The Future Of Code Is No Code
Currently commanding some of the largest salaries in the market for new graduates, computer engineers and programmers have been in high demand since the late 20th century. With a median pay of almost $90k, the most important part of the job description includes writing software or programs to help users achieve their goals. Every few years the new programming language in vogue keeps changing from C to C++ or Java or Python. Now it’s ‘No Code.’
What is No Code?
No Code Development Platforms (NCDPs) allow programmers and non-programmers to create application software without having to write code and simply follow a graphical user interface (GUI). Users don’t need to have any prior programming experience and can click and drag any available functionality onto their applications. Some of the most common applications for these No Code programs are in website and app development. Corporate users who work on Microsoft environments must have already seen Power Apps as an option that helps users add key functionality without having to write a single line of code. Although this sounds like a novel idea, it has been around for decades and is a natural progression from low code development platforms like Tableau and Adobe Photoshop.
According to market research firm Gartner, low code and No Code applications will make up over 65% of new application development activity by 2024. There are several advantages of No Code programming languages over the existing coding platforms out there.
- No Code programming languages provide the best experience to teach young children and non-programmers how to create a functional computer application.
- It also puts the power in the hands of the person who knows the program’s requirements as opposed to passing on the requirements to a computer programmer.
- All development can be done by a single person as opposed to having an array of developers for the front-end UI, the database development, or the data processing workflows.
- Last but not the least, the development is much faster and significantly cheaper as users use pre-tested functionality
With all these advantages, will this replace the need for programmers or engineers? Probably not. For most regular use cases, users can quickly whip up an application but for more advanced use cases, a programmer would need to code in the specifics. Also, the development of these No Code GUIs was done by a programmer/engineer. It also doesn’t hurt to have some knowledge about design principles, integration with other applications, and security, all of which may necessitate having someone with more specific experience on your team. With the recent increase in cybersecurity attacks, you may just need a more skilled set of developers if you are handling personal information or trade secret data.
No Code programming is the next step in the democratization of programming as there can never be as many programmers as there are needs for applications. So if you are planning your next startup, there isn’t a better time to design your website yourself than now.
