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Why No-Code tools are ready to disrupt
With the right tools, we can close the gap between product and engineering.
“Designers shouldn’t ALSO have to code!”
This is a refrain I hear a lot. Some designers feel working with code is too complex; others that it is exploitative. They are not wrong. But prototyping is a transformative practice with profound implications for design. Contributing to a prototype opens new ways of communicating with users and other stakeholders, all in the universal language of the web.
Designers can’t just leave the room
There is too much at stake for designers to close the door on prototyping. What we need are no- and low-code tools that meet designers where we are at.
Designers are very interested in these tools, too. According to this uxtools.com survey, after Figma, the next 4 tools that designers are excited about in 2023 are no-code web builders or prototypers.
And the truth is using these tools is no more difficult than the complex interfaces we already rely on: Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop, etc. Adobe’s user guide for Photoshop is nearly 1000 pages long! Even Jira is a hot mess of features and workflows. As designers, we use immensely complex tools all the time.
A seismic shift
The list of no- and low-code options keeps growing (Webflow, Framer, Penpot, Blocs, Bootstrap Studio, Wordpress, UXPin, and many, many more); It is part of a seismic shift happening in design to break down silos and bring product and engineering closer together.
Where these tools fall short for me is that they don’t support true co-creation between product and engineering. Many try to improve handoff, or to limit handoff drift. Very few attempt to eliminate handoff altogether, which is my goal.
But the time has come. The tools we need to work as one team are actually being built RIGHT NOW. It’s exciting.
Design Tokens
One of the elements in this industry shift is the framework for atomized design being developed by the W3C design tokens community group. Design tokens are a way to build and share digital designs. It will…
