NoCodeGPT: A No‐Code Interface for Building Web Apps With Language Models

ABSTRACT Background Language models are increasingly used by software developers. However, it remains unclear whether their standard chat‐based interfaces are suitable for software development—especially for users with limited programming experience. Objective This work presents a tool, called NoCodeGPT, that provides a customized interface for language models aimed at enabling the implementation of small web applications without writing code. Methods We first conducted an exploratory study in which three participants used ChatGPT to implement a simple web‐based application. After that, we designed and implemented a customized GPT interface, called NoCodeGPT. To evaluate this new interface, we asked 14 students with limited web development experience to build two small web applications using only prompts. Results The exploratory study showed that general‐purpose chat interfaces like ChatGPT are not user‐friendly for application development. One participant, for instance, was unable to complete any proposed user stories. In contrast, results with NoCodeGPT were encouraging: 9 out of 14 participants completed all user stories, while the remaining five completed at least half. Conclusion The standard GPT interface is not well‐suited for novice web developers. In response, we proposed, designed, and implemented a new interface that offers a more accessible experience for building web applications with language models.