Portfolio
I’ve had the pleasure of testing API endpoints while writing API docs for great companies since 2012. Most of my work has been with technology, crypto and FinTech companies desperate to simplify their help documents. Below are samples of my work. Feel free to reach out to me about your project.
-Peter Gustafson
Alchemy.com is one of the fastest-growing Web3 App developer platforms in the world. Built by smart engineers and forward-thinking brainiacs, it was my pleasure working on the Alchemy project. Since most of their API docs are generated by Swagger output, a personal touch was needed. My consultancy with Alchemy involved two deliverables: 1) reformulate choppy doc structure and 2) add tables and section blocks for reading ease by reducing long scrolling. I developed a simplified API doc template for their tech writers to integrate. Below are before and after PDFs of my work.
- Notify API Quickstart: old version | my version | published page
- Trace API Quickstart: old version | my version | published page
Coinbase.com is a powerhouse platform dominating the world of DeFi. I know, old news. I was hired by CB to help update internal docs and Salesforce architectural diagrams for their new engineers. Empowering new employees to onboard themselves is trendy and required for growing empires such as Coinbase. My approach is to make diagrams more engaging by adding color. Below are a few samples I built for Coinbase. Note: because of my NDA, I am unable to publish completed diagrams.
The Epic Games Store is a world-class powerhouse with 150+ million global users. They hired me to review and rewrite 120+ game developer API docs. Then plunge into the SDK docs. There’s multiple users involved in these API docs: game developers and the users that buy those games from the Epic Game Store. Docs were written in Markdown [docs-as-code]. I used a minimalistic API doc template for all new docs. Slack conversations with devs solved doc blockers.
Below are a handful of my Epic Games drafts (published & raw draft files) created in 2021.
- Using the C# SDK | raw Markdown file
- Auth Interface | raw Markdown file
- Session Matchmaking Sample | raw Markdown file
- Lobbies Interface | raw Markdown file
- Ecom Interface | raw Markdown file
- Ownership Verification | raw Markdown file
- Authorization & Consent Management | raw Markdown file
- Social Overlay Overview | raw Markdown file
- Bulk Importer Exporter Tool | raw Markdown file
- Player Data Storage Interface | raw Markdown file
ShipEngine.com is the granddaddy of e-Commerce shipping APIs. Need 10,000 shipping labels now? No problem, easy with ShipEngine. But the project was a bulldoze of all published (dead wrong) API docs. The target users for ShipEngine API docs are new API users, e-Commerce companies, and seasoned devs. Workflow was ideal and a pure [docs-as-code] formula writing in Markdown and Atom connected to a ShipEngine repo. I tested endpoints and received help from devs via Slack. Daily video chats with devs on endpoint use case blockers helped move our project forward. Some of my ShipEngine work is below.
- Understanding REST | raw Markdown file
- Setting Up Webhooks | raw Markdown file
- Getting Started | raw Markdown file
- Custom Label Messages | raw Markdown file
- Multi-Package Shipments | raw Markdown file
- Label Formats & Sizes | raw Markdown file
- Validate Address | raw Markdown file
- Create a Label from a Shipment | raw Markdown file
- Carrier Packaging | raw Markdown file
TowerData.com is one of the largest email API services in the US. They hired me to rebuild their API documentation UI after testing all endpoints. Also update their SDK docs. I built a three-column UI (Ruby | Slate | Markdown) to host the new docs. Editing the CSS codes to match the TowerData brand colors were vital to this project being a home run: docs.towerdata.com. Below are my published pages and raw Markdown draft files.
Stripe.com is one of the leading payment providers globally. They hired me write new API docs for their platform users. Below are docs I wrote for Stripe.
Company X (German API trading platform) products are designed to enable German users to trade fractional shares of US financial products (S&P 500) in the EU via APIs. They hired me to write new API docs for European Securities and Markets Authority API endpoints. Much of my time was spent writing API docs for EU KYC and German MiFID II identity compliance. Docs were written in Markdown [docs-as-code]. Slack conversations with devs solved doc blockers. We used Linear for API doc management (great free tool).
WEXinc.com is a global payment processor of virtual credit card transactions used by Expedia.com, HotWire.com & Priceline.com. A few other thousand customers enjoy the one-time-use card numbers. I was hired by WEX Bank to document a new payments product and build a new API docs UI. I built the UI with Ruby, Slate, Markdown. The target users were bank developers in need of onboarding docs for new users. Here is the screenshot of the new UI.
Matter Labs is an R&D company focused on zero-knowledge proofs. Great company, kind people. Below is one of my doc rewrites for Matter Labs.
TON.org is a third-generation proof-of-stake blockchain organization. The crew at TON are super nice people and fast movers in the blockchain world. TON is capable of handling millions of transactions per second. Their Toncoin is a game-changer along with their dapps and apps. They hired me to buff up and humanize their FunC help guides. Below are some examples of my work.
Fortellis.io (CDK Global) connects app developers with the automotive industry. They hired me to write their integrated API design standards for a public automotive API platform. Docs were published in both Apigee SmartDocs and Drupal. Below are examples of my work at Fortellis.
Google.com contracted me to rewrite their BigQuery docs. The scope of the project was to streamline user onboarding by cutting out redundant steps. The original doc and my version are below.
Apache.org is the gold standard in big data. I was hired to write their Apache Sparke white paper on Apache Spark. It was a great project combining technical docs with a hint of marketing. The target users were analysts interested in learning about SparkSQL, Spark MLib, and SparkR. Below is the my finished version.
Internal marketing is a big, fat hot button for many software companies. The best ones market new products and services to their large workforce as a means of sharing and promoting products and services. It takes time and creativity to pull off engaging content. My approach is to add a dose of fun with color and short paragraphs. Below are some of my writing samples.
Coinbase tasked me with writing content for their internal marketing writers. It was a blast and gave me an opportunity to work with some super awesome young writers.
Believe it not, I sometimes write my own blogs here at pdgseo.com. Not as often as I like but my approach is to write about doc writing mistakes companies of all sizes are making. Here’s a few of my favorites:
GIFs rock. Dev docs and screenshots are tough on busy eyes. When the rare time a screenshot is needed, use GIFs. 10 second fast ones fine-tuned for speed are best. For new platform users, a quick GIF gets technical concepts across visually. Some API platforms are using GIFs, but not many. Are you? They’re easy to screencast record and convert to GIFs. Here’s one I did as an example for this portfolio.