Most important thing to keep in mind when building a no-code tool?

Question

Doing a side project to attempt a no-code game builder for my product - thursday. We are a team of 2 (designer + developer). We have a week to get this baby up and running or atleast a POC. What is the one thing we should not lose sight of or implement?

Stefan Smiljkovic · Accepted Answer

I think one of the most important things to keep in mind is UX (user experience). Developers think about solving problem funcionaly under the hood. So someone need to connect both funcionality and User Experience.

For that is needed great connected team. I did that on my no-code tool https://automatio.co. I was the bridge between developers, to translate my vision into code, with the UI and UX I figured it out it would be the best for people who don't know to code.

If you wanna build great no-code tool, one of the product guys, should not know to code, so it can really feel the users pain. Developers alone, can't think from that POV.

Reuben Carter · Answer

A bit related, I once made a tool for creating procedural 3D landscapes for games where you could drag and drop fractal and noise nodes and hook them up with wires to make a 3D terrain hopefully saving hours of complex procedural code etc.

It started off really cool but unfortunately the end result was a nightmarish tangle of nodes and wires, and nobody who couldn't already code could understand it! The problem was I didn't have a clear plan from the start for what all the drag and drops nodes would do to make the system general purpose, so just kept adding stuff and making it more and more complex. Also I designed many of the nodes to be really flexible, which ended up meaning highly technical mathematical functions. 3D artists couldn't understand how to use it!

In the end I build a no-code tool which only coders could understand. It was fun though :-)

Shariq A · Answer

No-code tools attract non-programmers and people who aren't technical or familiar with the domain. They come to no-code platforms with the hope that they will be able to build something useful.
So, I think one of the goals for any no-code tool builder should be to keep those users in mind, keep things as simple as possible for such users. They are most likely going to stay on your platform for a long time if they are able to learn how to use your platform.

Dafni Chontou · Answer

I would say define at the start what's the one big thing you want to validate and focus on that. Leave all other nice-to-haves for the next iterations.

You can build really fast on no-code so definitely keep that in mind. If blockers come up along the way, think of easy-to-implement alternatives. Early adopters usually can deal with not-so-perfect-looking products: take all the feedback and follow up with them once you released the improvements.

Good luck :)

Rucha Joshi · Answer

@stefan_smiljkovic Thanks so much, these pointers are great. I am the product person who cannot code at all. So hoping this will work out in our favour. Going to also deep dive into automatio :)

Rucha Joshi · Answer

@dafnihnd That's really helpful. Thanks for sharing your insights @dafnihnd What have you been working on?

Rosie Higgins · Answer

@reuben_carter as someone who tried LandCreator, I think you managed to make a no-code tool that not even coders could understand 😂, it had very cool results though

Rucha Joshi · Answer

@shariq_a Yep, our target is also to get non-technical folks to start creating. Thanks for sharing :)

Barada Sahu · Answer

People are forgiving on outcomes if the user experience works. Do ensure you have a semblance of the outcome you are gunning - users are more likely to revisit in the future.

Dafni Chontou · Answer

@rucha_joshi8 I've been building Wonderpath. It's a growth planning tool for individuals to set goals, build action plans, and collect advice and feedback. Here's our website: https://www.wonder-path.com/

Our website is on Webflow and we built the web app on Bubble. Happy to share more from my learnings anytime if you'll pick any of these tools.

Khushi Sharma · Answer

Hi Rucha,

I believe User Experience and User Interface is the most important thing to keep in mind while building a no-code tool. 
One should definitely take care of creating a smooth and clean user interface for any tool.

Vishal Sahu · Answer

As per me, it should have the following:

#. Easy to use interface, as a lot of people using that tool may find it difficult to understand.

#. Good documentation/examples or templates if possible.

#. Support of connecting Airtable/Google sheets as most of the non-tech people are fairy comfortable in using these tools.

Thanks.

Sam Kamrani · Answer

Not to compromise too much IMO and leave room for extension if someone has the skill and/or needs to do so

Rucha Joshi · Answer

@dafnihnd That's fantastic. Wonderpath seems to be a great tool. Signing up for early access now :)
I would love to hear more on your learnings. Sent you a twitter dm.

Rucha Joshi · Answer

@barada_sahu Got it, thanks for sharing!

Most important thing to keep in mind when building a no-code tool?

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