\u201cPrior to companies like Shopify coming on the market, people would always assume that creating a website costs a lot of money and requires hiring people with programming and web design skills,\u201d said Peter Nsaka, a senior software engineer at Shopify and a mentor for Springboard\u2019s Software Engineering Career Track<\/a>. \u201cWhat these platforms have done is reduce that barrier to entry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to TechCrunch, companies in the low-code sector were on pace to raise $500 million<\/a> in 2020. Meanwhile, Gartner predicts that 65% of application development<\/a> will be low-code by 2024. Airtable, a no-code cloud-based platform for creating and sharing relational databases, garnered $185 million in venture capital funds in 2020 after adding low-code features. Part spreadsheet, part database, Airtable\u2019s platform allows non-programmers to write SQL queries through a graphical interface. More advanced data wrangling tools like Domo enable users to build ETL data pipelines by creating workflows in a visual environment using drag-and-drop components\u2014almost as simple as building an email automation workflow in a CRM tool\u2014work that is typically done by a high-paid data engineer or data scientist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, these tools don\u2019t replace data practitioners; they automate certain functions so that data professionals can work more efficiently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Prophecy SaaS version will enable even small teams and organizations to be incredibly productive,\u201d said Raj Bains, CEO of Prophecy, a drag-and-drop platform for data pipeline development. \u201cFor the first time, they won\u2019t have to spend time on coding and putting open source technologies together; they can instead focus on rapidly adding business value.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the terms \u201clow-code\u201d and \u201cno-code\u201d are often used interchangeably, they each represent a different type of software serving a subset of users and business needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When WordPress launched in 2003 as a low-code content management system (CMS), the platform made it possible for the average Joe or Jane to start their own website or blog, thereby democratizing the world of publishing and web design. Today, 43.1% of all websites<\/a> are run on WordPress, including sites for major companies<\/a> such as Microsoft, Disney, Target, and even publishers like CNN and the New Yorker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Generalized tools for developing web and mobile applications provide a consummate no-code playground for those who just want to build enterprise-grade apps without writing a single line of code. From designing a minimum viable product to shipping a full-fledged application, tools like Bubble and Retool feature a drag-and-drop editor, free and paid templates, and hundreds or even thousands of plug-ins that integrate with other programs, such as a database management tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even tasks like robotic process automation<\/strong> no longer require code. RPA simply refers to deploying software robots that can perform repetitive yet essential tasks, such as logging into applications and systems, filling in forms, and completing routine analyses and reports. Parabola allows users to create a CRM workflow, automate e-commerce tasks, send metrics reports and automate email marketing. Traditionally, setting up RPA workflows requires building data pipelines between databases and enterprise web services on the backend, establishing business process rules, and writing \u201cif, then\u201d programming statements for trigger actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No-code solutions made for visual design and word processing are known as WYSIWYG, short for \u201cWhat You See is What You Get.\u201d WYSIWYG (pronounced \u201cwiz-ee-wig\u201d) is a type of computer editing software that makes it easy for users to create and edit documents, presentations, and other types of digital works. The interface allows users to visually see what their final result will be as they make it. By contrast, traditional editors require users to input markup languages to format text, images, and other components. Developers use markup languages like HTML to embed tags in plaintext that tell the browser how to display the content on a webpage, such as making a subheading bold or presenting a series of items as an ordered list. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the past, visual design was the sole purview of those with knowledge of advanced software like Photoshop or InDesign. Simplified tools like Canva and Visme include templates with optimized dimensions for social media posts, video graphics, infographics, reports, and so on, unlike traditional editors that require users to start from scratch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cVisme has made it easy for anyone to visualize statistical data and create great-looking designs, regardless of what they do or specialize in,\u201d said Farzad Rashidi, director of marketing at Visme<\/a>. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to be a tech geek or a data scientist to create an animated visualization about the effects of climate change, for example. Doctors and health workers don\u2019t need to spend a fortune just to create an engaging infographic that helps people understand the symptoms of COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n No-code development still requires IT oversight, otherwise, people end up developing apps without supervision, which can result in software rife with security concerns, compliance issues, integration problems, and increased technical debt. No-code platforms also have their limits\u2014namely, the constraints of working with pre-built templates and interfaces that can only be customized to the extent that the developers have permitted. Many no-code platforms enable integrations, APIs, or low-code features to allow people with programming knowledge to benefit from advanced customizability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Low-code environments still require some programming knowledge but allow developers to work with pre-written code snippets rather than writing code line by line. Professional programmers use these tools to quickly deliver applications and shift their efforts away from commodity programming tasks to more complex work that has a bigger impact. Serenade is an AI-powered tool that allows coders to write code using their voice. Instead of relying on just dictation, the tool is trained to recognize natural language so you can describe manipulations to existing code like \u201cdelete class\u201d or \u201cadd parameter URL.\u201d The software is trained in common programming constructs, variable names, and other words used to write code. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe wanted to create a product that was really easy to use, to the point where you could speak naturally, as you would in a conversation, and code would be written for you,\u201d founder Matt Wiethoff wrote in a blog post. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the heart of low-code and no-code software design is a key concept of object-oriented programming (OCP) known as abstraction<\/strong>. The main goal of abstraction is to hide unnecessary details from the user. Abstraction enables the user to build more complex logic on top of the provided abstraction without understanding how it works\u2014for example, setting up a series of automated emails by selecting conditions and corresponding actions from a dropdown menu without needing to understand how \u201cif, then\u201d control flow statements work. Internet browsers are a prime example of abstraction: you might not know how information is transmitted from servers to your computer; all you need to know is how to use your web browser to navigate the internet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAbstraction is about building tools that enable people not to have to interact with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript,\u201d Nsaka explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Low-code tools are primarily aimed at front-end development, which is easier to abstract than back-end development given that web design is more of a cookie-cutter process than building and integrating relational databases on the back-end. As a back-end developer, Nsaka says he doesn\u2019t have much interaction with low-code platforms other than observability tools that allow developers to find bugs in the source code<\/a> and monitor web diagnostics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDatadog is a tool that back-end developers typically use to create dashboards,\u201d said Nsaka. \u201cThe process of creating a dashboard is pretty much drag-and-drop as well, where you can select graphs, bar charts, pie charts and drag them onto the screen. Something that would have taken two weeks if you had to code it on your own you could do in a matter of minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\nLow-code vs. no-code: What\u2019s the difference? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nPerfecting the art of abstraction <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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