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

@chrishough
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Thank you for posting!

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