Second-degree user experience

Second-degree user experience is probably the most overlooked aspect of API experience. While it’s easy to understand developer experience, second-degree user experience is something most people don’t consider when building an API product. An API with a positive developer experience makes it easy for developers to build applications. In turn, those applications are used by end users who might be someone other than developers. Second-degree user experience is the experience that users have when they interact with the applications that developers build using your API. The interaction with the API is not done directly. Instead, users interact with the API through the application that they’re using. That’s why we call it second-degree use experience.

The way you design your API can considerably affect the second-degree user experience. Elements such as the choice of API architecture, the authentication scheme, and the way the...