There is currently a clear boundary between web UX design and frontend development and thispaper explores the possibility of bridging said gap with the help of WYSIWYG (What You See IsWhat You Get) tools. In such a situation, WYSIWYG tools would generate markup code fromprototypes created by UX designers that could be directly handed over to frontend developers –saving time and decreasing misunderstandings between the two roles. However, despite thesetools dating back more than two decades, the tools are not actually commonly used for thispurpose. The aim of this paper is therefore to find out why, as well as explore what is necessaryfor these tools to bridge the web UX design-frontend gap. In order to do so, two studies wereconducted – first an evaluation study in which two WYSIWYG tools were methodically testedusing a software quality framework, whereas the second study consisted of two interviews withUX designers and web developers. It was ultimately discovered that the tools – apart fromconstraining its users within the tools’ own technical limitations – produced markup code thatwas neither human-readable, semantically correct nor easy to maintain. Thus, it was concludedthat a reformation was necessary for the web UX design and frontend development gap to bebridged with the help of these tools. The paper also theorises on the possibilities of using artificialintelligence to solve some of the tools’ most critical issues.
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