The following was written for my second year #ixdbelfast students.
Yesterday with my second year students we dived into the use of #nocode tools and how they will change the design landscape.
Returning to the use of #nocode apps to build fully-functioning apps, Ian – my coach – built WeeWork (a WeWork clone) with Glide.
You can install this on your phone and it works just like an app. This was built in two hours with off-the-shelf tools.
There are designers and developer who fear the rise of #nocode tools will render them redundant, and that – to a degree – is true. Just like Squarespace and other #nocode tools have replaced designers for marketing sites, so, too, tools like Glide will replace designers and developers for certain apps that, previously, would have been created, at considerable expense, by studios.
I see the rise of #nocode tools as an exciting new opportunity for designers. Where previously our design artefacts were largely clickable mockups, that didn’t function per se, we can now build both:
- mockups to define the aesthetics (using tools like Figma), but also;
- build rich, working prototypes to test functionality (using tools like Glide).
Designers who have embraced #nocode tools will use tools like Glide to rapidly design and build functioning prototypes, what I call: Pre-Aesthetic MVPs.
If you want to get ahead, don’t think of #nocode tools as a replacement for you, think of them as an addition to your toolset.
