By now we all know that the future of the web is mobile.
More and more consumers access data and information via their smartphone,
tablets or some other portable device. Therefore, agencies and other businesses
also have to be cognizant of the mobile environment. The link to the article
below was posted yesterday posing the question: Which is Better Mobile Apps or
Mobile Sites? Take some time to check it out and see what you think. This has
become a very timely topic within BIT and within state government. Whichever
one your agency chooses, most likely depends on the amount of time and
dedicated resources you have along with your specific customer and business
needs.
BIT recently decided on the mobile site option and we are
currently in the process of testing the site on a variety of mobile devices in
house. Some other considerations to keep in mind when determining which one is
best for your customer and business needs include the following:
1. A mobile
site can be complex, but certainly doable. Consider the fact that there are a
wide variety of mobile devices currently on the market and there are different
platforms like Windows 7 and Windows 8 that they operate on. Functionality and
appearance are key on these devices.
2. The trick
is not to create new content when developing a mobile site. Simply modify the
CSS (style sheets) to display or hide certain areas of the original website.
Keep in mind that the content must remain the same. The look and appearance
should be different.
3. Allow for
portrait and landscape modes as well as automatic rotations and scalability
with vector files for the graphics when creating a mobile site. Something that
looks great on your handheld device, may look terrible on your tablet.
4. Mobile
sites should flow well and feel native to both handheld, tablet or other portable devices.
5. Typically
it is cheaper to build a mobile site, and you can avoid the approval hassles
and time constraints often experienced when constructing a mobile app.
6. When
creating a mobile app, you are trying to provide the users with specific
functionality.
7. A mobile
app is faster, more interactive and can integrate with all kinds of other phone
features. The app must be installed to be of any use. One big advantage of native apps, is the possibility of offline usage as some users may want the ability to use an app without requiring a connection to the Internet.
8. Mobile
apps require completely different programming language from mobile sites; i.e.
Application Programming Interface or API through the Apple Developer Program or
the Android Developer Toolkit.
9. Studies
have shown users prefer mobile sites for information searching and mobile apps
for managing data, navigation and connecting with others.
10. Ultimately, it
comes down to how customers and other users are going to use your content.
***Special thanks to Miguel Penaranda for your
contributions, thoughts and ideas.