A Sad Beginning

“Well, that’s alright. You tried.”

Those disappointing words uttered by my supervisor back in 2014 have been seared into my brain ever since. They were the result of a short-lived experiment to teach me—a young graphic designer working at a full-service agency—to learn how to code.

It was a noble thought, but I knew this experiment would be a stretch. Visual design had always come more naturally to me than technical tasks. My boss soon pulled the plug, giving up on his hopes that I could both code and design for the company. In that moment, the divide in my mind between visual design and technical expertise was solidified, and I officially gave up on the idea that I would ever be the one building the websites I was designing.

To cope, I doubled down on what came naturally and spent the better part of the next decade designing and leading others to do the same.

Every now and again, I would dabble with website builders like WordPress and Squarespace and got decent results, but the ideas I imagined never really translated to the screen. I also found those platforms to be limiting and overall pretty frustrating.

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The Moment My Eyes Were Opened

Fast forward to 2023 when I was introduced to Webflow. To be honest, I was skeptical. I already knew how this story would end.

I remember feeling really out of place when my co-workers and I flew to San Francisco to attend the Webflow Conference, where I literally sat on the front row, feet away from Webflow’s CEO, not knowing how to build a single thing and feeling every ounce of imposter syndrome a man can bear.

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But being a good team player, I decided to give it a fair shot. I lived in Webflow University (highly recommend if you’re just learning the ropes) and was immediately impressed by Webflow’s capabilities. I was surprised at how quickly I started to pick things up.

Don’t get me wrong—there were dark days spent in the Webflow hole. But each challenge I overcame built my confidence and pushed me to keep learning and growing.

Soon, I was building full websites with some pretty advanced features, all without knowing any code whatsoever. I was able to add value to various sites using other no-code platforms like:

• Finsweet for custom filtering
• Memberstack to handle logins and memberships
• GSAP for unique, eye-catching interactions
• Zapier for connecting Webflow sites to a multitude of third-party integrations

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A Bright Future

I’m sitting here today, having designed and built multiple sites without ever having to hand off anything to a developer. That feeling is empowering and has given me full ownership of the projects I’m assigned.

I still don’t know how to code, but Webflow and other no-code platforms have rewritten my story and allowed me to transform my creative visions into reality, no longer restricted by the barriers that once held me back.

The future looks bright, and I’m excited to see where this no-code journey will take me next.