2015-05-08 user personas session

This meeting was to create basic user personas for the API User role. Personas capture essential qualities for key user groups.

Attendees

Present were:

Resources

We used the following resources

  • Taija's research on the API:Suomi user group
  • User Personas for HTTP APIs

API Users

As a first stage, the API User role personas were outlined. Taija Bjorklund will present the personas in a cohesive form. See: APINF consumer personas

The second stage will be to create user personas based on the API Owner role. To this end, we collected the following general characteristics.

API Owners

  • Jorge (extension developer)
    • clear documentation about API
    • how to document extension

  • Inga
    • Mapping, translation, and transformation of data between multiple systems
    • Working with many APIs
    • Seldom reads documentation
    • Needs simplicity, consistency, and stability
    • Works frequently with large data sets

      *   Large queries
      
    • Needs clear and consistent error communication

    • Jim (evangelist)
    • Documentation

    • Sample code (SDK)
    • simplicity and intuitive API
    • stability
    • Needs to know whether developers like the API management tool

  • Steve
    • performance statistics
    • caching
    • distinct URLS (for analytics)

    • Paul
    • Clear API specification

    • Simple API
    • no extra work

  • Allan (support engineer)
    • API server logs
    • see how and if people are using the API
    • finding developers' problems

  • Gigi
    • good specification
    • automated testing
    • stability
    • issue tracking

  • Olivia (Operations lead)
    • Maintaining and installing API manager
    • Maintenance of environment
    • Selects the tool (she has a lot of expertise)
    • May need consultation