Teaching kids no-code and specifically Bubble is a great experience. We host workshops for 12 year olds at a local elementary school. Their creativity is pretty amazing.
The fact that it’s all visual is something they really love. The immediate results are very motivating to them. You can read all about the experience here.
One of the most important lessons from this we learned, and very relevant to developing for ‘grown ups’ , is about the difference between no-code and traditional software development.
As opposed to traditional development, in Bubble, design and development are a lot more blended. This is really something (potential) clients need to realize.
As an example, we worked recently with a company that was already underway with their Bubble app for a quite a bit. They took a pretty traditional approach: use Bubble freelancers for the development and use a design agency for the UI design.
The problem with Bubble is that you will end up doing double work if you setup the ‘backend’ first and use a very bare bones UI to test and deliver the functionality.
When you get a UI from a designer you often have two problems in Bubble:
A design can be really pretty and fancy, but it has to fit into the Bubble mold. The way Bubble is structured asks for a specific way of designing elements. There is no styling, nothing to ‘theme’ so all the Bubble elements need to be manually created and styled.
Whatever you already had as a work in progress framework, you would most likely have to redo. It is not a matter of simple copy&paste the styles, the full framework of the canvas would have to be created. And did we mention responsive, yet?
This way of working is so different that we may need to work on a new work process altogether as current design strategies are not well suited to no-code development.
As a high school teacher that is currently building on bubble, this really resonates with me. I have found that there is a different approach that needs to be taken for the no-code model, as it is more about control of choice over anything else.
I thought to actually build a course that is all of the pre-development stuff as well as templates, as there is a real need to actually limit activity in order to develop and produce something of high quality. A much harder task in visual programming, as their is no real opportunity cost to visually drawing/creating elements, it is easier to slip down the rabbit hole.
My first thought: how awesome it is that you’re teaching Bubble to kids
My second thought: I completely agree with your observation. I’ve trained a few freelancers over the last year, and none of them are coders. They’re all designers, but in Bubble they do both parts, both design and “coding”.
The traditional handover from UX/design team to coding team is just not very efficient.
I’d even say that having a design background is probably more beneficial than having a coding background when you’re working with Bubble. Coding and database experience may give you a slight advantage in terms of avoiding typical pitfalls, but, in general I’d say learning the workflow development is a lot easier than learning to design well.
Whatever you need custom coded, there are plenty of freelancers available that can solve your particular need.
Hi everyone, I’m Alex from Bubble’s Growth team! So happy to hear that some of you have been taking the time to teach students how to use Bubble! We have been taking a more active role in this space as well, visiting schools and running workshops, and being present at hackathons to support, mentor, and teach students how to use Bubble. Please reach out to myself (alex@bubble.io) or Erik (erik@bubble.io) if you plan on leading other workshops so we can provide any support you may need! Also, we would love to hear any feedback you collect from these types of events!
You all make a great point about the balance Bubble has between complex functionality and attractive design. This past weekend I was just mentoring at a hackathon, and was happy to field so many questions regarding UI/UX design from the students. It was great to see how many of them were using their own technical skills to extend Bubble’s set of plugins or taking advantage of what is already there!
Here at Bubble, we are working on bringing more value to all of you and providing some of that educational content to make building and designing easier, so it is great feedback to hear that this is of top of mind to teachers and students. If there is any way we can help, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
I remember at first, I always used Bubble tutorials attached to functions.
Adding links to examples will facilitate the learning curve especially for kids.
@erik.bubble and I are currently working on creating some formal material that we will be using when running our own workshops, and will be happy to share (in 1-2 months). Also, we would love to hear feedback from you all or provide advice about how to create the most impactful and interesting workshops/events!
Yup, i think coming from a person who does vba excel mod all his life, i can connect with this. My former mentor said this to me one time - you can hire a programmer, a designer, an artist or whoever but in the end you might not translate the idea in your head properly unless you have tried to make an ugly version of it.
, is about the difference between no-code and traditional software development.
