A talk given at WDCNZ 2011. Abstract: We all know what “user experience” is and we know that it’s important. We analyze drop-off rates for sign-in flows, do A/B testing on color schemes, and organize user focus groups for new features. But we rarely talk about the “developer experience” - what we all go through each time we try to use a developer tool, library, or API. How do we decide what tool to use? Is it easy to integrate with our development environment? How flexible is the API? Where do we go when something goes wrong? Those are the sort of questions that we can ask to understand what it’s like for a developer to use a product - and where it can be improved.

Whether you simply use developer products or you actually build one yourself, you should walk away from this talk with ideas on how to make a great developer experience - and why it matters.