"Designing great APIs: Learning from Jony Ive, Orwell, and the Kano" via @jondahl #railsConf

railsConfAPIDesign.md

1. never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. never use a long word where a short one will do
3. if it's possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. never use the passive where you can use the active
5. never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everday English equivalent
6. break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarrous

#Five guiding principles

1. minimalism
2. get out of the way
3. design for extremes
4. be predictable
5. excite users

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/charges \
-u my_api_key: \
-d amount=20 \
-d currency=usd \
-d customer=123344

better error messages. tell why failed

• good design makes a product useful
• good design is honest
• good design is authentic, makes product understandable

Movie: Objectified

Basic needs

• long lasting
• versioning

Delighters:

• API wrapper
• request logs
• sandbox API
• API builder (Zencoder API Builder)

Focus on delight and performance

books: Design Everyday Things

Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/jondahl/designing-greatapis

Thank you for posting!