The role of conceptual knowledge in API usability
Abstract
While many studies have investigated the challenges that developers face in finding and using API documentation, few have considered the role of developers' conceptual knowledge in these tasks. We designed a study in which developers were asked to explore the feasibility of two requirements concerning networking protocols and application platforms that most participants were unfamiliar with, observing the effect that a lack of conceptual knowledge had on their use of documentation. Our results show that without conceptual knowledge, developers struggled to formulate effective queries and to evaluate the relevance or meaning of content they found. Our results suggest that API documentation should not only include detailed examples of API use, but also thorough introductions to the concepts, standards, and ideas manifested in an API's data structures and functionality.
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Developers spend a significant amount of time searching and foraging for information and organizing and digesting the information they find.
“Consequently, developers spend a significant amount of time searching and foraging for the information they need and organizing and digesting the information they find [30,31,34,44,48,57].”
From Using an LLM to Help With Code Understanding (2024) · cites this paper as [31]
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Using an LLM to Help With Code Understanding
Nam, D., Macvean, A., Hellendoorn, V., Vasilescu, B., & Myers, B. (2024) · Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering · doi:10.1145/3597503.3639187 · Cited by 345 · see citing works
“(P5) Participants also found it extremely useful to prompt the LLM with just code context, as it allowed them to bypass the need to write proficient queries, a well-known challenge in search-based information seeking [32, 74].”
InfluentialProgramming, Problem Solving, and Self-Awareness: Effects of Explicit Guidance
Loksa, D., Ko, A. J., Jernigan, W., Oleson, A., Mendez, C. J., & Burnett, M. M. (2016) · Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/2858036.2858252 · Cited by 223 · see citing works
Self-citationApplication Programming Interface Documentation: What Do Software Developers Want?
Meng, M., Steinhardt, S., & Schubert, A. (2018) · Journal of Technical Writing and Communication · doi:10.1177/0047281617721853 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
API Designers in the Field: Design Practices and Challenges for Creating Usable APIs
Murphy, L., Kery, M. B., Alliyu, O., Macvean, A., & Myers, B. A. (2018) · 2018 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) · doi:10.1109/vlhcc.2018.8506523 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
A Theory of Robust API Knowledge
Thayer, K., Chasins, S. E., & Ko, A. J. (2021) · ACM Transactions on Computing Education · doi:10.1145/3444945 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Ko, A. J., & Riche, Y.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Microsoft (United States) (US)
- ORCID
- Ko, Amy J.
- Venue
- 2011 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)
- Publisher
- IEEE
- Published
- 2011-09
- Pages
- 173-176
- ISSN
- 1943-6092 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2016650943
- Cited by
- 30
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 3 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 1.44
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC) (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Research
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Information Retrieval and Search Behavior
- Keywords
- API documentation, conceptual knowledge, API usability, developer experience, network protocols, application platform
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