I'm working on the next evolution in my API research, and I'm investing more time and energy into the design of the guides I produce as a result of each area of my research. I've long produced a 20+ page PDF dumps of the leading areas of my research like API design, definitions, deployment, and management, but with the next wave of industry guides, I want to polish my approach a little more.
The biggest critique I get from folks about the API industry guides I produce is that they provide too much information, aren't always polished enough, and sometimes contain some obvious errors. I'm getting better at editing, but this only goes so far, and I'm bringing in a second pair of eyes to review things before they go out. Another thing I'm introducing into the process is the use am of professional design software (Adobe InDesign) rather than just relying on PDF's generated from my internal system with a little HTML spit shine.
While it is taking me longer to dust off my Adobe skills than I anticipated, I am finding the design process to be extremely valuable. I've often dismissed the fact that my API research needed to look good, and that it is more important that it is just available publicly on my websites. This is fine and is something that will continue, but I'm finding a more formal design process is helping me think through all of the material, better understand what is valuable, what is important, and hopefully better tell a story about why it is relevant to the API space. It is helping me take my messy backend data and content, and present it in a more coherent and useful way.
As I'm formalizing my approach using my API definition guide, I'm moving on to my API design guide, and I can't help but see the irony in learning the value of design while publishing a guide on API design, where I highlight the benefits of API design to make sense of our growing digital assets. Once I've applied this new approach to my definition, design, deployment, DNS, and management guides I am going to go back to my API design for these resources, and take what I've learned and applied to the way I share the raw data and content. The lesson that stands out most at the moment, is that less is more, and simple speaks volumes.
