We all know that prototyping is the key for startups. Guy Kawasaki himself said it

Do not focus on writing a business plan on word, what you should focus on creating a prototype that works— Guy Kawasaki

This universal truth has created more chances and opportunities to emerge and release a prototype faster in the current market.

If we check the numbers, around 2.96 million live websites have been running with SquareSpace and over 4.39 million e-commerce sites are built with Shopify. This actually has given the tremendous growth in the online economy and thus enables every person to become a business person with their entrepreneurial products quickly.

Missing pieces

It is interesting to see what automated code-built apps would become in the future. For example, there are basic functionalities of an application that could be required in any prototype

1. Listing a set of domain products or outcomes — Selling products, Posts, Users etc.
2. User-to-user interactions — Chatting, Likes, Reactions etc.
3. Personalization — Settings, Themes, Business Orientation.
4. Business values — Logical derivatives which define the business value of the application. Example compression algorithms, Massive storage of data like youtube.
5. If we simply cut off time to develop the above modules by automating functionality, it would really give a winning chance over other competitors to create an impact on a market or a business strategy.

Nothing new, is it?

We all know platforms like WordPress, SAP, and Salesforce have done this for a long time. But is it what we expect of no-code applications?

The main problem that apps built with low code applications is architectural bottlenecks. What are the quality attributes that are addressed by these applications? What will happen when scaling the applications or 10k users login to the app simultaneously?

For example.

1. Freedom to choose could providers such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, etc.
2. Performance and throughput of applications
3. Modifiability or maintainability of applications.
4. Scaling

There could be many more which are specific to a particular platform but we can all come to a conclusion that this is what we need in order to understand what lies below and how it can be affected.

How to overcome these issues While we discuss to overcome this

1. Using on-demand services much as possible

On-demand services will scale up when there is enough traffic. This enables us not to worry about the architectural decisions to add more resources on the go and service unavailability issues. Of course,4252 there could be cases otherwise but better to consider it when it comes to services. Also, it gives you control over your costs and it would be easier for customers to use manage it.

2. Ability to choose provider and architecture

The app builder could prefer different cloud providers for many reasons. Some would be familiarity with the services, befitting technologies and service credit facilities

3. Visibility of components in operation to mitigate complexity

If a deployed service can provide more visibility over the components which are deployed that would be great. As an example overall connected components, architecture snapshot, and updates that have been done to the system.

4. Provide more than what cloud providers do

Well, the cloud providers always provide overall information but it's hard to see all the operations in terms of what the app does. A mid-tier can always give a good insight into the interaction of the platform architecture with the real world. Keep logs of the system in a place where everyone can understand.

In Summary

These are some points that can be added to the overall behavior of the no-code or low-code platforms. We are quite positive to say that in the near future prototyping would be overtaken by AI-driven software systems that can precisely provide you with the prototype you wish for with the service providers you prefer. Until that time, let us hope for the best from the engineers working in low-code and no-code platforms! ❤

@zegates