Developer Experience

A talk at API Strategy conference, 2013, about what developer experience is and how to make it not suck.

Transcript

1. THE DEVELOPER EXPERIENCE WHAT IT IS WHY IT MATTERS HOW TO MAKE IT NOT SUCK pamelafox.org @pamelafox pamelafox@ twitter.com/ gmail.com http:// Thursday, October 24, 13
2. USER EXPERIENCE “The sum of all interactions and events, both positive and negative, between a user and a web site.” User Experience (Website, Mobile App, etc.) PROVIDER USER Thursday, October 24, 13
3. Do I want to use it? How do I sign up? How do I get started? How do I use it? How do I get help? USER EXPERIENCE Thursday, October 24, 13
4. DEVELOPER EXPERIENCE “The sum of all interactions and events, both positive and negative, between a developer and a library, tool, or API.” Developer Experience (Library, Tool, API, ...) PROVIDER CONSUMER Thursday, October 24, 13
5. Do I want to use it? How do I sign up? How do I use it? How do I get help? DEVELOPER EXPERIENCE How do I get started? Thursday, October 24, 13
6. ...WHY DO I CARE? CONSUMER PROVIDER Childhood University Hermit 2002 2011 2006 2012 Google Coursera Khan Academy 2013 CONSUMER PROVIDER Thursday, October 24, 13
7. ...WHY DO I CARE? CONSUMER PROVIDER Childhood University Hermit 2002 2011 2006 2012 Google Coursera Khan Academy 2013 CONSUMER PROVIDER Thursday, October 24, 13
8. WHY SHOULD YOU CARE? Thursday, October 24, 13
9. WHY DOES DX MATTER? I have to use X. Bad Experience Low Barrier for Leaving Bare Minimum Usage Thursday, October 24, 13
10. WHY DOES DX MATTER? I like to use X. Good Experience Innovative Usage External Evangelism Thursday, October 24, 13
11. LET’S BREAK IT DOWN... Thursday, October 24, 13
12. Do I want to use it? Thursday, October 24, 13
13. Documentation Interactive Explorer Does it have the features I need? Thursday, October 24, 13
14. Can I safely build a business on top of it? Licensing Pricing Stability Thursday, October 24, 13
15. Case Studies Thursday, October 24, 13
16. How do I sign up? Thursday, October 24, 13
17. How do I sign up? No signup! No key! Best answer: Thursday, October 24, 13
18. Automated Key Signup Thursday, October 24, 13
19. How do I get started? Thursday, October 24, 13
20. Downloads for Every Environment Thursday, October 24, 13
21. Client Libraries for Every Language Thursday, October 24, 13
22. “Hello World” (From 0 to 60 in 15 minutes) Thursday, October 24, 13
23. How do I use it? How do I learn how to use it? Do I enjoy using it? Thursday, October 24, 13
24. Documentation How do I learn how to use it? Comprehensive Easy to Navigate Reference & Guide Easy to Search Running Code Feedback Loop Thursday, October 24, 13
25. Documentation When in doubt, document. Comprehensive should be Every method, parameter, return value, defaults, implementation notes, errors, side effects, deprecation notices. Thursday, October 24, 13
26. Documentation should include both Reference & Guide Thursday, October 24, 13
27. Documentation should include Runnable Code Thursday, October 24, 13
28. Documentation should be Easy to Navigate Thursday, October 24, 13
29. Documentation should be Easy to Search Thursday, October 24, 13
30. Documentation should be Easy to Search on Google, too Thursday, October 24, 13
31. Familiarity Do I enjoy using it? API Design Simplicity Compatibility Debuggability Thursday, October 24, 13
32. API Design: HTTP Familiarity Simplicity Compatibility Debuggability Use standards (when it makes sense) REST, RPC, OAuth. Support both JSON & XML. Give meaningful error messages. Don’t throttle. Most importantly: Never ever use SOAP. Thursday, October 24, 13
33. API Design: JavaScript Familiarity Simplicity Compatibility Debuggability Use object literals for method options, not additional arguments. Use a namespace. Don’t extend native objects. Offer a debugging extension. Offer common methods in core API, everything else as plugins. Do all that while keeping file size small. Thursday, October 24, 13
34. How do I get help? Thursday, October 24, 13
35. Forum Email Subscription & Feeds Spam Handling & Moderation Poster Statistics & Badging Thursday, October 24, 13
36. GETTING FEEDBACK Thursday, October 24, 13
37. Documentation can have Comments can have Feedback Form Thursday, October 24, 13
38. Issue Tracker Comments Status Votes Notification Categories Search Thursday, October 24, 13
39. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! http://developer-support-handbook.org http://blog.pamelafox.org/search/label/developerexperience http://blog.programmableweb.com http://developer-evangelism.com/ Thursday, October 24, 13
40. PROVIDERS: 1. Care 2. Prioritize 3. Improve I Thursday, October 24, 13
41. THE DEVELOPER EXPERIENCE pamelafox.org @pamelafox pamelafox@ twitter.com/ gmail.com http:// IT MATTERS MAKE IT NOT SUCK Thursday, October 24, 13