Hello World: Meet Telia!

Hey! Who are you? What’s your role at Telia?

Hi!

I’m Caroline, a UX-designer at Telia Norway. Creating great user experience is something I’m very passionate about. My role in my team is ensuring that our solution has the ultimate user experience. Additionally, I support our front-end developer since I have a background as a developer.

Tell us a little about Telia.

Telia Company is the largest Nordic and Baltic fixed-voice, broadband and mobile operator by both revenue and customer base. It was founded in 1853, and has more than 182.1 million mobile customers. Telia Company is headquartered in Stockholm, but has offices in 15 other countries. More importantly, it is a great place to work!

Why did you decide to create an API?

As a mobile operator we are naturally connected to the device most users have with them at all times - their smartphone. We wanted to use this connectivity to create an authentication service that not only simplifies login for the end user, but is also secure.

Our focus is to create an API that is easy to use for developers. We believe that together we can create a safe eco system for the end user.

We are also advocates for protecting the end user’s privacy. Meaning that it is important for us to make sure that our solution gives the user control over their data.

What does it do?

The Telia Identity API allows third party clients to verify the identity of the end users as well as obtaining their profile information. The user can sign in with their mobile phone, or by using email and password. The third party client can only obtain the user’s profile information only after the user gives their consent, placing the user’s privacy before anything else.

Further, the more developers using our API the better experience we can provide to the actual end users. We hope to give users a fluid experience across different applications by providing single-sign on. The user signs in only once and are then authenticated on all their connected applications.

What are some cool ways you see people using it?

From my point of view as a UX-designer, I hope to see people using our API for making end users life easier and more secure. By authentication through their phone I also want to reduce the friction often created by having to remember many passwords for different applications. Hopefully, the end users can avoid the hassle when they just don't remember which email or username they used when creating their account.

What was the most challenging part of developing your API?

The developers on my team agreed that writing the API was, as one of the swedish developers put it: “inga konstigheter”, meaning that it was kinda straight forward. This might be because we based our API on the open standards of OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0.

The biggest challenge with our API was actually writing documentation that would create excitement. We experienced that keeping the documentation easy to understand, and easy to use was, and at the right technical level was challenging. We hope we have achieved this, but we would also love to get feedback from the developers using our API.

What’s up next for the Telia API?

We are not ready to reveal exactly what we are working on just yet, but we have some great features in the pipeline related to secure and seamless authentication over 4G and Wi-Fi. Data tracking, higher levels of security and more privacy related features are also something we are working on.

So stay tuned!

APIs are like food, good at connecting people (not really related, we just like food). Any recommendations for a good place in Oslo?

I love this question! I also really like food.

Our office is based in Oslo. And Oslo is sort of a big city kind of deal, but still very small when compared to other countries. This means that there are many small, but awesome restaurants.

First on my list are restaurants that creates these amazing dishes based on local produce that are in season. These are Kontrast and Arakataka. If you had to choose only one restaurant to go to, choose one of these two. Second on my list are big fatty burgers and fries. If this is your thing, you definitely need to check out Illegal Burger, Munchies or Burger Joint. So greasy, but so good!

I'm also kind of a street food-gal, so I just love the food trucks all over the city. Here are my three favorite food trucks:

1. Gogrilla
2. Crepes and more
3. Sushirulll

For dessert, the ice cream made by “Gutta på haugen” is always worth a visit. They have the best organic ice cream topped with super creative toppings. The toppings are also made with produce that are in season, so they have something new every week.

Thanks Caroline!