This tutorial is helpful but it makes me question the UI. Unless you have previous knowledge of transitions and animations, all the dependencies are confusing.
Thatâs a good point, but thereâs a learning curve to every app, and once you know, you knowâŚ
Weâre also leaning into the way Tailwind and CSS works. That way we can stay consistent with the framework weâre basing Elements on.
I guess your post also touches on our target market - over these past few months itâs become clear weâre no longer aiming Elements at the complete beginning market with no web design experience.
Anyway⌠once you get to play with Elements and the V2 components weâve built it will all start to make sense.
I understood it. It simply isnât intuitive to a beginner. It just seems to me a better grouping or organization on the dependencies would be more natural. I caution RM on leaning into the concept of âonce you know it-you know it.â I have found that to be a lazy solution that leads to unnecessary complexity and a slow growth opportunity or possibly even failure.
I do however agree that a more advanced user is likely your market. Many of the online web creation options will probably own the total novice market.
With the AI ââlag and the competition already well established in the market you are targeting, the only way to compete with Webflow seems to be to rely on a strong third-party developer community to offer more extensions than Webflow does. Thatâs my 2 cent opinion.
ADD : for fun hereâs the perplexity opinion (pro ; I know Iâm teasing a little bit here 
) :
Analyzing more deeply the implications of this strategic shift for RapidWeaver Elements.
Strategic Repositioning
The fact that the founder of Realmac announced that RapidWeaver Elements no longer targets beginners marks a significant turning point in the companyâs strategy. This repositioning could be motivated by several factors:
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Market Evolution: The market for website creation tools has evolved considerably in recent years, with the emergence of very accessible no-code and low-code platforms for beginners.
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Increased Competition: Players like Webflow, Wix, and Squarespace have captured a large portion of the beginner market, potentially pushing RapidWeaver to reposition itself.
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Demand for Advanced Features: Experienced users are looking for more sophisticated tools, which may have prompted Realmac to refocus its product.
Challenges and Opportunities
Challenges
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Differentiation: In a saturated market, RapidWeaver Elements will need to offer unique features to stand out from the competition.
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Adoption by Professionals: Convincing experienced developers to adopt a new tool can be difficult, especially against established solutions.
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Integration of AI: Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing web development. RapidWeaver Elements will need to integrate AI features to remain competitive.
Opportunities
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Specialized Niche: By focusing on a more advanced audience, RapidWeaver Elements could find a lucrative niche less saturated than the beginner market.
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Advanced Features: The ability to offer more powerful and flexible tools could attract users frustrated by the limitations of mainstream platforms.
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Loyal Community: RapidWeaver already benefits from a loyal user base who might be interested in a more advanced version of the software.
Future Prospects
For RapidWeaver Elements to find its place in this competitive landscape, Realmac will need to:
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Innovate Constantly: Integrate cutting-edge features, particularly in AI and automation.
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Optimize User Experience: Although targeting a more advanced audience, the interface must remain intuitive and efficient.
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Develop an Ecosystem: Encourage the creation of plugins and extensions to enrich the softwareâs features.
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Provide Robust Documentation: Offer comprehensive learning resources to help users master advanced features.
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Ensure Compatibility: Guarantee good integration with modern web tools and technologies.
In conclusion, although the challenge is significant, RapidWeaver Elements could potentially carve out a place in the market by offering a powerful and flexible solution that bridges the gap between mainstream no-code platforms and traditional web development. Success will largely depend on Realmacâs ability to deliver a product that truly meets the needs of professional web developers while maintaining the ease of use that has made RapidWeaver renowned.
I shall disagree a bit. I would say that I am an intermediate-advanced beginner. Elements is the first web software since Adobe GoLive 6 that I actually like, and am very looking forward to its full release. (I am using the beta). I have had a license and/or used at various times Sandvox, Dreamweaver, Blocs, Rapid Weaver 8/9/Classic and a few others. NONE of them vibed for me and I ended up ignoring them. Yes, I had to learn some stuff for Elements and learn how it works, and yes, I had to review some docs for Tailwind. But Elementsâ work flow matches how I think and work through stuff. I really really like it. I am just looking to update my existing website with a modern software solution, and maybe one or two other family sites. My existing website was built with GoLive 6 and hasnât been updated since. I now have about 1/3 redone in Elements. The initial effort in time has been about 5-6 hours, but now that I am familiar with how stuff works, the rest should go much more quickly. I am now just waiting on the next Beta or so which should have the release of the Version 2 components, so I donât have to re-do too much of what I have already done, to update to the V2 components.
To summarize, I think that Elements is fine for a beginner, but there will probably be a short learning curve for the basics, and a longer curve for the advanced stuff.
@dan , need the next Beta!!! 
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If you are going for a more experienced market, youâre not only going to be competing directly with WebFlow, Wix, and Squarespace, but also Framer (which is more attractive to experienced designers/developers), all of which have collaborative features for teams/clients, comment/review support, provide turn-key hosting, CMS collections, form submissions, workflows that support import from Sketch and Figma (Framer), AI integration, etc.
Like @Flash I would caution you on the âonce you know itâ mindset. Youâre assuming somebody is going to take the time to learn it, but if they run into additional blockers that will likely be the end of their evaluation of Elements. As it stands I find Elements far less intuitive to use than pretty much every other website creation tool today.
@sbchasin I loved GoLive (especially before Adobe acquired them) as it had an absolutely fantastic user experience, and a great abstraction layer which largely avoided you having to ever jump into code.
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Maybe itâs time to ask the beta testers what they think about all this, right? There are not many of us who give opinion on the forum.
Yes this is a concern. Such a small sample. I pray RM has a better research model.
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What exactly is the question you have?? I can at least give my answer.
I assumed he was hopping for a more broad consensus. So yes. What is your opinion about the beta. Any or all of it.
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I really like it. As I said earlier, Elements is the first web design software since GoLive 6 that I like.
For me, it does what I need it to do, which is to update my existing site (yes, I am rebuilding it in Elements) to more modern html & css, and will enable me to keep it updated, hopefully for at least a few years.
I donât require any of the advanced stuff right now. That doesnât mean I wonât down the line in the future. It is there when I need it, if I ever do. I donât think Elements is directly competing with say Wix or Squarespace. Both are template design sites, not really design from scratch. Elements is design from scratch. You can design simple, or if and when more experienced, design complex.
When I first re-created my home page in Elements it took me about 90 minutes or so. I had to learn the software and familiarize myself with TailwindCSS. Once I wrapped my head around how it worked, it clicked for me. Re-creating the rest of my existing website in Elements will go much faster.
Any new software requires a learning curve, and I have found that, for me, Elements basic learning curve has been relatively short, and it becomes easier to use with time. There are some bugs of course, but they are steadily being fixed, and there are improvements each week.
All in all, I find that Elements does what I want it to do (build a website), in a way that feels familiar to me, and in a way which matches how my brain works for this.
I give it two thumbs up!!
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This is going way off the original topic so Iâve replied in the thread about target markets.
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I completely agree. Iâm not a developer or coder, but with elements I feel I can do crazy things in a intuitive way. A lot of things are not possible in RW classic, not even with stacks. I use RW since the beginning and the way the guys of RM have reinvented RW Classic is amazing.
So far I havenât seen any possibility that one canât render with RW/Stacks. What are you referring to?
I actually bought a license to RW along with Stacks and Foundry. It just didnât vibe for me. Tried to rebuild my existing site, and it just didnât click and I ended up just forgetting about RW. With Elements, however, it just clicked, and after a few hours of learning Elements and learning a bit about TailwindCSS, the rebuild has begun. It just clicked. Now just waiting for next beta with V2 components so I donât have to re-do too much of the rebuild!!
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