APIs have become very important in a world of interconnected applications. APIs have improved a lot in the past years, especially due to the JSON + REST standards. But there’s still a more subtle lesson to be learned about them that is a hit and miss: APIs are user interfaces too. It’s in the acronym: Application Programmable Interface. Interface for what? For other software systems. But who writes those systems? Developers. So it’s really a user interface for developers who work with your application. Since APIs are user interfaces, we should apply UX principles and techniques to make them easier to use. Here are 5 of them.

Lőrinc Pap: Hello Venkat, we would be very interested in your take on programming in general, and on functional programming in particular.
Venkat Subramaniam: Well, first of all, thanks for having me here. It’s a pleasure to talk to you and to your listeners. So, programming is something that is life to me, in a lot of ways. I’ve been programming for a few decades now and, often times, people ask: “How come you’re a programmer after all these years?”

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In today's ever changing world, it's next to impossible to know exactly what customers would want the product to be. Every day, we see new companies coming up with new products and services but have you ever wondered why most of the companies are not able to make it? The biggest reason many businesses fail is that businesses build unwanted products. Building a product exactly the way people want is tough and that is why only half of all establishments survive five years or longer according to the 2016 statistics. This ambiguity towards what customers need can be resolved only by identifying their problems systematically very early in the Product Development Life Cycle. That literally means we need higher customer engagement well before we actually have any product or service for them. Rapid Prototyping is one of the effective ways to do just that. We build prototypes of the products and put that in the hands of the potential customers to gauge their interest into our vision and this will eventually help us build world class products with higher success rates.

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We talked to Alexandru Voiculescu, the founder of PureQuad, an IT Romanian company which chose to get involved in the project I want a Dacian in Bucharest, a project supported by the Association of Contemporary Cultural Identity (AICC).
Ovidiu Mățan: What is the connection between an IT company and a project that seeks to relocate a statue from Florence to Bucharest by creating a copy of it?
Alexandru Voiculescu: Obviously the connection exists because of the people and their ideas. My connection with the initiators of this project runs for over a decade, given the IT projects and the outsourcing we have been caring out since 2004.

Imagine that you are searching for a new potential product or for a new functionality for your existing product that will be successful on the market. You are convinced that the market you’re targeting is in development, you talk to people in the industry, you research online, and you finally find the information needed to support your belief that the market is on an ascending trend and that your product will be a successful one. You decide to invest time and energy in the product and, soon enough, you are launching it backed up by a major marketing campaign. But your product fails. Nothing went as you have expected it to go: the market didn’t develop fast enough, you have fewer and fewer customers than you have initially estimated, you can’t cover the product costs, and you are working now in losses.

The idea that luck plays an important role in the field of innovation is well known. Just google "lucky inventions" and you will receive tons of lists with all kinds of novelties that were invented by chance – at least the authors of the lists say so. However, I have another opinion. Briefly, I believe serendipity does not exist. Okay, I know this statement is a bit radical. Everything depends on how somebody defines “serendipity”. I don’t want to start a semantics debate, I just want to show that “luck” has a much lesser role than what is commonly believed.

One of the main concerns of employers nowadays, is how to motivate their employees so that they become more productive and satisfied with their job. Since this is not an easy task, the search for a solution continues: from gym subscriptions to parking subscriptions, from financial compensations to bonuses or team buildings. If you are an employee, the HR people are in charge of this, but what happens when you don’t have a boss? What happens when you are your own boss, or when you are a consultant, freelancer or just doing home office?

Feb 1st marked my one year anniversary at my current company. I’ve been here several times throughout my professional life, but never before did I feel like sharing some insights about it. During my almost 10 years in business, I’ve been working for both big and small companies, local and multinational, with corporate and entrepreneurial cultures, in managerial and operational positions, yet this time something is different. Thinking about this from an inquisitive analyst perspective, it seems that at some point along the way I’ve learned some lessons, discovered new passions and confirmed some hunches about the world around me, just enough to keep the journey ahead interesting and just enough to think sharing them would bring value.

With the growth of companies, in terms of employee numbers, and in terms of service quality and complexity, they provide the human factor which has become a prime competitive advantage on the market. Therefore, many companies are facing a stark competition for talent, for educated, creative and dedicated employees. Here’s how the wellbeing of these colleagues becomes a priority in business...and not only for HR!

he discussions I had with the major IT companies in Cluj, at the beginning of 2017, focused on their predictions for the current year. Aside from the fact that all of them predict a substantial growth in the Romanian IT sector via the development of services, products and training, each has a unique way of forging their path according to the goals at hand.