Today’s software users are sophisticated and tech-savvy, with higher-than-ever expectations around UI/UX and app design. A “standard” digital experience is no longer good enough to ensure widespread app adoption and long-term loyalty. In fact, subpar design now comes with a hefty price tag: about $1 trillion, according to CareerFoundry.
Excellent app design, however, provides major benefits, including high adoption rates (even up to 100%), repeat usage, increased feedback and engagement, and evangelism—even when things go wrong. When an app is so easy to navigate that it requires little to no training, teams can innovate and iterate much more quickly, accelerating productivity and efficiency, and driving continuous ROI.
At Skuid, we’re dedicated to helping our customers create applications their users will return to again and again. That’s why our Skuid NLX solution delivers responsive, pixel-perfect branding and design capabilities—all without the long delivery timelines that often accompany custom code. This low-code/no-code platform lets app development teams go from idea to impact in days, not weeks. Read on to learn more about Skuid NLX, its features and functionality, and our resources for becoming an NLX expert.
What is Skuid NLX?
Skuid NLX is a user experience application development platform that allows business operations and IT teams to create custom experiences for Salesforce and/or other systems of record. It has two main components: the Skuid App Composer (aka the builder environment) and the Design System Studio (DSS), which defines the visual systems to be used consistently across apps.
Using both components, builders can assemble custom UI experiences that also leverage multiple models and data connectors, over 30 UI components (tables, wizards, modals, etc.), and an Action Framework where they can set business logic. And while most Skuid applications don’t require custom code, the platform allows for custom code extension to further tailor experiences to the target use case.
How Skuid NLX works
The NLX platform’s power lies in its flexibility and customization capabilities. Customers can bring their own designs and branding, data sources, and user/identity management systems, then leverage them to create experiences that fully reflect their brand and integrate with their most-used systems and workflows. Below, we’ll go through each in more detail.
Design and branding
Your brand is one of your organization’s most valuable resources, so any application you build should include visuals, logos, color schemes, and designs that are familiar to your audience. With Skuid NLX, you can create pixel-perfect, polished branding using the Design System Studio, which includes a no code style builder and in-line previews. You can also set a custom domain for your app to seamlessly connect it to your main site.
When it comes to design, Skuid NLX enables rapid solution development through its no code/low-code platform, letting teams gather feedback and iterate much more quickly than hand-coding.
Data sources
Skuid NLX works with your existing data sources, including:
- AWS (Lambda, S3, DynamoDB, RDS, Aurora, Redshift)
- SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redshift, MSSQL, Oracle)
- OData
- Salesforce
- Other (Google Calendar, Drive)
- REST
We recommend you use an enterprise DB with fault tolerance, backup strategies, security infrastructure, and administration capabilities that align with both your budget and business impact. The most popular option among our customers by far is Postgres via RDS.
User/identity management
Set levels of access with Skuid NLX’s automated user provisioning functionality. In addition, Skuid offers customizable permission sets for both your site and each application you build. Users can take advantage of SAML-based single sign-on and attribute sharing so user data syncs between systems.
Development processes
With Skuid NLX, there’s no need to abandon your current app development workflows. Set up your dev, integration, UAT, and production environments, and leverage source control. The platform also comes with multiple automation capabilities via a command line interface (CLI), which allows you to retrieve and deploy site and app metadata.
How to get started with Skuid NLX
Ready to dive into the nitty-gritty of building applications with Skuid NLX? Luckily, we’ve got some Skuid Skool courses for that! The Skuid NLX learning path currently includes three courses:
- What’s Skuid NLX?
- Discover Skuid NLX and sample business use cases. Start to think about how you’d like to use it in your organization.
- Sign Up for Skuid NLX
- Sign up for a free test site to start building and learning.
- Navigating Skuid NLX
- Explore your Skuid NLX site and learn about the different screens and areas of the platform.
After completing those three, we recommend taking Level 1 to learn more about creating design systems and building pages. More NLX courses are also coming soon, so stay tuned!
Want to experience Skuid’s low-code/no-code platform for yourself? Request a custom demo today, or start your free trial on the AWS marketplace.