Digital River API documentation
I researched, presented, and implemented an entirely new documentation system to document Digital River’s new headless ecommerce API.
Project overview
Problem
Initially, Digital River provided a full-stack ecommerce system, where the company would handle everything on the implementation side.
This approach worked for some customers, but other customers expressed a desire to develop their own systems or to use Digital River’s services alongside their existing software.
Solution
Digital River released the Digital River API, which developers could use to implement a variety of ecommerce functions within their existing infrastructure like payments, SKUs, and shopping carts.
This new API called for two new parts of Digital River’s docs ecosystem:
- A new docs solution that allowed for multiple “sites” to separate the older full-stack solution from the new API
- An entirely new documentation experience with focused language towards developers
Project timeline
- Performed market research on leading documentation services and developer experiences
- Created presentation materials for both technical stakeholders (engineers) and non-technical stakeholders (marketing, C suite)
- Presented materials to multiple stakeholder groups
- Gathered consensus on documentation system and developer experience
- Implemented documentation system (GitBook) based on need for separate documentation domains for the new API and an older full-stack system
- Designed UI mockups for new developer experience
- Migrated all documentation from old system (ReadMe) to new system
- Wrote a suite of new documentation for the Digital River API, including quickstart guides and API reference
Skills used
- Technical writing
- Market research
- Documentation migration
- SME collaboration
- Presentation and public speaking
- Mockup creation