The Evolution of No-Code Web Design: From Dragie to Blocs

General Discussion
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Blocs is a fascinating and highly practical tool. It reminds me of an old bootstrap composer called Dragie that I used for creating landing pages. Back in the day, my primary tool was an ‘HTML Section’ where I could add HTML code and incorporate my styles, JavaScript, PHP, etc., directly into the same folder to complete my page. When Dragie disappeared, I transitioned to a more ambitious app called Macaw, which was essentially Dragie with a nicer user interface and additional tools for detailed WYSIWYG design. Despite these advancements, I still ended up using HTML code and adding my CSS and other programming languages to finish my pages.

As I learn more about Blocs, I’ve realized that if I choose not to invest in bricks or blocs, I can use the HTML widget to create everything I need. The user interface’s flexibility allows me to construct the wireframe layout, and then I can fill everything using the HTML widget. This experience has shown me that tools like Rapidweaver, Pinegrow, Bootstrap Studio, SiteDesigner, Silex, and Shuffle lack a key element to be true no-code editors: the ability to bring any website to life without requiring any coding.

Why is this still not possible? If I were to ask Claude Sonnet 3.5, a very powerful language model, to create a website using provided FTP file URLs, a color palette, and font information, I would have the page I want in just five minutes. This is no exaggeration. But instead of relying on an app for web design, I want a tool that allows me to use my creativity to build a website.

When I bought my first Mac in 1994, I installed a web creation app called Freeway, which came close to this ideal but still required coding knowledge in the end. This is why it never fully succeeded. I hope that someday we will have a tool for website creation that requires no coding knowledge whatsoever, enabling creative individuals to build their websites just like they would use any graphic design tool. Perhaps Penpot could make that possible? I believe Blocs stands out as the best-designed web creation app on the market today, with the potential to seamlessly integrate design and development in the future. What do you think?

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A really good description and inventory!

We have also tested some of the tools you mention. Especially Bootstrap Studio and Rapid. Then there was SparkleApp. Then also connected with the possibilities of CKEditor. And, as an aside, all the Adobe stuff.

Ultimately, Blocs is now our basis. Even for quite large projects. If you want something out of the ordinary, you can’t do it without code. That will always be the case and will become more (!). There is an API for everything in the online world and most services. How is that supposed to work without code integration…

If you give children a calculator at school, they forget how to do math, even though they are at school…

The Blocs mix fits quite well.

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I’m enjoying Blocs, but it’s a stretch for these products to call themselves “no code” website builders—that’s misleading. Clearly, I’m not the target market for a fully code-free creator, since I prefer working in Nova with full control over the code. However, my post was more about wondering whether we’ll ever see an app that allows creatives to bring their ideas online without having to think about coding. That was the real question I had. By the way, Sparkle is a modern version of iWeb! Cool!

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iWeb was already quite close to the NoCode approach. Unfortunately, the lifespan was short and the whole responsive thing didn’t work really well yet. Maybe after 3 years I’ll take another look at Sparkle, if it goes the iWeb direction it would be super fast to get a proper standard website.

You use NOVA from Panic ? I don’t know that one. I use Visual Studio Code. But that’s almost a bit much with its infinite possibilities and options.

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Very interesting subject here @AlbertKinng.

I think these apps already exist, I would consider Blocs in this bracket right now. The key factors here are perspective and expectation.

For many, creating a website without code is changing the images, text, colours and fonts on a site template or pre-made sections. For others it’s creating more bespoke designs with refined animations and a much more customised look. Blocs can handle both of these creation scenarios right now but as you mentioned, to get something more bespoke, you will likely need to use code

The problem we face is, the web is constantly evolving. Let’s say nothing changed in web design from 2001, the need for responsive design was never a factor and the web was more like creating a poster in illustrator (remember flash websites). The design tools would eventually catch up. However, this is not the case and never will be.

There will always be new in tech and the web is no exception.

I recently purchased an Apple Vision Pro and have used it almost every day since I got it, I think it’s an amazing product and without a doubt a glimpse into the future of personal computers.

With these new types of devices I think there is huge potential to redefine what we consider a website, Apple already refers to this in their developer training as the spatial web. Of course it’s easy to criticise at this early stage because the devices are not appealing enough and too expensive. But this will change, just like it did with the original Macintosh.

Getting back to design tools, I know many think AI will solve all of our design problems, but the bottom line is describing a website in detail is not an easy task and there is a huge barrier with terminology. I’d say most humans find it easy to pick colours with their sight and harder to describe them with words.

So in a world dominated by AI builders, replace HTML and CSS knowledge with AI prompting knowledge :woozy_face:.

So to summarise, I think YES, eventually there will be tools that will meet your personal current expectations (for others we are already there), but this moment will be fleeting and short lived and by that point, a web developer will have clients requesting 3D depth animations that break outside of the browser frame into a visitors environment, support for spatial images and other crazy things we can’t even imagine now.

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exactly, everyone has a different expectation of no code. Depending on the expectation, it may or may not exist.

Please continue to develop Blocs as before :+1:, then with Blocs we have the best tool from both worlds!

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Visual Studio Code? I will check it out!

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Norm, I’m familiar with coding. I enjoy integrating both worlds in website creation, and so far, Blocs has been the most exciting tool to use compared to other web building experiences. My post was simply an expression of the realization that despite my love for coding, there seems to be a misconception that creative individuals can effortlessly create websites without it. Blocs, however, stands out as the most advanced website creation tool, allowing you to create even from an iPhone, which is unmatched by any other tool available.

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That approach is indeed possible with Shuffle, but in my opinion, Blocs is a more professional tool, which is why I prefer it.

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it is an open project on GitHub,

i.e. it will probably not disappear so easily if MS no longer likes it. The user base is really large. There are extensions for almost everything and a good way to get started

in deutsch

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There are some who consider our efforts with the iPhone a waste of time, but interest in Blocs for iPhone has surprised us. It has over 1K active testers now for the last released build, which is beyond what Blocs for iPad got during its beta testing.

It’s just tapping into a completely different / new audience, but it’s nice to hear you value our efforts here too. :raised_hands:

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Nice thread @AlbertKinng

As a no-code user of Blocs, I would say that it already allows me to create pretty much any type of design I can imagine. Of course, being a minimalist, and knowing instinctively what is possible and what might be ‘difficult’ in Blocs even before I start working on it, helps me avoid situations where I might attempt (or even imagine) something that turns out to be impossible without coding.

Of course, the creativity and imagination of a designer are endless, and Blocs (or any other tool) will never be able to become a truly limitless web design app, especially when it comes to backend functionality. I think that Blocs is currently the best at what it does among standalone apps for Mac. If we’re talking about web-based solutions, Webflow and, more recently, Framer are even more powerful tools.

Cheers,
Eldar

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Impressive! Framer seems amazing! I’ve never come across it before, it’s on a whole other level. Thanks for introducing it to me! As for Webflow, although it was great when it first launched, now it seems to be adopting a big brother mentality and becoming more like a WordPress clone. It’s going after big corporations and losing the fun factor.

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Are you serious? I’ve been using my iPad as a full-fledged creation tool ever since it became Pro. I always demonstrate to people that it’s feasible to work on an iPad when you have the right tools! When I discovered that you were developing Blocs for iPad and iPhone, I immediately believed that Blocs was the way to go. Anticipating the future is the only way to stay ahead of the game, and your company is making it possible.

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Wow! I even found you can use it online! Is it free? Please tell me the cons.

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The fact that you can use it online in the browser is due to the underlying Electron Framework. Impressive how desk and browser move together. Good thing…

Is it free ? If you mean open source ?
then not really. I think it’s the combination of different licenses and the telemetry.

If you want it to be absolutely free, then take the fork here

But so far you’ve been happy with Nova, so you’re already looking for the fly in the ointment…

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Not really, I want to try the codeium extension that let you have AI inside your text editor for free and Nova is not on the list! How much is VSC?

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Free.

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Having started, with making dial-up BBSs in the early 90s using ANSCI Art, coding in notepad, slicing images up in Illustrator to build pages with tables, (Norm mentioned, pretty much making a poster :wink: ) Macromedia Studio MX, Flash, mobile versions of our websites to making responsive layouts (I am sure there are many here who can relate)… one thing is for certain, and thats change.

Now we are adapting to AI, eventually spatial web, and figuring out how that will all work. Although I still see AI as a tool, not a replacement. It’s great for building wireframes out in a moment, and checking my bad spelling.

I do miss a lot about those “slower” days. We didn’t seem to mind waiting 5 minutes for a low resolution image to download.

My background was hand drawn animation, 3D computer animation has changed that rapidly. Well the tools have changed, but a lot of the same skills are used.

For now, I am an advocate of the Low Code approach, and take advantage of the right apps for the type of work we what to achieve. For us service providers, a basic understanding of the frameworks we are using, CSS, HTML and javascript, will basically allow you solve most things you want to build, or at least know the limitations. And then use visual building apps for all they are worth.

I basically consider any NoCode claims to be more marketing hype than an exhaustive promise. Well until Elon sticks a chip in all our brains anyway :joy:

IMO, avoid solutions that lock you into a propriety system (often subscription based), especially when dealing with clients, it might come back to bite you.

Yep and it sits in my dock next to Sublime Text which I also enjoy using (All my Brics were built with it) . I no where near use all the capabilities of VSC though. I use both to edit HTML and Javascript in Bootstrap Studio. One day I will take some time to explore how I can better implement VSC into my workflow. Pretty sure there is a ChatGPT plugin for it.

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I see you’ve made the wise decision to purchase Pinegrow! I’d love to hear about your experience with it. Is it as impressive as they say?

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