Webflow. Designer tool, or developer tool? (medium.com)
over 6 years ago from Spencer Bittle, Designer
over 6 years ago from Spencer Bittle, Designer
Designer tool
It's a perfect starting point for design people that know the basics of CSS and want to shift from pure Sketch/PS prototypes to real projects. Not a single line of code is needed to easily build complex interactions and animations so it's definitely for designers imho.
*Been using it for years now, the massive shift of workload from the dev team (coders) to the (frontend) design team is super helpful for the outcome and product quality. *
I'm thinking neither. Its a tool for people who want to visualize an idea or a concept, so designers or developers can refine and build it.
Interesting... I don't agree. It definitely feels like a tool for me (a designer). I'd personally use this to build my own portfolio - if I hadn't purchased Semplice about 6 months ago... Heck, when I get some free time, I might actually switch over to Webflow
Webflow can be used by both designers and developers. You just have to know it's current limitations. I have taken on projects where I have focused purely on the development aspects of a design. I've also used it purely as a designer creating a prototype.
I've built a ton of stuff in it - from simple portfolios to designing every screen of a web application. It's strength lies in allowing you to quickly visualize ideas. If you become familiar with the interface (minimal time) - it enables you to build things out extremely quickly. The thing it doesn't do very well is handle breakpoints - currently it only supports 4 (desktop, tablet, mobile portrait & landscape). I've found that this isn't enough when building out truly responsive sites or interfaces so I wish they had more. So, in my mind and my experience it's more of a designer tool. Although they do have interesting CMS and API features that they recently launched so I think they are trying to answer the 'should developers do design?' question by making it so damn easy for a developer to come in a put something together that looks great.
As a designer I use it... I used it to build my portfolio website. Webflow is what Dreamweaver was supposed to be but never ended up executing well (in my opinion.)
I have some developer friends who have used it but prefer their traditional avenues. I say it's more of a designer tool even though it has capabilities beyond what designers often are comfortable handling.
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