Prototypes are perfect for testing and validating product ideas. The aim is to test the need for a digital product with the minimum of effort and in the shortest possible time. Why in the shortest time? If the product does not solve a real problem, you should spend as little time as possible on developing a solution that has little future.
Prototypes for digital products are often created in the form of click dummies. So you take a design tool like Figma, Adobe XD or Sketch, create a few screen designs and link them together. The result is a real-looking prototype in no time at all, without any function. So far, so good.
But what if a real product or a minimum viable product could be created in the same time that is fully functional? Yes, that is possible - even without a professional developer.
How exactly? We go through that step by step.
NoCode tools such as Glide, Adalo or Softr are the key words here. Unlike click dummies, products created with Glide, Adalo or Softr are fully functional.
I was able to show some participants of Sabrina Goerlich's Beyond Design Sprint Community how this works. In a small 10-minute task, each member of the group was allowed to create their own landing page with Softr. With pre-built sections, websites, web apps and landing pages can be clicked together with Softr in just a few minutes. The results were really impressive!
Let's now take a look at the tools mentioned above together.
Alexander Sprogis
When I tried Glide for the first time, I was surprised how quickly mobile apps can be created. Glide takes care of most of the implementation itself. All you need is a spreadsheet file, e.g. Google Spreadsheet. In it you save the data you want to display in your Glide app.
Then, when you create a new project in Glide, you simply upload your spreadsheet file and Glide automatically generates an app interface for you in a few seconds. You can then customise the view of the data and the app as you wish.
It is important to know that Glide does not create native mobile apps. This means you cannot make them available in the Google Play & Apple App Store. Instead, it is a "progressive web app", i.e. a web application. You can still add it to your smartphone homescreen as a shortcut with two clicks. The application then looks and functions like a normal app. When using it, you should only make sure that you have a mobile data connection. As soon as you are offline, the app will no longer load.
Glide offers many functions such as user registration, payment functions and various integrations with third-party systems.
Glide is basically free to use. If you want to be able to store more than 500 records in your app, you need to upgrade to a paid version.
With Adalo, you can create native mobile apps using a drag-and-drop editor. This means that, unlike Glide, you can make your apps available in the Google and Apple App Store. Building apps is made very easy by Adalo's intuitive designer. With one click, you drag an app screen onto the screen and then simply add the components you need.
In addition to the standard components such as text fields and buttons, there are several other interesting elements to discover in Adalo's component marketplace. Some of these were developed by Adalo itself and others by the community. This makes it easy to click together your own Facebook, Instagram or even Clubhouse clone.
In addition to the integrated database, Adalo also offers to link various third-party systems.
Adalo is also free to use to a certain extent. If you want to push your app into the App Store, you need to upgrade to a paid plan (50 USD per month).
Softr is an absolute gamechanger for websites and web app prototypes. With pre-built sections that can be added to your own page with a single click, you gain an enormous speed advantage. Your own fully functional application can thus be built in just a few minutes. In addition to websites that mainly consist of static content, Softr can also be used to build web applications. For this purpose, Softr offers a native integration to Airtable, a spreadsheet and database hybrid. With Airtable, creating databases is as easy as filling out a simple Excel document. With this connection, you can dynamically load your data into your Softr application. You can use it to build online shops, directories, job boards and much more. Just have a look at the different Softr templates to get an impression of the possibilities.
In addition to user registrations and payment functions, Softr offers many other functions and integration options for your application. Softr is completely free to use to a certain extent. You can even link your own domain in the free tariff and make your application / website accessible to everyone.
NoCode Tools turn your prototype into a fully functional application. This way you have directly built a product that can be used by your customers. All the applications mentioned are easy to understand and quick to learn. In addition, they are all free to use in the basic version and are therefore perfect for trying out.
Do you have questions about the tools mentioned above, would you like to share your experiences or your self-built NoCode project with us? Then we would be happy if you joined our free community of NoCode makers.
