Boomi Developer Portal
Responsibilities: UX and UI
Boomi Developer Portal
1. PROJECT SUMMARY
Develop an interface for API consumers to effectively activate and manage API subscriptions through a themed portal.
2. PROBLEMS
1. Difficult to manage all of the APIs and keep track of their usage
2. Security is critical, minimize the amount of risk
3. Administrative burden is heavy
4. Time to get a dev portal up and running?
3. SOLUTIONS
1. Allow use of APIs created by someone else to fulfill business needs
2. Self-provision tasks around APIs so there’s less reliance on other communication streams
3. Create a dashboard to monitor and update API health for subscribed APIs
4. Create a packaged portal completely built and implemented, only needing the opportunity to subscribe and theme.
Planning/Research
Identifying our user.
- Most work for the API Producer (such as a professor working for a university or an employee in one department using APIs from another department)
- May also work with the API producer as a vendor, contractor, consultant, or similar.
- No guarantee they have ever used an API before or is an experienced developer
- Has outside connections to communicate with the API Producer including getting authentication credentials, etc.
User Interviews
We interviewed both our internal staff and current platform users about their experience with similar applications, and desires for an API portal
“In our current situation, we are completely limited in our ability to extend API usage. The amount of effort we are putting in to manage APIs could be better used in other development efforts. A dev portal could really have a huge impact, empowering users to grab the APIs they need at will so they can quickly spin up apps and services. Quite frankly, I’m pretty excited to see what will come out of this.”
Most desired requirements from interviews and stakeholders
- Grant different levels of access based on whether an API consumer is internal or external
- Empower other developers to create new services and applications by having a self-serve interface to get APIs
- Would like to automate some of the API management he is responsible for so that his time can be invested elsewhere
- Prioritize and scope features of dev portal
Design
Through months of additional research, sharing our concepts with potential users and internal staff, we developed a responsive, accessible, and easy to use interface. Out of the box, it’s branded to a neutral theme, and ready for immediate implementation. We revisited our design system here, and decided to veer slightly from the main platform, and take the opportunity to develop a superior user experience.
