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Will Software Like This Put Us Developers Out Of Business?

Have you seen this new app, Yotako? It's quite an advancement in technology and at first glace may leave you wondering if this sort of thing will put developers out of business.

Have you seen this new app, Yotako? It’s quite an advancement in technology and at first glace may leave you wondering if this sort of thing will put developers out of business.


Yotako will take your design (PSD, Adobe XD, Sketch, freehand, your fingers!, etc.) and automatically convert it to code. This may include HTML/CSS, Objective C, Swift, Android, etc. all at the click of a button or at the trace of a finger!

Pretty amazing.

And isn’t that what…..we often do? Someone gives us a design or a mockup, and our job is to convert that to code.

But what if software can now do that in place of us, and much quicker and cleaner?

Why would they need us?

It’s really not about the code anyway

Here’s why this sort of thing shouldn’t bother you: Because the success of building websites and web apps have very little to do with your (or my) code.

If you are a freelancer, and someone hires you to build them a site, 90% of the time have no clue, nor care to know, what code is behind it. What is more important is that you create a site that drives sales or converts based on their business goals and target audience.

When a client wants you to build them a custom form with specific mathematical functionality, as much time and satisfaction you put into the code behind it, they just want it to work correctly and to provide them with the specific calculations that their client inputs.

So Yotako can build the code, and it’s amazing, but there’s much, much, more to building websites than writing the code.

The most amazing code written doesn’t matter if the site sits stagnant and doesn’t convert. That’s where real people like you and I come in.

Here are a few other reasons why this sort of thing shouldn’t bother us:

  1. Someone has to actually build apps like Yotako. Technology advancement is a great thing (more on that below) and we should strive to be part of it.
  2. What happens when the code is built? Do the branding guidelines match? Who maintains it now? Who deploys it? Who writes the custom code to further it?
  3. As mentioned above, it’s just a tool. There is much, much more to the whole process.
  4. Finally, who develops and maintains apps and codebases that already exist?

Roll with the (nice) punches

This not a negative post on Yotako at all. Yotako actually looks really, really amazing, and I may just pick it up myself. It could serve a nice purpose in any business it seems.

(You can grab it now for a lifetime, one-time price of just $49 on Appsumo. Get it before it goes back to a subscription service.)

But when these apps arise (and they will continue to do so), we should roll with the punches. We should look at these advancements and embrace them. Let them stir us up to new insights and opportunities. That’s the only way to stay “relevant” in our field.

Remember that these types of apps only fill a small gap in the big picture. You are there to fill in the rest. So keep on developing, writing code, designing, solving clients' problems, etc. and building apps to push the limits even further.

In the meantime, go and play with this little app:

More About Yotako

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Travis of

Travis Media

Who Am I? I was 34 years old in a job I hated when I decided to learn to code. Read More
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