Funtime Friday: How to Bring Magic to the Work Place
Blog: Appian Insight
So, just to set your expectations…
Yes. It is Funtime Friday.
No. This is not a blog post about Magic: The Gathering.
WARNING: This is my first blog post here at Appian, and I am inviting you inside my head. Though not quite like ‘Being John Malkovich,’ it’s kind of quirky in there. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
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As a fairly new member of the Appian product marketing team, I’ve been doing my fair share of reading to familiarize myself with all of Appian’s capabilities. I recently decided to dive into our Quick Apps capability to grasp what it’s all about.
During my research, I stumbled across an article from PC magazine detailing how to make 15-minute app development a reality in your organization.
As I began reading the article, my eyes were immediately drawn to one word.
WIZARD
When I saw the word, I didn’t think technology or software.
WIZARD? Ohhh! Spells! Magic! (Awesome!)
While this may not be the most practical thought process, and definitely not the intended reaction from that context, it did lead to an interesting way of perceiving Appian Quick Apps. I’ll break down the…let’s say imaginative…thought process while going through the article:
“Appian takes PCMag inside the new Appian 16.2 and wizard-based low-code application development platform for enterprise apps.”
Hmm…I think I’m about to read about some magic being made…
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“Appian Quick Apps…lets users create a fully functioning web or mobile app in a completely visual interface without typing a single line of code.”
So you can create an app without typing in any sort of coding/programing. This really IS magic!
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“Ross gave PCMag a demo of the new no-code Appian Quick Apps features in advance of the event, building a working app within the Appian Platform in about 15 minutes.”
Did the demo involve a wand? How else could he build a functional app in that little time? Sometimes it takes me 15 minutes to send a simple email. This would be impossible for me.
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“It’s designed to allow a business user with no IT skills whatsoever to walk through a simple four-step design wizard to define the processes, interfaces, and data structures of an app, and who they want to work with for loosely structured collaboration, with ad hoc processes and tasks.”
Ohhhhh! So a wizard does help you. That makes me feel a little more capable of tackling app design. The wizard actually makes it sound pretty easy.
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“Appian Quick Apps takes all of the existing elements with which employees work, from project management and Appian Records data to social collaboration tasks, and turns those into objects (configured in the main Appian Designer) that you can quickly pull into ad hoc apps.”
So it transforms your data elements into objects? That’s a very pumpkin-to-carriage kind of thing. I’ve always wanted something to just transform before my eyes like that!
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“…from there, click “Create Quick App” and Appian builds the app.”
Presto! Abracadabra! What a reveal. Basically you need to do very little for a big transformation. Just a flick of the wrist and you’ve got yourself an app!
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“Then, on the Reports page of the Appian dashboard, the administrator (admin) or team leader can track all of the data associated with the app.”
And now you’ve got yourself a nice crystal ball so you can watch over your business and clarify all the mysteries of your processes. Cool!
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“A real no-code platform is one that empowers citizen developers or power users while still letting them create an app that doesn’t just have bare-bones functionality but actually works.”
Anyone has the magic power to create apps that quickly and control the complex inner workings of their organization. Thanks for the help, wizard!
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Okay, enough time in my head.
While my thought processes are maybe a bit whimsical, you have to admit it…Quick Apps development is more magical than you thought. The ease of use…the understanding and generation from the software…the absence of coding…it’s all so amazing to me!
It even gives an amateur—who still registers magic wizards before software wizards—the ability to create apps.
And, that may be the most magic thing of all.
Victoria Ebel
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