Sunday, April 27, 2014

API usability is not different than application usability

API usability is not different than application usability. A good application must be designed for the best possible user experience. An Application Programming Interface must be as well.

So next time you are creating that interface to expose to a consumer regardless if that will be the lead of your country or a software developer work *with* your consumer(s) to make sure you get it right.

Separation Of Concerns (SoC) helps on that. Even if you have an all star team where everybody does from A to Z in the SDLC you might end up with greatest results if you divide the work and rotate the team through the different concerns. You will naturally avoid violation of SoC.

1 comment:

ApiUsabilityTesting.com said...

One more way to ensure your API usability is to invite absolutely new developers (who are not mentally tied to a company's internal policies, authorities, API design, solutions, etc.) and ask them to accomplish primary use cases. The most serious usability problems will be highlighted fast. Actually, from our experience, 3-5 developers highlight 80% of usability problems (it is interesting that there is a similar rule for GUI usability).

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