If you are not yet familiar with no code: no code tools and platforms allow you to build projects without writing a single line of code. Those tools help create apps, websites, integrations via simple drag and drop interfaces. You probably heard of those tools: Webflow, Tilda, Wix, Cardd.
Since its appearance, no code has changed where the battleground is. For designers, it is all about increased involvement in the development process and the ability to make ideas real without knowing the programming language. It’s true to say that no code tools are multiplying the power of designers. As well as increase the likelihood of landing a new project!
No Code Increased Experimentation
No code allows a product to be developed much faster. So if it’s an MVP it can go into production in weeks, meaning user testing and feedback can be achieved earlier on. This has meant that many barriers to trying out different product designs are now removed. Because you can test two different versions so quicker, why wouldn’t you? Within weeks you can get real data to start making decisions on which UX & UI performs better with the real users. Of course, you can do testing with the prototypes but real product usage always wins. Agree?
This should lead to greater experimentation, as now you, as a designer are given more license to try & test design concepts. Previously, you might have played things safely so you got a positive response, worried about the time wasted of a failed experiment.
No code has given designers the freedom to take additional risks, try more ideas, and get a winning design faster and with less wasted time and effort. With no code, you have the opportunity to try new ideas, get quick user feedback, iterate and redesign.
No Code Increased Need
No code platforms are relatively low design at heart. They have been designed intentionally to produce very clean and standardized UIs out of the box, so the requirement for design is actually greater in a no code development than with most traditional approaches.
They are built to allow customization and this is where the designer comes to the fore, getting involved to ensure that the end product will be distinctive. If you are a designer who also knows Webflow, Tilda, Wix technical capabilities and limitations, your value as a designer will only go up.
No Code Decreased barrier between design and development
No code allows everyone to build their ideas. So you can start playing with your side projects on your own, understanding various parts of the development process (even if it’s a no-code development process). Designers can see what does “front-end” or “back-end” mean, how various design flows are created under the hood (login, authentication, connection between different parts of the product). With the no-code tools, those high-technical concepts are built almost out of the box.No code Increased Control
What is the biggest impact on designers from the introduction of no code? You can finally build exactly what you envisioned - yourself!
As Tara Reed, Founder of Apps Without Code, put it - no code tools are actually very similar to design software tools, meaning designers are picking up how to use them very quickly.
Designers use WYSIWIG (What You See Is What You Get) based tools, whilst developers had been rooted in code using integrated development environments. No code has given the world the ability to develop using WYSIWIG based platforms, so, naturally, designers will start to feel more comfortable in the development world.
Rather than having to convince a developer to build a design, a designer can use the no code platform themselves to build a prototype (or even MVP) and showcase the exact design they wanted. It will be fully functional, so you are not relying on people judging design from flat designs or mock-ups, but real products. We talked about the timeline of projects changing, in fact, we are potentially looking at the design concept phase disappearing completely. It will be replaced by the designer building their concepts directly into the no code platform as a fully working prototype that is given to the developers to plug into the rest of the build.
Designers and no code are a perfect match
Think about what’s already possible for designers with no code tools. You can build emails (Mailchimp), a fully functioning website (Wix, Webflow), an e-commerce store (Shopify) or even a web app (Bubble). With all these examples, designers can produce far more than concepts or even prototypes. Moreover, there are companies that are fully built with no code and no code is getting much deeper into different industries and processes.
This all means that designers should now have more involvement in the development process. Designers become one of the biggest beneficiaries of the move towards no code, certainly becoming more important in the process and potentially replacing some development roles along the way.
