The Art of API Design - Ronnie Mitra, Director of API Design, API Academy at Nordic APIs

Ronnie  Mitra  Director  of  API  Design  

CA  API  Academy  @mitraman  

The Art of Effective API Design

Design  

“firmitas, utilitas, venustas” Solid,  useful,  beautiful  

User  Experience  

Peter Morville’s UX Honeycomb

Faith  in  Standards  

Faith  in  Experts  

Faith  in  Process?  

Design  Processes  

Need  Finding  /  User  Research  

Ideation  

Testing  &  Validation  

API Client

development platform

API Tools

Need  Finding  /  User  Research  

Ideation  

Testing  &  Validation  

Interviews  

Need  Finding  /  User  Research  

Interviews  Participatory  Design  Persona  Development    

Testing  &  Validation  

Write  Client  Code  Observation  Data  Collection    

Need  Finding  /  User  Research  

Ideation?  

Testing  &  Validation  

Bill  Buxton    on  Sketching:    

Quick  Timely  Inexpensive  Disposable  PlenEful  Clear  Vocabulary  DisEnct  Gesture  Minimal  Detail    

Sketch  

User  parEcipaEon   IteraEons  

Low-­‐Fidelity  Prototype  

High-­‐Fidelity  Prototype  

Implementation  

API  Sketching  Today:    •  Paper  •  Whiteboard  •  Coding  •  Tooling  

The  Experiment:  

Rápido  A  tool  for  sketching  APIs  

•  Go  beyond  being  useful  

•  Design  for  people  

•  Remember  that  good  design  is  affordable  

3  Keys  to  API  Design  

Interested  in  the  Rápido  experiment?    

Follow  @rapidodesigner  on  twiPer