We all know what “user experience” is and we know that it’s important. But we rarely talk about the “developer experience” - what we all go through each time we try to use a developer tool, library, or API. How do we decide what tool to use? Is it easy to integrate with our development environment? How flexible is the API? Where do we go when something goes wrong? Those are the sort of questions that we can ask to understand what it’s like for a developer to use a product - and where it can be improved. Whether you simply use developer products or you actually build one yourself, you should walk away from this talk with ideas on how to make a great developer experience - and why it matters.

1. The Developer Experience
WHAT IT IS
WHY IT MATTERS
HOW TO MAKE IT NOT SUCK
twitter.com/
pamelafox.org
@pamelafox
pamelafox@
http://
gmail.com

2. User Experience
“The sum of all interactions and events,
both positive and negative, between a
user and a web site.”
AKA
“bla bla bla”

3. User Experience
Do I want to use it?
How do I sign up?
How do I get started?
How do I use it?
How do I get help?

4. DO I WANT TO USE IT?

5. HOW DO I SIGN UP?

6. HOW DO I SIGN UP?

7. HOW DO I GET STARTED?

8. HOW DO I USE IT?

9. HOW DO I GET HELP?

10. DEVELOPER EXPERIENCE
“The sum of all interactions and events,
both positive and negative, between a
developer and a library, tool, or API.”

11. DEVELOPER EXPERIENCE
Do I want to use it?
How do I sign up?
How do I get started?
How do I use it?
How do I get help?

12. DO I WANT TO USE IT?

13. HOW DO I SIGN UP?

14. HOW DO I GET STARTED?

15. HOW DO I USE IT?

16. HOW DO I GET HELP?

17. why should you care?

18. Who are you?
Developer Experience
(Library, Tool, API, ...)
PROVIDERS
CONSUMERS

19. ...who am I?
Childhood
University
hood
Now
2002
2006
2011
CONSUMER
PROVIDER
CONSUMER

20. why does DX matter?
Bad Experience
I have to use X.
Bare Minimum Usage
Low Barrier for Leaving

21. why does DX matter?
Good Experience
I like to use X.
Innovative Usage
External Evangelism

22. let’s break it down...

23. Do I want to use it?

24. Does it have the features I need?
Documentation
Interactive Explorer

25. Can I safely build a business on top of it?
Licensing
Pricing
Stability

26. Case Studies

27. How do I sign up?

28. How do I sign up?
Best answer:
No signup!
No key!

29. Automated Key Signup

30. Usage Dashboard

31. How do I get started?

32. Downloads for Every Environment

33. Client Libraries for Every Language

34. “Hello World”
(From 0 to 60 in 15 minutes)

35. How do I use it?
How do I learn how to use it?
Do I enjoy using it?

36. How do I learn how to use it?
Documentation
Comprehensive
Easy to Navigate
Reference Guide
Easy to Search
Running Code
Feedback Loop

37. Documentation
should be
Comprehensive
Every method, parameter, return value, defaults,
implementation notes, errors, side effects, deprecation notices.
When in doubt, document.

38. Documentation
should include both
Reference Guide

39. Documentation
should include
Runnable Code

40. Documentation
should be
Easy to Navigate

41. Documentation
should be
Easy to Search

42. Documentation
should be
Easy to Search
on Google, too

43. Do I enjoy using it?
API Design
Familiarity
Compatibility
Simplicity
Debuggability

44. API Design:
HTTP
Familiarity
Compatibility
Use standards
Support both
(when it makes sense)
JSON XML.
REST, RPC, OAuth.
Simplicity
Debuggability
Don’t throttle.
Give meaningful
error messages.
Most importantly: Never ever use SOAP.

45. How do I get help?

46. Forum
Email Feeds Stats Badges
!Spam

47. Issue Tracker
Comments
Votes
Search
Status Categories
Notification

48. THE EXPERIENCE CURVE

49. THE FEEDBACK LOOP
..should be infinite..

50. Feedback Forms

51. Surveys
QT Mozilla Add-Ons SDK
Blackboard API Survey
Survey

52. Usability Testing
Did you complete the task?
How hard was it?
Would you recommend this API?
What would have made the
experience of using the API better?
Whose API does it better than we do?
ATT Usability Testing

53. Paying Attention
Twitter
Conference Talks
Blog posts
Google Alerts

54. MAKEOVER TIME!

55. Google Maps API
v2
v3
keys
no keys!
MVC architecture
bloated library
(smaller download)
GMap, GMarker,...
google.maps.*
GPolygon(latlngs, strokeColor,
strokeWeight, strokeOpacity, google.maps.Polygon(options)
fillColor, fillOpacity, opts)

56. ZeptoJS

57. NOW WHAT?

58. providers:
1. Care
I
2. Prioritize
3. Improve

59. CONSUMERS
Thanks!
It’d be great if you
changed X.
I’d use it more if it
had feature Y.
Thanks - look what
I made with it!

60. The Developer Experience
IT MATTERS
LETS MAKE IT NOT SUCK
for more...
developerexperience.org
developer-support-handbook.org
@pamelafox