The Future of the World is Citizen Developers

Take a look at this picture below.

Ten years ago, this site and business idea would have needed months of development time, and thousands in early website and back-end development.

Yet this site, Scribly.io, was built using nocode tools - and under a weekend.

Over the past few years, we have seen the resurgence of No Code and Low Code tools. These tools offer the glimpse of a potential future - a future where the power of technology is truly democratized, and citizens can create powerful webapps without the need of a developer.

The key here is not to take developers out of the building loop, nor does it mean that this will remove the need for developers to build products. Instead, this will turn developers from labourers (i.e building the same thing repeatedly) to artisans (building unique and custom tools).

In addition, it democratizes the power of soft

In this blog post, we will take the time to dissecting and answering the following questions:

1. What is NoCode?
2. Why is NoCode emerging now?
3. How will NoCode change the world?

What is NoCode?

No-Code platforms provide an alternative way for users without significant development experience to build apps or websites without writing code. Instead of using code or programming languages to build websites or apps, instead you will use online platforms (similar to excel) to build very robust online technologies.

These platforms have now reached a maturity level where they can build both Mobile and Web Apps. As seen above, the NoCode community and platforms have reached a maturity level where they can perform and product top level programs - with some No Code platforms even offering enterprise grade level productions.

There are many Pros and Cons for NoCode Platform:

Why is NoCode emerging now?

First, NoCode isn’t new, you have been using a NoCode tool. In one sense, everyday programs from Excel to Photoshop all rely on graphical user interfaces to do complex tasks. Let’s take Photoshop for example. If you had a photo, and you wanted to adjust the brightness, you would have needed to perform complex functions on the attributes of the photo to change the photo. Photoshop, like many other tools, have showed the power of No Code over the past few years.

However, on top of these existing tools, we are seeing larger macro trends that are driving the increase in market need for ever more complex versions of these tools. As we enter the 2020s, government agencies forecast the job market to have millions of vacant programming-related jobs. In addition, within these organizations themselves, we are seeing increased complexity of building products given a network of internal and external facing tools. Further, as we see aging infrastructures, we see the cost of software maintenance continues to climb.

The future will consist of a split development approach:

• 80% of the application can be built without code
• 20% unique value add of the app can be built with code and interface with the no-code application.

Let’s take an example of an essay editing site. Broken down, this essay will comprise the following

1. Lead generator [Landing Page]
2. Content hosting [Blog and Information hosting]
3. Lead capture [Capturing information]
4. Relaying information to script writers [Front end to backend]
5. Essay Editing [Humans]

In the past, you would need developers to build out all services from 1-4. Now, however, you can use No Code tools to abstract away the technical skills needed to perform 1-4. This leaves any entrepreneur more time, resources, and focus on the most important aspect of their business - the service.

How will NoCode change the world?

If we take out writing code from designing and building programs, we will build more intuitive and human-friendly programs. Taking code out of development brings a greater emphasis on the user and the user experience. Using declarative programming, you can focus on the what, rather than the how, to build the program you need in the system.

There will be two major areas where NoCode will drive considerable improvements.

In the enterprise world, low-code tools will help developers magnify and increase the offerings to non-technical branches of the business. Many technical teams in enterprises have a large lead time in asks and needs from non-technical teams in the business, such as sales and marketing teams. However, as No Code and Low Code apps develop and grow in complexity, technical teams will build out internal processes and tools that can abstract out many of the difficult and time-consuming tasks.

In the entrepreneurship and startup world, the barrier to entry continues to drop. With the rise of NoCode tools, entrepreneurs can build MVPs to test their ideas and achieve product market fit. These NoCode tools allow entrepreneurs to build impressive products, at the fraction of the cost of using a developer outfit. In addition, it allows for much easier pivoting and changes. It allows entrepreneurs to spend less time on the structural aspect of building an app, and more time on building out the core business offering to your consumers.

Conclusion

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