APIs and API-first strategies are quickly becoming important for software product companies. These slides are from a lightning talk discussing why developer experience should be your #1 concern when launching a web API, and how everyone on your team can contribute to the process through the practice of API modeling.

1. How to Build a
Great Web API
James Higginbotham
james@launchany.com
@launchany

2. The World of APIs

3. Estimated 100-200k APIs

4. We help API developers go
from…

5. …to this

6. APIs Are More Than Code
Applications - Business Capabilities
Data – Inbound and Outbound
Devices – Always on/Sometimes on
Workflow - orchestration
People – users and developers
6

7. Developer Experience (“DX”)
Developer Experience is to Developers
as
User Experience is to Users

9. 9

10. Make It Easy To Love Your API
1) Great documentation

11. Bad Developer Experience

12. Swagger for API docs

13. Interactive = “Try It Out!”

14. Make It Easy To Love Your API
1) Great documentation
2) Simple examples

15. Twilio Example

16. Make It Easy To Love Your API
1) Interactive documentation
2) Great examples
3) Consistent

17. Not REST!

18. REST!

19. How can we ensure a great
developer experience?

20. Modeling REST APIs
Similar to wireframing or domain modeling
REST focuses on resources
Resources can be entities and workflows
Modeling enhances our understanding

21. 5 Steps to API Modeling
1. Identify the participants
2. Identify the activities
3. Separate the activities into steps
4. List resources and methods
5. Validate for completeness

22. Modeling is Fun
The goal is to design a beautiful API
Involve your entire team:
Developers, QA, Business Analysts
Product Owners, Subject Matter
Experts
Have fun with it!

23. Thank you!

24. http://bit.ly/better-apis
james@launchany.com
@launchany