Week 2: Using Noodl as a tool for real-world development

Think of some of the ideas you sketched in class for projects targeting specific problem frames in heathcare and education in the 21st century. How might you be able to use Noodl or a similar tool to prototype a product that might address those problem frames? What would be the advantages and disadvantages of using a tool like Noodl? Do you think a Noodl-based application could be used to develop the final product? Why or why not?

Noodl is a web-based chrome extension that allows users to quickly construct their own web apps using an easy to learn visual programming environment. In our entrepreneurship class, we are trying to examine if this tool would be at all valuable in developing apps in the real world for solving the current problems in the healthcare and education industries. I personally believe that Noodl has some use as a preliminary design tool and for allowing ideas to be quickly developed into a prototype that can be deployed and tested on users. However Noodl is also limited in its potential longevity for use on a project and once the real application needed to be developed, more engineers would need to switch to programming in actual HTML and JavaScript.

These reasons lead me to believe that Noodl potentially does have use in the development of a final product that can be used to solves problems in one of the outlined areas, however the usefulness of this tool will just be limited to initial prototyping and proof-of-concept designs. Ultimately the tool will most likely be ditched as the app becomes more refined and more features that can be found in more advanced tools will become necessary.