Why You Must Document APIs for Broad Audience

We live in an API ecosystem, where apps use APIs to provide us required services. The increasing dependence on APIs is driving up the development of APIs. More companies are now offering API as a product.

API Documentation Must Not be Limited to Developers

Explaining complexly-stacked API mechanisms to developers, CTO, business managers and decision-makers in a language style they all understand is the need of the hour. API documentation though widely used by developers should not be limited to them. It should be easily understood by non-technical or marketing managers too and enable them to make decisions based on what they understand from the document.

1. CTO - He or she would like to see your API document before subscribing to your API service.

2. Business Manager - He or she is more likely to have a non-technical background and will be interested to know which API or group of APIs are useful, and how they work.

This means you will have to create a multi-layered document, with each layer catering to a specific audience.

An overview page would interest a CTO and business manager more than a seasoned developer, who would prefer to dive down into API Reference section to view various API call methods- the call description, request/response codes, error messages, and remedial tips.

The business manager would prefer to view the flow diagram of a sequence of API call methods to understand how they execute a specific function.

So API or technical writers should document APIs for a broader section of the audience.  

For example, if Fintech wants to sell an API-driven product, let us name it, “Quick Pay". Through "Quick Pay" customers can transfer money to the beneficiary account on the same day, within three hours. For developers, it is a family of APIs and for business managers, it is a product named "Quick Pay". The business managers will be interested to know what the APIs are, and how they help transfer money. What are their different features and functionalities and how do they benefit them.

As a writer, you must address the language needs of business managers or decision takers other than developers. But that does not mean you have to write two API documents - one for developers and the other for business managers. You can do that in a single API document. 

Write in Plain Language

Use plain language and right verbs to write down a simple and clear document that is easy to comprehend for a wide audience, from marketers to developers.

Even though your target audience - software developers - are highly skilled and can understand technical jargon, you should use plain language because:

1. Not all developers have the same level of language interpretation skills.

2. Translators can easily translate the document in other languages. Maintain contextuality and truthfulness of the information.

3. An API document in plain language is easy to comprehend for non-technical people too. 

4. It is easy to comprehend for the audience, whose native language is not the same as the language of API document nor they have the required proficiency in the language in which API document is written.

A tech writer plays a key role in the information design of the API documentation along with UI/UX designer. Making sure that each layer of the document provides complete information required by a specific audience in a clear manner so that they can take the correct action based on the information provided.

Going forward documentation will play a key role in the success or failure of a company to generate more business. As more businesses go online, so does their product documentation. These days you can see many online help guides, especially API portals, listed in the public domain

The quality of documentation plays a key role in their selection. A document that is clear, concise, complete, consistent, and contextual and offers a smooth user journey impresses and positively influences the buying decision of prospective customers.

If your API document neither is up to mark nor covers a broad audience standard, then you risk losing customers to your competitor whose documentation is better than yours. To add to your woes, you will never know how many prospective customers you have lost simply because they will not bother to leave behind a remark or hint and subscribe your competitor's APIs because the documentation was clearer and covered a broader audience than yours.

 Remember, documentation is the face of your product. The prospective customer will see the documentation before they will use your product.