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Unpacking Developer Experience

The document discusses creating a good developer experience when building APIs. It provides 10 steps for a great developer experience, including keeping documentation simple and up-to-date, providing quick and easy signups, code samples, interactive documentation, and being available to help developers. The overall message is that API builders should treat their developer experience as a product in its own right to inspire developers and solve their pain points.

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Developer Experience•
Unpacking The Developer Experience Amit Jotwani @amit
Play around with lots of APIs. Build tools that help solve developer pain Live rent free in Manhattan.
Unpacking The Developer Experience
Package Rage “heightened levels of anger and frustration resulting from the inability to open hard-to-open packaging”
"It matters because it sets the tone for their whole relationship with that product." Jony Ive, Apple
But, Developers are people too How about Developer Experience?
WTF?
"People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware." Alan Kay
"People who are really serious about API should care about Developer Experience." Yours Truly
“Treat your API like your Product” John Sheehan, RunScope > IFTTT > Twilio
10 Steps Great Developer Experience
1. Keep it simple
Dwolla Developer Page
2. English please Don’t get all marketing on us
Twilio Home Page
Q What can they stop doing if they use your API? What pain are you solving?
Stripe Home Page
3. Simple & Fast Signup Do not ask me a million questions Where is your Signup button?
#sadface
Singly Sign up
Singly API Explorer
4. Hello World 5 mins or less
Big Commerce Home Page
5. API Key Provisioning Don't keep me waiting
6. Be clear Costs, limitations Tell them what to expect Free trial
Foursquare - Rate limits SendGrid - pricing/email quota
7. Stellar Documentation Complete Up to date No PDF’s
Foursquare documentation
8. Interactive Documentation
Mashery API Explorer
Klout Interactive Console
9. Show the code
Client Libraries - Twilio
Code Snippets - SoundCloud
Sample Apps - Twilio
10. Inspire them
Klout App Showcase
Be available Stack Overflow Twitter Other contact info
Unpacking The Developer Experience Amit Jotwani @amit