No-code development with Framer
While the concept of no-code development has been around for a long time, it hasn’t gotten mainstream until Webflow popularized it. Suddenly, designers could build simple yet elegant websites without any coding or developers—a dream come true. However, there’s another tool that, in my opinion, is even better than Webflow. it’s called Framer and it’s taking internet by the storm.
Framer is tailor-made for designers. Its UI closely resembles Figma, making it incredibly intuitive. Features akin to Figma’s Autolayouts (simply called ‘Layouts’ in Framer) and Components ensure a seamless and familiar workflow. The platform can handle responsive layouts, animations, transitions, custom fonts, and even code injections for when you need to build custom features. Powered by React, websites built on Framer are not only lightning fast but also quick to publish and update. With its integrated CMS, posting blogs or other content is easy even for non-designers. After building Argyle’s Branding Guidelines with Framer and observing its efficiency compared to custom coding, I can’t recommend this tool enough.
Framer is great not just for designers but for customers too. To build a typical corporate website with a CMS, you’d traditionally require a three-person team: a designer, a front-end developer, and a WordPress developer. With Framer, a single designer can get it done in a much shorter timespan, making the process both quicker and more cost-efficient.
Bespoke solutions with a dedicated team
While Framer is great for most marketing, corporate, or presentational websites, you can’t build e-commerce projects, web applications, or native mobile apps there. For such ventures, the only viable route is to assemble a skilled engineering team and set up a robust process. Design can be a great entry point into development. When the mockups are finalized and the specs are documented, it’s easier for developers to budget and get started. Many larger engineering-first outsourcing firms, such as Devbridge or EPAM, have either established their own design departments or acquired design firms to integrate user-centric expertise and foster a design-driven culture.
