---
layout: post
title: >-
  A More Distilled Version of An API Getting Started Page On The Home Page Of A
  Developer Portal
image: >-
  http://kinlane-productions2.s3.amazonaws.com/api-evangelist-site/blog/Instagram-Developer-Getting-Started.png
tags:
  - Portal
  - Getting Started
---
As I look through API portals, profiling the building blocks of successful API platform, I'm always looking for bite-size stories for my readers. I was working to complete my Instagram API definition, as part of [my photo API research](http://photos.stack.network/), and their getting started graphic caught my attention.

[This three step getting started visual for Instagram is prominently available on the home page](https://www.instagram.com/developer/), providing a very distilled down version of [what I recommend API providers usually accomplish with a dedicated getting started page](http://management.apievangelist.com/building-blocks/).

[![](http://kinlane-productions2.s3.amazonaws.com/api-evangelist-site/blog/Instagram-Developer-Getting-Started.png)](https://www.instagram.com/developer/)

The featured getting started area provides you with the link to register your application, and overview on authentication and authorization, and a link to all the endpoints, so you can start making requests. I am a big fan of there always being a dedicated getting started page for APIs that I am on-boarding with, but I am always a bigger fan when someone distills these building blocks into something that is way easier to understand, and execute--without all the blah blah blah.

[I'm going to consider adding a feature getting started building block, in addition to having the dedicated page](http://management.apievangelist.com/building-blocks/). When done right, I think they can accomplsh the same thing, but with one less click--reducing any friction we possibly can in the on-boarding process.