Great APIs Start with Great Design

layer7-logoWe are really excited that Layer 7 will be joining us next month in Stockholm for our free inaugural Nordic APIs event. Ronnie Mitra, co-founder of Layer 7’s API Academy, will present some of his ideas on how important design is for the success of an API. To give you a bit of a sneak peek, I talked with Ronnie earlier today about what he’s going to be sharing w/ us all. He told me that fundamentally people are wrestling with two things:

  1. How can API providers increase adoption of their service?
  2. How can organizations expose existing data and systems as an API while keeping integration costs low?

By focusing on the developer experience, he believes that you can achieve both. To ensure this, Ronnie suggests that you ask three questions when designing your API:

  1. Who will use it? 
  2. What will your API be used to create?
  3. How will the API behave?

By concentrating on the developer when answer these questions, Ronnie says that you will have a better designed, more widely adopted API that is less expensive to integrate.

Next month at Jayway’s office in Stockholm, we’ll hear more from Ronnie about the importance of API interaction. Before then, check out this video of his with more on taking a developer-centric point of view when designing your API. Also, be sure to register today, so we order enough lunch and save you a spot.

See you all next month!