Amazon joins the no-code revolution, How you can create a membership website without coding
Modern Makers - 28/06/2020
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Hi Makers,
In the agenda this week:
🍯 Amazon launches no-code app builder Honeycode
🧰 Airtable introduces the Button field
🗣 Slack Connect wants to change external communication for businesses
💳 How you can create a membership website without coding
Enjoy!
The GAFAs definitely continue to take a close interest in no-code solutions and the potential uses of these tools. This week’s major announcement concerns Amazon and the noteworthy launch of Honeycode, an app builder built around a spreadsheet that allows you to create web & mobile apps with no programming required.
Amazon's target with this tool seems pretty obvious: employees in large companies who manipulate data in spreadsheets or in Excel and who would then be able to create their own applications without having to contact theirs IT departments.
“We consistently hear from customers that there are problems they want to solve, they would love to have their IT teams or other teams — even outsourced help — build applications to solve some of those problems. But there’s just more demand for some kind of custom application than there are available developers to solve it.”
One of the main drawback of no-code solutions often being mentioned is the concern about data management and security. Amazon probably won't have too much trouble convincing companies with data hosting on AWS.
In my opinion, Honeycode won’t become one of the most widely adopted tools in the world of startups and project creators. What is sure however is that the announcement had the merit of giving a real spotlight on the no-code movement. Seeing such giants launching products of this type also validates the approach advocated by the no-code which consists in giving anyone with no web development skills the possibility of being able to create their own application.
Read: Introducing Amazon Honeycode – Build Web & Mobile Apps Without Writing Code
🧰 Product
This week, Airtable introduced the button field. As its name suggests, this field allows you to create a button that can initiates actions with data from your Airtable database. The Airtable fan community is celebrating the launch of this new feature which further widens the scope of possible applications.
One example among many: if you use a base as CRM, you can now add a Button field which allows you to open a draft email ready to be sent with just one click that will populate the email subject, recipient and body with the information available in your database for each contact saved in your CRM.
The buttons can also be used to navigate more quickly among your different tabs in your base for example.
Airtable wrote an article on their blog outlining multiple ways to use this brand new feature. Airtable is also organising a contest for this launch: the best use of this feature will be rewarded and will receive the sum of $1,000.
Read: Now available: button field
After several months of testing, Slack announced this week that it will roll out Slack Connect to all of its paid accounts. Since its launch in 2014, Slack has always positioned itself as an alternative to email. A few years later, it must be admitted that the tool has clearly changed the way companies communicate internally and has successfully established itself in the business landscape. Slack Connect wants to change the way businesses communicate externally. With Connect, it is now possible to create channels (the main element of Slack) grouping up to 20 different organisations.
The goal is simple: reduce endless email threads and make communication more efficient between several entities.
For example, Nando’s, a well-known restaurant chain here in England, uses Slack Connect to communicate directly with its partner Deliveroo.
Slack Connect is currently only available for paid accounts.
Read: Introducing Slack Connect: the future of business communication
⚒ Tutorials
Webflow is showcasing on its blog a guide explaining how to create a membership website without coding. Corey Haines launched Swipe Files earlier this year. Swipe Files is aimed at marketing teams and entrepreneurs wishing to communicate around their project. The site offers a selection of the best messages, campaigns, landing pages and emails.
For this project, Corey used Webflow to create the website and Memberstack to manage the different types of subscriptions (free accounts and paid accounts) and unlock access to premium content for paid accounts.
The article also contains many videos detailing the steps followed by Corey to launch this project. I also appreciate that Corey takes the time to insist on a few essential points that each maker should study before embarking on a new project:
Who is it for? What does it do? How will it be monetised? Why should people become members? Where will people learn about it?
Learn: How to create a membership website (without coding)
🎧 Podcasts
The Visual Developer's Podcast is back with a new episode this week. On the menu: an interview with Joe Krug, the founder of Finsweet, an agency specialised in the development of Webflow websites, a real reference in this field. Finsweet also creates many side products, including CodeCrumbs which I had already highlighted in this newsletter a few weeks ago. If you are interested in no-code and Webflow in particular, this episode is for you!
Listen: Episode 35: An Interview with Joe Krug
AJ, the founder and CEO of Carrd (a website builder tool), was this week invited on the Makerpad’s podcast. A conversation of almost 40 minutes between AJ and Ben Tossell of Makerpad during which AJ discusses in particular the huge spike in popularity in recent months following the pandemic of Covid-19.
Listen: Makerpad Episode#21 : AJ from Carrd
📖 Articles
🇬🇧 17 no-code tools for each stage of application development - TestCraft
🇬🇧 What is no code and why you should care - Zapier
🇬🇧 How No-Code And The Democratization Of Application Development Are Helping Businesses - Forbes
🇬🇧 Difference between code-free web programming language and drag-n-drop website builders - Zeroqode
🇬🇧 The case for (and against) no code - No Code Ninja
📦 In other news
Webflow has listed 24 resources to find free stock photos for your projects
The Future is No-Code report by Adalo is now available. More than 1,4000 people submitted their responses. The great debate No-code VS No Code is now over! (or maybe not)
Happy 8th anniversary to Bubble! Goodbye, Tech Cofounders: The Bubble Origin Story
Font in Logo helps you search and finds fonts used by world brands in their logos.
You can now underline on Notion
ConvertKit is calling all digital product creators to find beta testers for its new feature ConvertKit Commerce
That’s all for this week. If you like the content, don't hesitate to share it with your friends or colleagues.
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Have a great week,
Martin,