
The API spec becomes an artifact upon which they can comment. When you involve others in API design, you build something better. Do the details come from a user in the field, or are they passed through an online form? Ask the same questions about the other potential endpoints. Instead, find out how contacts are created. However, if you don’t dig deeper, you are designing an API based on your system. Naturally, you would expect to be able to create, list, update, and delete contacts. Involve anyone who understands how an API will be used in discussions as you design the API.įor example, let’s say you want to design a contact API. If your organization has a product group, that’s often where the voice of the customer is most heard.
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And while many engineers can be very product-minded, they don’t always have the visibility of the full picture. There are stakeholders throughout the organization.
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Software is rarely built entirely by engineers. In order to design around use cases, you’ll need to talk to the consumers, or at least include those who know them better. The biggest mistake in API design is to make decisions based on how your system works, rather than what your consumers need to support. When you understand how your software will be used you can design it better. You could get great insights from product, marketing, partnerships, and many other areas of your organization. Your collaboration can go beyond technical teams, as well. You could generate mock servers based on your spec, as described in another section, and have your consumers make live calls. You can send the spec document itself, or use tools to prototype your API or documentation. An API spec allows you to share details about how the API will work. When your API design exists before the implementation, you can get early feedback, connect your API to tools from the start, and collaborate across departments and functions.ĭo you know who will use your API? Even for an internal project, you’re likely to have multiple consumers. Unfortunately, by the time you’ve built an API in code, you’ve lost out on a lot of the advantages of a design-first approach. They may output an API spec from code, which sounds efficient. Yet, software teams frequently make similar choices. That’s like constructing a house and then going to an architect to draw up plans. If you go straight into building your API, there’s no returning to design. Looking to get started with API design? Try Stoplight Platform to bring a design-first approach to your API workflow.ĭesign-first becomes clearer when you consider the alternative.
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There is not a single approach on how to design an API or even how to design good APIs “the right way.” Instead, we need to lean on good industry basic API design guidelines, best practices and patterns where relevant, then take cues from those who will use our APIs. That’s why this API design guide assists in supporting good design throughout your API creation process good API design leads to better overall APIs. Organizations with high design maturity experience better quality outcomes for their end users, faster time to market, and better innovation. Good API design principles meet initial expectations and continue to behave consistently and predictably.

Just like website design or product design, API design informs the user experience.


Your basic API design influences how well developers are able to consume it and even how they use it. In this guide, we will answer the key question of ‘what is API design,’ as well as cover the basics of API design.ĪPI design is the collection of planning and architectural decisions you make when building an API.
