Google is one of the most influential brands in the world. In 2013, the tech giant released a free HTML5 development app.
If you are one of those wondering if Google Web Designer is useful for building websites, you need to continue reading this blog. Google’s web designer is definitely a useful design tool that a web design company can use without breaking the code. But can this tool help you design and build a complete application?
In this blog, we will try to conclude whether it is possible to use the Google web designer to create websites. But before we get into that, let’s talk about some numbers and then what is Google Web Designer?
Some numbers about Google Web Designer
Since the launch of the Google Web Designer software in 2013, it has been continuously evolving. Since its launch, 5,504 websites have used the Google Web Designer tool to design their websites. There are currently 2,175 live websites using this software and over 7,670 websites using Google Web Designer.
So what exactly is Google Web Designer and what makes it a popular design tool?
What is Google Web Designer?
Google Web Designer (GWD) is one of the marketable responsive web design programs that helps you create interactive HTML5 websites as well as banner ads. It is a WYSIWYG editor that allows web designers to create interactive designs based on HTML5. GWD is also standalone software available for Mac, Windows and Linux.
GWD is a simple and easy-to-use tool even for novice web designers to create content that is compatible with different screens. There are several features in GWD, such as automation, that help designers create better UX / UI development services without the headache of how they will be displayed. GWD’s animated graphics and designs allow a website to run on any device and make it the perfect tool for creating animated ads and HTML5 designs.
Some features of Google Web Designer
Several features have made GWD one of the most used tools for creating websites, offering a user-friendly design for users.
⦁ Liquid location:
The width and height styles when adjusting the top and left corner are done using percentages. This allows the website to move, growing and shrinking with the device, without changing the overall structure. With a fixed layout, even a small change requires the user to manually move each item in the container.
⦁ Event system:
This feature allows you to create highly interactive UI / UX development services that include documents, timeline actions, and any other components associated with any element of other GWD documents. You can create creative designs by defining new custom actions in JavaScript. Next, for custom actions, transform the predefined actions.
⦁ 3D environment:
GWD provides the user with a 3D rotation tool that allows the user to carefully examine the result of creating an element from all angles.
⦁ Automatic HTML conversions:
With GWD, you can automatically convert any page on Google Drive to HTML. Often seen as a backup or sharing platform, Google Drive is much more important to GWD as it makes it easier to launch HTM pages from Drive. Plus, you can preview HTML creation from any device.
⦁ Publishing to DoubleClick Studio:
With DoubleClick Studios, GWD offers a cross-screen feature that allows you to create ads for both desktop and mobile screens. GWD has a range of features such as maps, image galleries, videos and interactive features that are necessary to improve the user experience. Once the design is complete and ready, you can publish it directly to the studios.
⦁ Create your own component (BYOC):
The BTOC feature that GWD offers allows you to not only create components, but also enhance existing features. The zip file contains custom components that become embedded components when imported into GWD.
⦁ Animation mode:
GWD offers two animation modes, Advanced and Quick, with different options such as timeline events, scrolling, and auto key frames. Both modes have their advantages: for example, in fast mode, you can jump from one frame to another, and in advanced mode, you can control individual frames.
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⦁ Custom colors :
Bright color bars can be selected in GWD. It also lets you create complex gradients and new colors that you can save as a custom swatch.
⦁ Groups:
GWD has groups that allow you to create reusable objects, and the changes you make are immediately reflected in the entire group. This saves time from copy-pasting, and in the absence of a group, without affecting the file size, it will be saved as a companion file.
⦁ Updated web components :
GWD allows you to provide responsive web design services with updated components like 360-degree gallery, iFrame, canvas shapes, map, video, YouTube, interactive area, etc. It also has a gesture component that helps with
clicks, touches , mouse tracking and other touch gestures. GWD also has a TaptoCall feature
⦁ Design templates:
A wide variety of multimedia templates are available at GWD. With these templates, you can create fully functional ads as well as customize them.
Final verdict
Any web design company can use GWD as it offers a great interactive interface to successfully create animations. It is also useful for prototyping; in fact, CSS # animations in HTML5 are generated using GWD. However, GWD looks too cumbersome with a control panel due to too many options.
Moreover, GWD cannot open any other HTML files that used other web design tools. GWD also lacks text content creation features. The user needs to know the source code if he wants to get the desired result using GWD. So, if someone already knows source code or CSS3, then why use GWD? Although GWD is a free tool, it is only available in beta.
So while it is useful for prototyping or pop-up ads, it doesn’t help in building a fully functional website. GWD leaves a lot to be desired for building a fully functional website.
The USA Times 