What technical communicators do
Technical communicators typically produce documents that enable people to use a specific technical product or technology. (Documents in this context are any media communicating technical information.)
Technical communicators shape documents according to their target audience’s needs. For example, in the IT sector, target audiences for technical communication documents can be end-users or system administrators or developers. Each group needs different documents.
Why developers need API documentation
Using APIs to implement features in software is a common way of developing software. It prevents developers from “reinventing the wheel”: they use the functionalities of some distant software or services.
To use such distant software or services, developers connect their own software to the touchpoint or connector of the distant software or service. This touchpoint or connector is the Application Programming Interface (API).
As the API is part of the distant software or service, it has been designed by the distant producer of the software or service. That is why the developer needs API documentation to learn how to use the API to get the desired results.
Why do I care
At work, I once had to deliver API documentation for a legacy API. None of the automated documentation generators would work for this legacy API. Due to some other constraints, we ended up typing everything into a Microsoft Word document. Users of the API got a PDF and were okay with it.
So, as a technical communicator, I did my job: I produced a document, and I shaped it to the need of the target audience. However, having to keep the Word document up to date turned into a nightmare. Especially when others joined me in updating the document. I knew I could do better than this. And started looking into best practices for API documentation. Which was even accepted to be my MA dissertation topic.
Do you care?
If you create or use API documentation, drop me a line and share some of the pain points you experienced so far. For me, it was deciding on the right tool. What was it for you?
API docs and me 