With technology embedded in almost every aspect of life, and with developers building and maintaining these tools, it’s ensuring that developers operate in the digital world with speed and efficiency, if we are to see these same benefits in the offline world, too. In this article, we’ll explore why developer experience really matters.
Understanding Developer Experience
To get beyond the buzzword, let’s look at what developer experience really is, at its core. In essence, DX encapsulates the way developers feel and function while interacting with tools and tech. It encompasses everything from intuitive user interfaces (UI) to comprehensive user experience (UX) design, ensuring that developers can efficiently solve problems without unnecessary friction.
We’ve all experienced the frustration of using out-of-date documentation, and in this sense had a very poor experience. While DX goes far beyond humble documentation, poor quality docs are a sure-fire way to make users move away from your product (or at least which they could).
On the other hand, get it right, and developers will only be more likely to use - or continue to use your tool - but they’ll tell others about it, too.
Influencing Spending Decisions
A testament to the increasing influence of developers is their role in shaping purchasing decisions within organisations.
According to research by Stack Overflow, 66% of developers have a say in the technology purchased by the company they work for, underscoring the importance of a positive developer experience. This influence means that platforms need to offer not just functionality, but also an appealing and efficient UX that can win over technical professionals, and the teams they work with.
Shaping Developer Experiences
To create a positive DX, platforms must offer tools that align with developers' workflows and expectations. Dom Kundal categorises DX into different levels, from worst to best, making it easy for us to figure out what actually makes the developer experience what it is.
A broken experience is one that a developer sees as fundamentally flawed. This leads to frustration and negative emotional payoff, often driving them away from the product. To make matters worse… It's usually permanent. After a broken experience a developer is highly unlikely to ever use the product again.
Think about when you have failed to make a simple API request work even after thoroughly reading the documentation, or using the examples within. It doesn’t make sense, right? It feels broken, so you start looking for something that works.
A working experience works… but barely.
In these cases, the tech functions correctly if developers follow the documentation meticulously. While the product works, it offers no emotional payoff, and developers are unlikely to promote it or remain loyal because they had to put some work in to do something seemingly simple, and the result doesn’t feel like it’s worth the time needed to get there.
Predictable experiences are generally good, but only once you’ve gotten used to a product or ecosystem’s patterns. This is great for existing users but may create barriers for newcomers who need to get their head around concepts and mental models before they really enjoy the experience of using the tool.
Now we’re getting to the good part. Seamless experiences are when even those unfamiliar with a product can start using it effortlessly with minimal onboarding.
This intuitive ease makes the product feel like a natural addition to their toolkit, often leading to positive word-of-mouth. As you can see, it’s only when we can call it seamless that we can expect users to share the product with other developers. Developers can be difficult to please, but loyal once they really get into a product.
Finally, magical experiences exceed expectations, making developers feel like they’ve gained a new superpower or that they did something with such speed or efficiency they almost can’t believe it.
The excitement often inspires them to share their experience widely, and we’ve certainly seen a lot of excitement around generative AI tools amongst developers in the last few years, largely driven by these magical experiences.
The objective for companies is to strive for experiences that are at least predictable, as the holy grail of the magical experience is hard to come by.
How to Enhance Developer Experience
So you’ve aiming to give developers a magical experience, but where do you start? Here’s a few tips to get you started:
Docs-first design
Prioritise API and tool documentation to provide clear guidance and set correct user expectations from the start. The docs will (hopefully) be the first place developers go to get guidance on how to use your tool, so ensuring these are accurate, up to date, and accessible is essential.
Interactive elements like video walk-throughs or product demos are useful, but are nice-to-haves compared to the text-based docs (with snippets and examples) that developers have come to expect.
Community and Collaboration
By making your tool open source (or at least a part of it) you get detailed feedback from your users (developers) about what works and what doesn’t. If something doesn’t work, the chances are one of your contributors will create a pull request and suggest something better.
Projects like Supabase, Daytona and Bluesky all have open source elements and communicate closely with their communities to improve developer experience effectively.
Remove Friction-points
Friction-points are barriers or obstacles that impede smooth progress or productivity, and we often overlook them by mistake. They can be as simple as the auth providers available to a user (do they have to create a new account, or just use a social account?), all the way through to more major problems.
Either way, when a developer feels friction, or probably makes them frustrated, and it takes the edge off the experience.
Internal DX Reviews
Have you ever tried to see what it’s like to be a user of your product/tool? Do you actually know what it’s like for them? If not, give it a go, and get your whole team involved.
The comments people make will tell you a lot about the experience they’re having. “Where is the button?” or “What now?” are all warning signs that something isn’t right, but you need to experience it for yourself to really understand.
Iterate, iterate, iterate
As developers, we tend to think iteratively, but it’s important to remember that developer experience is no different in this regard.
Try something new, get some feedback, and iterate and improve.
Conclusion
Developer experience (DX) is not a luxury — it's a necessity in an industry where developers wield significant influence over technology choices and adoption. Ensuring that developers have intuitive, seamless, and even magical experiences with your tools can lead to stronger product loyalty, organic growth through word-of-mouth, and a competitive edge in the market.
Striving for predictable or seamless experiences should be the baseline, while aiming for magical experiences can set your product apart. This means prioritizing accurate documentation, building interactive and collaborative communities, eliminating friction points, and iterating continuously based on real user feedback.
Ultimately, a focus on enhancing DX not only empowers developers but also fosters innovation and efficiency — benefitting both the tech industry and the broader digital world we all rely on.
To gain further insights into how platforms like Twilio are exemplifying DX excellence, be sure to check out Ricky Holtz's deep dive discussion on the subject.
His expertise in developer advocacy offers a valuable perspective on creating compelling developer experiences.Developer experience (DX) is a crucial yet often underappreciated aspect of the tech industry. While user experience (UX) has long been a focus, ensuring end-users have seamless and intuitive interactions, developer experience is yet to become part of everyday parlance in the same way.
