27 comments

  • Stephen LovellStephen Lovell, over 10 years ago

    It's the first WYSIWYG that seems to overcome some long-standing issues in input vs. output.

    This still doesn't address the complexity with which many sites are built these days that often involves several different pieces. As Colm T. put it:

    "If we're working on a complex app that utilizes responsive design, responsive images, conditional loading, lazy loading, HAML, SASS and Rails, handing me a bunch of CSS styles outputted by a WYSIWYG editor is as good as useless."

    Interesting product, bad marketing.

    "Stop writing code. Start drawing it."

    "We wanted Macaw to write code you'd be proud enough to hand to developers."

    That's great, but I'm still a proponent that you shouldn't be designing websites if you can't code them. There's a level of understanding that you gain by being able to code. Knowing the boundaries and stretch-points can lead to very interesting and better design solutions. It's like a painter, who can't use paint…

    Did anyone else notice this bit at the bottom?

    "Macaw's powerful, patent-pending engine is called Alchemy and it can do some incredible things"

    WYSIWYGs take a step forward, and for all those out there hoping it will push out even better solutions in the competition, take heed there may be a patent in your way.


    All in all, the product is marketed as most useful to a web designer who doesn't want to learn the other half of his/her job.

    It would be better marketed as a product that enables rapid prototyping and testing of design solutions for seasoned developers/designers, with the added bonus that it can output basic code that could or could not be useful to you.

    Marketing aside, as a prototyping tool I'm liking what I see. I could easily see this being added to my workflow to test out an idea or implementation. Beyond that, I remain skeptical until I've gotten to actually put it to use a few times.


    This could be a good ramp for beginners in web design/development, allowing you to see the underlying code that is involved in what you design. I'd rather see it be a learning tool that bridges design and development, not another tool that believes it can eliminate coding and completely replace it with drawing.

    5 points
  • Steve HickeySteve Hickey, over 10 years ago

    My jaded, beaten-by-Adobe soul just started glowing with hope.

    3 points
  • Christopher WareChristopher Ware, over 10 years ago

    I gotta admit I was skeptical, but so far this looks pretty impressive.

    3 points
  • Robin , over 10 years ago

    It looks absolutely fantastic for microsites / prototyping. I'm quite looking forward to having a play around with it

    2 points
  • David SinclairDavid Sinclair, over 10 years ago

    CSS transforms & animations planned?

    2 points
  • Colm TuiteColm Tuite, over 10 years ago

    This looks like a great tool but I'm confused as to why all of these tools feel the need to output code? Macaw's tagline is "Stop writing code. Start drawing it.". What's wrong with writing code? In my experience, writing code is much more efficient than drawing it.

    If we're working on a complex app that utilizes responsive design, responsive images, conditional loading, lazy loading, HAML, SASS and Rails, handing me a bunch of CSS styles outputted by a WYSIWYG editor is as good as useless.

    I need a tool that helps me visualize multiple iterations of my design ideas quickly at a bunch of different screen sizes. I don't need any help writing code. I have VIM for that.

    1 point
    • Axel ValdezAxel Valdez, over 10 years ago

      I agree with you completely. I have been writing code for a long time. I'm pretty good at it, and I'm not afraid of "having to type it all", I actually like it and I'm convinced it's the way it should be —browsers speak code, after all.

      What we need is a rapid prototyping thing, with a browser embedded, that allows us to test layouts and other design elements quickly at different screen sizes and using different rendering engines. I don't need to write code in that stage, I need to test and trash ideas quickly.

      I may just end up using macaw for exactly this anyway, but as it's not the thing it's designed for, it will surely keep short at it.

      0 points
  • Oliver JohnstonOliver Johnston, over 10 years ago

    Take my money now please :)

    1 point
    • Jonathan YapJonathan Yap, over 10 years ago

      I'm throwing money at the screen, its not coming out any faster!

      From the looks of it, It does write pretty amazing code though.

      0 points
  • Kevin HaggertyKevin Haggerty, over 10 years ago

    Looks very nice. Glad to see more tools like this come to market - we're coming out of the dark days of just using photoshop or fireworks, and having them both suck for web layouts.

    Interesting that it's a desktop app – I've been building my own vision for a flexible web design tool [1], but it's web-based, which lets me do cool things like provide live-updating preview URLs for designs so you can immediately see how the design works or breaks on a bunch of screens at once, or import HTML content from any URL

    [1] http://edit-room.com of course!

    1 point
  • Maksim PetrivMaksim Petriv, over 10 years ago

    Solid.

    1 point
  • Drake WhiteDrake White, almost 10 years ago

    Has anybody visited a site that was built with Macaw?

    0 points
  • Aaron SmithAaron Smith, almost 10 years ago (edited almost 10 years ago )

    I missed the Kickstarter campaign but have an immediate need to test Macaw. If anyone bought in, but would now like to sell their license code to me I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

    0 points
  • Chris MousdaleChris Mousdale, over 10 years ago

    This looks great. I'm not normally a fan of these apps. I've tried Adobe's Edge Reflow, Froont and another one i forget the name of. But i left them as I could not realistically use the output. I'm a designer first and foremost, and I can code websites (I design in the browser now) so i couldn't find a place for them in my workflow as I would have to write the code again?. But this will be great for generating ideas > then moving into prototypes as the code is pretty clean.

    I'm also glad it's not going to be a web app. Nice work! It will be interesting to see how a menu for example might work, or a drop-down etc?

    0 points
  • Jeff KunzlerJeff Kunzler, over 10 years ago

    I wonder how useful this'll be for a beginner into web like me, but I'm pumped.

    0 points
  • scott ogilviescott ogilvie, over 10 years ago

    Looks very cool. Also like the look of webflow so need to do a comparison. Some of the familiar PS grouping, moving and alignment tools look pretty good here.

    0 points
  • John FlynnJohn Flynn, over 10 years ago

    Wow, it spits out nice-looking style guides as well. Amazing for design work.

    0 points
  • Justin JacksonJustin Jackson, over 10 years ago

    Wow. This feels like a game changer.

    0 points
  • Gabriele CirulliGabriele Cirulli, over 10 years ago

    It looked weird at first, but progressing through the video it kept getting more exciting. The code this thing spits out is incredible. It'd basically require almost no changes for you to actually use the code in the final markup.

    0 points
  • Steven SarmientoSteven Sarmiento, over 10 years ago

    Nudge it and pudge it (make Nudge it & Pudge it, Tees) !! this looks awesome. ill try it for sure

    0 points
  • Mike MellorMike Mellor, over 10 years ago

    Really interested in this tool, looks awesome. Love the cmd snapping feature.

    0 points
  • Joe TurnerJoe Turner, over 10 years ago

    Looks awesome. How long until they're bought by Adobe?

    0 points