Scaling API Management
Mar 2024 - Current
Overview
At Yappes, an API lifecycle management platform for developers managing high-scale ecosystems, one of my key tasks was implementing the Transformation Policy feature. This capability was introduced as a configurable extension within the existing gateway policy management system, enabling users to modify headers, query parameters, and body content at both request and response levels. The feature was seamlessly integrated into the legacy UI, maintaining design consistency. It was delivered in alignment with the product roadmap, ensuring minimal disruption to engineering velocity while enhancing policy flexibility.
My role in Yappes
Senior UI/UX Designer - Yappes Technologies Pvt Ltd
I led the end-to-end product design for Yappes’ policy management system. Building a scalable design system, designing complex features like transformation and advance routing across multiple API protocols, and ensuring a seamless developer experience through research, consistent cross-platform workflows, detailed prototyping, and rigorous validation via CURL, API tryouts & user flow testing.
Design Sprints Process
Considering timeline and product roadmap, adopted a design sprint structure. This allowed rapid discovery, validation, and iteration while keeping the design effort aligned with engineering sprints and delivery.
Focus & Goals
Integrating API Transformation feature
Desk Research
Understanding Transformation feature in API Management
APIs help in communication between two systems or applications. As digital ecosystems scale, API management platforms play a key role in controlling how APIs behave, especially under dynamic client and backend requirements. An API management system sits between the client and backend service, acting as a control layer that handles requests, enforces policies, and ensures secure and reliable interactions.
One of the critical capabilities in managing APIs is Transformation. This feature allows platform users to manipulate the data flowing through APIs, ensuring compatibility, security, and clarity between systems without changing the underlying service.
Transformation can be categorised into two types:
Request Transformation
Applied before the request reaches the backend from client. Useful for adding or modifying request headers, query parameters, or body.
Response Transformation
Applied after receiving the backend’s response but before it reaches the client. Useful for cleaning or simplifying response payloads, filtering unnecessary data fields for client-side optimisation.
End-to-End API Transformation Technical workflow
Why Transformation Matters?
API transformation reduces backend dependency. It helps bridge gaps between frontend and backend by adapting data formats, field names, headers, URLs, query parameters, and even HTTP methods all without changing backend logic.
Common use cases include:
Customising payloads for frontend frameworks
Masking or removing sensitive data for compliance
Mapping partner data fields for easier integration
Serving region-specific content based on request metadata
Stakeholder Insights
Understanding what the product needs
To understand the scope and expectations for implementing new feature, interviews were conducted with key stakeholders including the Engineering VP, Backend Engineer, Gateway Engineer, and the Frontend Team. The following insights emerged:
Control & Flexibility
Control over transformation parameters to modify headers, query parameters, and body fields across both request and response flows. Minimal configuration steps and support for complex transformation cases were expected.
Efficiency & Developer Experience
A core concern was reducing developer effort by including reusable & custom transformation templates for commonly used policies.
Visibility & Error Prevention
Clarity to execution order of policies was crucial to avoid conflicts. Inline form validation and preventing misconfigurations in execution order were considered necessary to support safe deployment.
Scalability & UI Consistency
New feature should fit seamlessly into the existing policy management interface align with current architectural standards and UI patterns.
Functional Expectations
The system should allow:
Attaching both request and response transformation policies at API endpoint level
Support for all standard CRUD actions on transformation rules
Policy reordering for controlling execution flow
Competitive Benchmarking
Industry Approaches to Transformation Features
To contextualise Yappes’ implementation, I benchmarked leading platforms based on transformation support:
This benchmarking reveals common trends in how transformation is handled. Platforms support a mix of declarative and programmatic (script-based) approaches. Most provide transformation at multiple levels API, route, service, or environment. Common scopes include header, query param, and body manipulation.These findings informed architectural strategies by strengths like plugin flexibility, declarative control, and interface clarity.
Insights from Discover phase
Designing solutions for API Management
At Yappes, an API lifecycle management platform for developers managing high-scale ecosystems, one of my key tasks was implementing the Transformation Policy feature. This capability was introduced as a configurable extension within the existing gateway policy management system, enabling users to modify headers, query parameters, and body content at both request and response levels. The feature was seamlessly integrated into the legacy UI, maintaining design consistency. It was delivered in alignment with the product roadmap, ensuring minimal disruption to engineering velocity while enhancing policy flexibility.
Insights from understand phase
At Yappes, an API lifecycle management platform for developers managing high-scale ecosystems, one of my key tasks was implementing the Transformation Policy feature. This capability was introduced as a configurable extension within the existing gateway policy management system, enabling users to modify headers, query parameters, and body content at both request and response levels. The feature was seamlessly integrated into the legacy UI, maintaining design consistency. It was delivered in alignment with the product roadmap, ensuring minimal disruption to engineering velocity while enhancing policy flexibility.
Complexity of Transformation Areas
Handling transformations for headers, query parameters, and body content at both request and response levels can be complex.
Policy Flexibility vs. Developer Effort
Balancing flexible policy approaches (declarative or script-based) with the need to reduce developer effort.
Ease of Configuration
Providing simple configuration, live previews, and reusable templates to streamline major transformation tasks for developers.
Diverse Platform Implementations
Managing transformations differently across platforms (e.g., plugins, XML flows, templates, scripting) creates inconsistency.
Clear Policy Sequence and Validation
Ensuring clear sequencing of policies, effective inline validation, and granular control at the field level.
Scalability and Developer Velocity
Scaling solutions effectively within the current UI while maintaining high development velocity.
Varied User Roles and Expectations
Addressing the needs and expectations of API developers, consumers, admins, owners, and community managers around control, visibility, and responsibility.
Safeguarding Against Transformation Errors
Controlling execution order and preventing errors through robust safeguards and validations.
Consistency Across API Types and Scopes
Making policy attachment workflows consistent for all API types (REST, SOAP, GraphQL, WebSocket) and at different scopes (API-level, subscription-level).
Legacy System Constraints
Adapting policy logic within the constraints of existing legacy design systems.
Maximizing Design System Reuse
Sustaining high development speed by reusing design system components to overcome limited engineering resources.
Insights & Challenges
Insights from understand phase
Key Challenges
Leaders focused on scaling within current UI and keeping dev velocity high.
Problem statement
How can we simplify complex API transformation policy workflows and scale their configuration across APIs without disrupting the legacy UI or adding friction for developers?
As APIs grow, developers need precise control and visibility when configuring request and response transformations. While Yappes already supported basic policy attachments workflow at API Endpoint level, the challenge now lies in enabling flexible transformation policy management with the
Review Current gateway policy management system
The API Gateway manages policies at both the API and subscription levels. When a request is made, the gateway checks for any attached policies like routing, load balancing, mocking, or caching before forwarding the request to the backend.
Each feature is configured using policy settings, which define how the gateway should behave. These reusable configurations are applied to APIs to ensure consistent, automated handling of requests and responses.
Solution Sketching
User Flow for Transformation Policy Attachment
Visualising the integration of transformation policies into the current API gateway interface. This flow outlines how users navigate from selecting an API to configuring request or response transformations within existing policy workflows.
Wireframes
Detailed IA & wireframe flows
Finalise Solution
Collaborative Design Through Stakeholder Reviews and Developer Alignment
The solution was refined through multiple stakeholder meetings to review ideas, flows, and wireframes. Regular feasibility checks with developers ensured component practicality, resulting in a technically sound and user-aligned implementation.
Testing Phase
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Results & Validation
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Future Scope
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