It’s becoming increasingly important to build websites that can adapt to different devices and platforms; users on smartphones will need a slightly different experience from those on laptops, and getting sites to be as optimised as possible is important if businesses want to retain loyalty. However, what’s the best approach for development – native and web apps, or responsive design? What kind of advantages and disadvantages does each method have, and which is ultimately the most future proof approach?
In terms of responsive design, this refers to coding sites to respond to individual devices; CSS3 queries are used in order to determine what devices are accessing a site via a browser, with a base code used to set minimum width alongside fluid grids. By taking an approach to an entire site where pages will scale down and up depending on the device, responsive design can be a ‘one size fits all’ solution to multiple device usage.
As a result, responsive design tends to work well for text heavy sites like newspapers and online magazines. However, where responsive design starts to fall down is in terms of loading times, and whether or not users prefer to have the same in a resized format, or whether they’d rather have an optimised site or a native or web app that is more tailored towards what they’re looking for.
App development can be a more productive alternative to responsive design, in this context, due to giving users on smartphones and tablets a more focused experience, whereby they can go straight to a conversion or a landing page. HMTL5 designed apps can be particularly set up for the most concise user experience, and can deliver the right content for a site. As Carin van Vuuren has pointed out, user context is vital to understanding whether responsive design or app development works best as an approach.
Native apps do give developers more scope for specification, and are often easier for businesses to monetise depending on their Android or iOS location. Native apps and web apps can also be used offline if needs be. Web apps can similarly be created that can be used across platforms, albeit without the same universality that responsive design can potentially deliver in terms of loading up the same page to suit different browsers, screen sizes, and devices.
This lack of cross platform compatibility is perhaps the biggest weakness facing native app developers, and is made more complicated by the recent trend towards Android fragmentation, where different OS releases make it difficult for developers to keep up with user demand. Sites that use responsive design can point, then, to an increased flexibility, as well as an easily modified content management system.
So, which is the best option for designers and developers – responsive design or apps? In general, it’s best to view both as having their merits, and remembering the importance of context. Sites that don’t require a lot of focused activities, or that don’t necessarily lose anything through being automatically resized can use responsive design without seeing much of a change in usage; any sites that want to be more actionable and connected to social networks might, however, fare better with apps for the time being.
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“Rosette has been a digital marketing specialist for the past 4 years.She recommends Deep Blue Sky Website Design services as a perfect web development and digital marketing partner. She can be found blogging on a variety of web design, app development and eCommerce topics.”
Pic Source: Mashable