10 Minutes – make it valuable I am… Product owner Open Data & APIs Champion of UX Best Practices If you go to stuartridgway.com you can read about all of this
What is Open Data? Organizations make their data and information available to developers - Free - Pay to play - Get paid Aligned with organization’s mission ** APIs for sharing their data from machine to machine The way the Internet works You never know you’re viewing data and information from multiple sources
For our purposes today Your goal (as the UX professional advising the product owner) is to provide a happy user experience for software developers and engineers You and your organization want developers to use the APIs because It makes the organization money It “markets” the organization’s brand and content Extends the organization’s reach
Not much on UX for APIs This is the opportunity for you to work with organizations on Open Data UX: Yes, there are two “paths” you can go by The APIs The documentation =========================== The APIs that the software engineers are working with should provide a positive UX Even though the APIs are used for machines to talk to one another, software engineers (humans) still need to set up the connections to make them work. The documentation that accompanies the API must also provide a positive UX Common sense Web UX applies But API documentation has its own specific use cases Developers are usually the ones who write the documentation!
Customer (software engineer) perspective So let’s walk through an example I have an AWESOME idea for an app I’m not going to ask you all to sign NDAs but PLEASE do not share this. Really, this is my kids’ college fund in the making. Ready?
Kittinder. An app for setting up play dates for your cat Brilliant right? Dog play dates are easy They do some sniffing, they woof, they’re good Cats are very finicky If you want to find them a playdate, you have to make sure you get the right match
Three Sources of data: PetCensus Like US Cesus that has information about your household, your education, you employment, PetCensus captures cat statistics across the country. This way I can easily find what actual cats are nearby so I know what my play-dating pool is. The ASPCE (American Society for Promoting Cat Emotions) Has information about the nature of each breed of cat. Siamese are moody, calicoes are coy. What other dimensions might they have? How do they interact? We’ll see. Tinder Once I get the various dimensions of each breed, half-breed and alley cat, I now need to figure out how to match them. Tinder publishes its matching algorithm as an API. I send them the weighted dimensions and they send me back a score.
As I walk you through trying to access the data from these three sources, think about the different aspects of my user experience. Interactive Design (ID) Information Architecture (IA) Visual Design (VD) Usability (U) Communication (C)
Path 1: Documentation for the APIs PetCensus Remember: Developers are people too. “You” are the UX professional representing the organization publishing the APIs You want to hook them in If it’s too hard, developers give up and go elsewhere
The basics apply
Developer have specific use cases American Society for the Promotion of Cat Emotions Organize the pages consistently Group API documentation logically within your menu / navigation If there are different ways to work with a particular data set, group them together Group similar actions like POST and GET Organize information on pages consistently Background What the Data Is Ideas for Using it Resource URL Different fonts for code Manage with CSS so its 508 compliant Search Parameters Methods Use standard taxonomies Use standard taxonomies (ISO cat breeds) When searching across APIs from different organizations I want to be able to use consistent terms Link to those taxonomies if you don’t own them so I don’t have to figure them out (ID) Examples Clickable Examples
Continuing from above… Return Values What the developer should expect with the results Grouping by source Limited number of results Pull request at the bottom of each documentation page (U) If published in OpenSource repository like GitHub Let developers help you and other developers Open data begets collaborative efforts Common Sense Change log News / Announcements Contact Us
API Keys What’s the process… Make the API Key request process painless Be clear about what it entails Personalize the API key email Make developers feel welcome There are few chances to interact with your human customer
Path 2: The APIs Themselves PetCensus “count” API Making Data Requests Create useful methods / calls Make it easy to get the number and type of cats in a particular zip code Standardize the query requirements A developer should be able to figure out how to do a new query based on what s/he learned making other queries Developers begin to lose interest fast if they can’t begin using your API right now
Package and deliver the data nicely Use JSON (IA) JavaScript Object Notation This has become the standard for most data sharing over the Web XML is on its way out because its not as light as JSON Data vs. Metadata Static data (what the source is, metadata, etc.) should be separate from dynamic data content (VD)
Consistent results Use taxonomies consistently Organize return values Conform data types All weights include pounds and ounces even if ounces = 0 Provide guidance in error codes
Help product owners create a happy user experience for your developers Jump in early and push Influence the product owner It will make or break the project’s success
Different people have a stake in the UX of an API Data stewards Your developers Documentation writers and designers 3rd party developers who who build tools off of your own APIs They use APIs/documentation and provide feedback Their customers AND Different data customers have different needs
Before I say goodbye… Every time you and your users connect you have an opportunity to change and improve Iterate - Constant opportunities for improvement Metrics / Usage Hackathons = Usability Test
Invite me to come beat on your senior leaders stuartridgway.com [email protected]
