
Learning
Interface Style

44. Registration
Lazy Registration
Social Integration
Personalization

45. Development Activity Cycle
1. Learn
2. Code
3. Implement
4. Test
5. Fix

46. Learn
Portal
Code
API
Test

47. Learn
API
Test

48. API explorers and “live
documentation” can shorten the
gap between visibility and
feedback.

49. Interfaces
I use GET to write to your API?

50. Interfaces
Hypermedia can provide:
Affordances
Constraints
Feedback
API

51. Security
Needs to be considered from a
developer point of view
OAuth 2 is easier to implement
than OAuth 1
(for your developers)

52. How?
1. Identify a Target Audience
2. Learn about the audience
3. Make API design choices that
are developer-centric
4. Prototype and get feedback
5. Iterate

53. Focus on the interactions that take
place, rather than the interfaces
we expose

54. Great API design can thrive in a
developer-centric environment

55. The “I” is for Interaction!
Applying a Developer-Centric Approach to API Design
Ronnie Mitra
Principal API Architect - Europe
Layer 7 API Academy

56. www.apiacademy.co