I've been learning FlutterFlow (FF) for almost 2 years, and I'm completely a no-code person. I can understand code logic and write a simple script, but that's it. Before FF, I had 6 years of experience with an easier no-code platform.
In recent months, the ex-Google Head of Flutter product, Leigha Reid, joined FlutterFlow as Head of Product and DevRel. This is undoubtedly excellent news, as she is skilled in taking FF to new heights. In a recent post, Ms. Reid presented the company's vision to shape FlutterFlow as a visual development environment, rather than just a low-code tool. In her video presentation, she explains the advantages of this approach, with FF's ability to export clean and performant code being one of them.
A new video also previews announcements for the 2024 Flutter Developer Conference (FDC), mentioning something about React and a top Google Firebase professional joining FlutterFlow. These developments raised my eyebrows. While attracting key people from Google is a strong strategy, I, as a non-tech person, wonder: Will a product created by long-time technical developers increase or decrease the gap for non-technical users? It's understandable that FlutterFlow needs highly skilled tech people to build the platform, but will their vision include non-tech users?
For me and millions out there, Microsoft Excel is the best example of a successful no-code app. It achieved the holy grail of code abstraction when anyone, even without prior knowledge, can easily create complex calculations, data relations, and good UI. The no-code-first logic won. If greater automation is needed, it's also available with options for tech and developers, such as including connection to API and SQL databases, and more.
Another closer example is Webflow. Any designer can create, from start to finish, a professional website. It easily allows adding and fully managing its database only using UI. Even so, all the underlying HTML/CSS/Javascript code is there for any tech person to edit and improve, without breaking the UI.
In FF, the UI building (front-end development) has matured enough to be easy and solid for non-tech people. The action editor has evolved a lot, as well as the single-click Firebase connection. However, any tasks beyond passing simple parameters through pages or using basic variables are hard because they require code logic. While learning code lingo is okay, it doesn't make sense for a non-tech person to use a tool that requires learning code logic. Well, that IS the reason for the whole no-code/low-code movement.
The FF team is very competent and has been delivering good features at a formidable rate since launch, but who is in charge of creating the UI non-dev logic? Who is nonDevRel?
FF will not be built overnight (the backlog is long, and time is short), but what vision will the FF team embrace to build it - a powerful visual IDE for Flutter and Dart first, or a no-code-first logic app?
The 2024 Roadmap article
https://blog.flutterflow.io/flutterflow-2024-our-product-vision-and-roadmap/
Ms. Reid presentation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7raNjAcjxjw
FDC 2024 preview announcements https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_50T_reG8c
This post was also published as a Medium article here.
EDIT: added a "roadmap" tag, videos legends and the Medium article link