This page contains the details of a technical writing project accepted for Google Season of Docs.
Project summary
- Open source organization:
- Open Food Facts
- Technical writer:
- FutureOfDocs
- Project name:
- Document the Open Food Facts API
- Project length:
- Long running (5 months)
Project description
I first heard about "Season of Docs" through an e-mail I got from the instructor of a course about REST API documentation I took some months ago. Although I really liked the idea, I decided I would only apply for a project if I could really identify with it. This was something I would do besides my regular job, and if I did it, it must be fun and meaningful.
When I read the description of Open Food Facts, I knew I had found that project. I love to take care of my body and health through exercise and food. I really think nutrition is one of the keys to a happy life, and we all should be able to make better choices, which is only possible if we have enough information about the food and cosmetics we use. Open Food Facts puts this information at our disposal, and I want to contribute to this amazing initiative.
In the last three years I have been working as a technical writer at a software development company specialized in process and release automation. Among others, we have implemented a REST API with Swagger that allows developers to communicate with our applications via API requests. I've helped the development teams to write better descriptions for the requests/responses, and together we have identified which information is needed by our customers to provide it in a clear and concise way.
I've been reviewing the current Open Food Facts API site and I think we can restructure and enhance the documentation to make it more user-friendly (General, READ, WRITE pages). Furthermore, I'd love to set up, together with the development teams, a way to generate the API documentation automatically from the code (this takes time, that's why I'm proposing a long running collaboration).
We all know looks are important ;) That's why we can also tweak the REST API CSS and logo to align the swagger UI with the user documentation.
I'm looking forward to working with you on this project!