Maarten and I paired up for a 3rd time to face an app development challenge.
- The first one was BuildWithAES,
- The second BuildWithRPA,
- And now we are building an app #BuildWithCreatorStudio.
Since AI is all the hype, we wanted to add an additional layer to the challenge; build the same app twice. One design, one app build with Creator Studio, one app build with Now Assist.
Can (low-code) man beat AI in this app development race?
Maarten and I have worked after office hours to see what we could build using Creator Studio and Now Assist.
For the ideation we start as many architects; with a white board:
The design digitized:
We foresee the following:
- 2 forms:
- 1 to submit a donation
- 1 to request funds
- 4 tables
- Keep track of donations
- Keep track of the Credit it builds
- Keep track of fund requests
- Keep track of the Debit it builds
This allows us to create insights in funds coming in and going out. Helps compliancy to rules and regulations. Allows to generate reports for donors to see what is done with their money and allows proper approvals and an (automated) flow to be added to the app.
Creator Studio
Building the app in studio:
Add the first record producer:
Add a second one:
The result looks like this:
Analysing the scoped app and contents the app design looks like this:
- We created 2 record producers:
- “Help patients in need” to donate
- “Request funds for a patient” to request funds
- Creator studio created the following automatically:
- “Request Task”-table (extend from “sn_creatorstudio_task”-table)
- CRUD security ACL’s
- An audience record
- An “Agent”-role
Now Assist
Now Assist allows us to create an App from Text. When we start Now Assist it will prompt us what we want to do and we can ask it to Create an app:
We ask it to build an app for us and it replies very polite and helps us through the process:
ask it to build an app for us and it replies very polite and helps us through the process:
It feeds back what it got from the conversation before starting to create the app:
We can then generate the app:
Now Assist tells us what it creates:
The resulting app can from then on be accessed and further edited in the App Engine Studio (AES):
The Donation form:
The fund request form:
Now Assist created the following:
Conclusion
The combination of Creator Studio, App Engine Studio (AES), and Now Assist offers various way to build functionality on top of the Now Platform. Starting with a design allows us to compare the outcomes with the expected outcome.
The way we would use these capabilities is quickly allow users (creators) to build functionality with Creator Studio. With Now Assist an app framework can be generated in minutes. However, design and detailing is still where a human needs to be in the loop. This powerful assistance, combined with the right design, is what gives its power.
In our design we did not include separate roles for donors and doctors. For doctors we see the added value, as not everyone should be able to request funds. However, the Agent role that automatically was created by Creator Studio does not make that much sense. And neither does the role for donators. Thinking about how to allow donators access, keeping it as simple as possible to not have too many blockades, is key.
As to the battle of Man versus AI. We see the two working together, instead of competing, as the best way forward.
