Toward a Systematic Evaluation of Usability in RESTful APIs: A Metric-Based Approach
Resumo
In recent years, web APIs have become a crucial part of modern software development, as they allow easy access to a wide variety of resources and services. This has led to a competitive market, “the API economy”, and as a consequence, usability now plays a key role in the success of web APIs. Despite that, usability is often overlooked because there is no standard way to measure the usability of a web API. This work aims to address this problem by proposing a comprehensive model that enables systematic assessment of web API usability from various perspectives.Referências
De, B. (2017). API Management. Apress Berkeley, CA.
Escobar-Pérez, J. and Martínez, A. (2008). Validez de contenido y juicio de expertos: Una aproximación a su utilización. Avances en Medición, 6:27–36.
Fowler, F. (2013). Survey Research Methods. SAGE Publications.
Gwet, K. L. (2008). Computing inter-rater reliability and its variance in the presence of high agreement. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 61(1):29–48.
Janes, A., Remencius, T., Sillitti, A., and Succi, G. (2014). Towards Understanding of Structural Attributes of Web APIs Using Metrics Based on API Call Responses. In Open Source Software: Mobile Open Source Technologies, pages 83–92. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Kasunic, M. (2005). Designing an Effective Survey. Technical report, Carnegie Mellon University.
Kitchenham, B. and Charters, S. (2007). Guidelines for performing Systematic Literature Reviews in Software Engineering. Technical report, Keele University.
Koçi, R., Franch, X., Jovanovic, P., and Abelló, A. (2020). A Data-Driven Approach to Measure the Usability of Web APIs. In 2020 46th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA), pages 64–71.
Ma, S.-P., Lan, C.-W., Ho, C.-T., and Ye, J.-H. (2016). QoS-Aware Selection of Web APIs Based on ε-Pareto Genetic Algorithm. In 2016 International Computer Symposium (ICS), pages 595–600.
Machini, A. and Casas, S. (2024a). A preliminary GQM model to evaluate web API usability. Memorias de las JAIIO, 10(2):1–13.
Machini, A. and Casas, S. (2024b). An empirical study on web API usability: The consumer-developer perspective. Brazilian Journal of Technology, 7(4).
Machini, A. and Casas, S. (2024c). Web API Usability: A Systematic Mapping Study. Interacting with Computers.
Mosqueira-Rey, E., Alonso-Ríos, D., Moret-Bonillo, V., Fernández-Varela, I., and Álvarez Estévez, D. (2018). A systematic approach to API usability: Taxonomy-derived criteria and a case study. Information and Software Technology, 97:46–63.
Myers, B. A. and Stylos, J. (2016). Improving API usability. Communications of the ACM, 59(6):62–69.
Nielsen, J. (1992). The usability engineering life cycle. Computer, 25(3):12–22.
Peffers, K., Tuunanen, T., Rothenberger, M., and Chatterjee, S. (2007). A design science research methodology for information systems research. Journal of Management Information Systems, 24:45–77.
Petersen, K., Vakkalanka, S., and Kuzniarz, L. (2015). Guidelines for conducting systematic mapping studies in software engineering: An update. Information and Software Technology, 64:1–18.
Raemaekers, S., van Deursen, A., and Visser, J. (2012). Measuring software library stability through historical version analysis. In 2012 28th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM), pages 378–387.
Shaw, M. (2003). Writing good software engineering research papers. In 25th International Conference on Software Engineering, 2003. Proceedings., pages 726–736.
Skjong, R. and Wentworth, B. (2000). Expert Judgement and risk perception. In Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference (ISOPE), pages 537–544.
Stylos, J. and Myers, B. (2007). Mapping the Space of API Design Decisions. In IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC 2007), pages 50–60.
Tan, W., Fan, Y., Ghoneim, A., Hossain, M. A., and Dustdar, S. (2016). From the Service-Oriented Architecture to the Web API Economy. IEEE Internet Computing, 20(4):64–68.
The Postman Team (2023). What are the components of an API? Available at: [link].
Wohlin, C., Runeson, P., Höst, M., Ohlsson, M., Regnell, B., and Wesslén, A. (2012). Experimentation in Software Engineering. Springer Berlin, Heidelberg.
Yamamoto, R., Ohashi, K., Fukuyori, M., Kimura, K., Sekiguchi, A., Umekawa, R., Uehara, T., and Aoyama, M. (2018). A Quality Model and Its Quantitative Evaluation Method for Web APIs. In 2018 25th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC), pages 598–607.
Escobar-Pérez, J. and Martínez, A. (2008). Validez de contenido y juicio de expertos: Una aproximación a su utilización. Avances en Medición, 6:27–36.
Fowler, F. (2013). Survey Research Methods. SAGE Publications.
Gwet, K. L. (2008). Computing inter-rater reliability and its variance in the presence of high agreement. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 61(1):29–48.
Janes, A., Remencius, T., Sillitti, A., and Succi, G. (2014). Towards Understanding of Structural Attributes of Web APIs Using Metrics Based on API Call Responses. In Open Source Software: Mobile Open Source Technologies, pages 83–92. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Kasunic, M. (2005). Designing an Effective Survey. Technical report, Carnegie Mellon University.
Kitchenham, B. and Charters, S. (2007). Guidelines for performing Systematic Literature Reviews in Software Engineering. Technical report, Keele University.
Koçi, R., Franch, X., Jovanovic, P., and Abelló, A. (2020). A Data-Driven Approach to Measure the Usability of Web APIs. In 2020 46th Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA), pages 64–71.
Ma, S.-P., Lan, C.-W., Ho, C.-T., and Ye, J.-H. (2016). QoS-Aware Selection of Web APIs Based on ε-Pareto Genetic Algorithm. In 2016 International Computer Symposium (ICS), pages 595–600.
Machini, A. and Casas, S. (2024a). A preliminary GQM model to evaluate web API usability. Memorias de las JAIIO, 10(2):1–13.
Machini, A. and Casas, S. (2024b). An empirical study on web API usability: The consumer-developer perspective. Brazilian Journal of Technology, 7(4).
Machini, A. and Casas, S. (2024c). Web API Usability: A Systematic Mapping Study. Interacting with Computers.
Mosqueira-Rey, E., Alonso-Ríos, D., Moret-Bonillo, V., Fernández-Varela, I., and Álvarez Estévez, D. (2018). A systematic approach to API usability: Taxonomy-derived criteria and a case study. Information and Software Technology, 97:46–63.
Myers, B. A. and Stylos, J. (2016). Improving API usability. Communications of the ACM, 59(6):62–69.
Nielsen, J. (1992). The usability engineering life cycle. Computer, 25(3):12–22.
Peffers, K., Tuunanen, T., Rothenberger, M., and Chatterjee, S. (2007). A design science research methodology for information systems research. Journal of Management Information Systems, 24:45–77.
Petersen, K., Vakkalanka, S., and Kuzniarz, L. (2015). Guidelines for conducting systematic mapping studies in software engineering: An update. Information and Software Technology, 64:1–18.
Raemaekers, S., van Deursen, A., and Visser, J. (2012). Measuring software library stability through historical version analysis. In 2012 28th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM), pages 378–387.
Shaw, M. (2003). Writing good software engineering research papers. In 25th International Conference on Software Engineering, 2003. Proceedings., pages 726–736.
Skjong, R. and Wentworth, B. (2000). Expert Judgement and risk perception. In Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference (ISOPE), pages 537–544.
Stylos, J. and Myers, B. (2007). Mapping the Space of API Design Decisions. In IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC 2007), pages 50–60.
Tan, W., Fan, Y., Ghoneim, A., Hossain, M. A., and Dustdar, S. (2016). From the Service-Oriented Architecture to the Web API Economy. IEEE Internet Computing, 20(4):64–68.
The Postman Team (2023). What are the components of an API? Available at: [link].
Wohlin, C., Runeson, P., Höst, M., Ohlsson, M., Regnell, B., and Wesslén, A. (2012). Experimentation in Software Engineering. Springer Berlin, Heidelberg.
Yamamoto, R., Ohashi, K., Fukuyori, M., Kimura, K., Sekiguchi, A., Umekawa, R., Uehara, T., and Aoyama, M. (2018). A Quality Model and Its Quantitative Evaluation Method for Web APIs. In 2018 25th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC), pages 598–607.
Publicado
11/05/2026
Como Citar
MACHINI, Ariel.
Toward a Systematic Evaluation of Usability in RESTful APIs: A Metric-Based Approach. In: CONGRESSO IBERO-AMERICANO EM ENGENHARIA DE SOFTWARE (CIBSE), 29. , 2026, Recife/PE.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2026
.
p. 316-323.
