[Presented April 2012 at UX Masterclass in South Africa] Cold logic makes a hard case for opting for mobile web apps over native ones. If you can build it in HTML, CSS, and javascript, then do, right? Except for the pesky little detail called the real world, where marketers demand apps, boardrooms pay for apps, and even worse, users seem to prefer them. Or do they? In this talk, Brian will try to reframe the web vs native vs hybrid debate into a conversation about what your customers really need, and what they’ll actually use. The technology you choose for your mobile approach is of strategic importance, but you need to be thinking about much more than just technology.

1. Mobile web vs. native:
It’s not about technology, it’s about psychology
@brian_donohue

2. This debate has been around a while - sort of

3. Remember when Virgin used to be cool?

4. http://url.ie/a1wt
Execs just want an
iPhone/Android app

5. How many of them are just vanity apps?

8. There have been some strong opinions

9. “ Native apps are a
remnant of the Jurassic
period of computer
history, a local maximum
that is holding us back.
The combination of a
discovery service and just-
in-time interaction is a
powerful interaction model
that native apps can’t begin
to offer.”

10. Gilt CEO told
him customers
are moving
from web to the
app because
it’s “faster,
simpler, more
immersive”
It’s all about the “App Internet”

11. Apparently no one else in his company agrees

12. Be wary -- this stuff changes fast
2011:
“Platforms are risky places to put your
business...If you can do it with the
Web -- do it with the Web. It’s
faster, cheaper, and easier.”
Web app masters tour, 2011: http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1281
2010:
“(Website owners interested in developing an
iPhone app might start by developing an iPhone-
targeted website, where most of this book’s
design principles also apply.)”

13. Source:
http://url.ie/evp2
%
And let’s not ignore the bigger context here
of mobile phone users in the world use
their phone for SMS. SMS is the
primary use for mobile phone users
around the world.
85

14. time it takes for the average
SMS to be read after it’s sent
time it takes for the average
email to be read after it’s sent
4
Source:
http://url.ie/f18t
hours
48 minutes

15. Coke’s 70:20:10 rule for mobile:
• 70% to SMS and MMS
• 20% mobile internet
• 10% mobile apps

16. Of course -- what does Coke need an app for?

17. Data suggests it’s neck and neck
47.6% of mobile Internet customers use native
mobile apps and 47.5% use the Web browser on their
devices.

18. But it varies a lot

19. People are getting fed up with the debate

20. “While many people try to argue for one
side or the other, the truth is there are
great reasons for doing both”

21. OK - so it’s not a zero sum game
But we still have to choose an approach!

22. The logic that makes this seem obvious

23. Fragmentation

24. Going native is a policy of exclusion...
http://url.ie/a1xc

25. “We could probably save 70% of our
development budget by switching to a single,
cross-platform client
Phil Lebin, CEO
http://url.ie/a1xl
supports 5 native mobile platforms
“...all of these users on all these devices using Facebook mobile in the wide
rainbow of lovely different experiences across Android, iPhone, Windows, the
Web. That was great from a user perspective. What sucks? The
environment for my developers, essentially. You have the bad old days.
You have four different platforms to build for something essentially. You want to
build for all of those groups? You are going to have to build the sucker four
times.
Dave Fetterman,
Engineering Manager
http://url.ie/dj68
supports 4 native mobile platforms

26. Defining “native” vs. “mobile web”
Objective C HTML, CSS, JS
C ++
Java
works best on webkit browsers

27. Different platforms usually means
different people
Objective CJava

30. Native isn’t always better
Native app only Both Web app only
 Gyroscope and
Accelerometer
 Accessing filesystems
(e.g. address book,
photos)
 Fully-immersive
experience (e.g.
gaming)
 Support in-app
purchases
(Apple takes 30% cut)
 Camera
 Smoother and more
responsive
 Store data offline
 Access GPS
 Have app-like UI and
transitions
 Accessible as app
from home screen
 Much easier to test,
prototype, and rollout
 Can update
immediately (no app
store approval),
customers don’t have
to update the app
 HTML 5 is continually
adding hardware
capabilities

32. Who’s going with HTML 5?

33. The magic bullet?

34. So is this an easy one?

35. 1. Your app needs to use the hardware
So let’s look at these criteria a little closer

36. Native app only Both Web app only
 Gyroscope and
Accelerometer
 Accessing filesystems
(e.g. address book,
photos)
 Fully-immersive
experience (e.g.
gaming)
 Support in-app
purchases
(Apple takes 30% cut)
 Camera
 Smoother and more
responsive
 Store data offline
 Access GPS
 Have app-like UI and
transitions
 Accessible as app
from home screen
 ??Findability??
 Much easier to test,
prototype, and rollout
 Can update
immediately (no app
store approval),
customers don’t have
to update the app
 Can link to the app
(e.g. SMS with link to
your bill)
 HTML 5 is continually
adding hardware
capabilities

37. This was reason we went native with Tayto

38. Gmail launched their native app in November

39. It didn’t go down so well amongst technorati

40. Panned in the reviews as well

41. Lesson: app expectations are
VERY HIGH

42. 2. Frequency of use

43. Apps that people use the most - the habit forming ones

44. “As this data shows, while smart phone clients are
important, there are even more people who use the
mobile Twitter web site and/or SMS."

46. Out of 425 million mobile users:

47. Just because you hope people
will use your app frequently, that doesn’t
necessarily mean they need a native app

48. 3. Damn those links

49. Do you send out emails or SMSs?
Cries out for links to their
mobile app (if they had one)

51. The big disconnect

54. 4. The experience is just better

57. It’s about the
animations,
the speed,
the feel, the
experience
of the whole
thing

58. A billion shared “moments”
Path
Instagram

59. What about their desktop experience?

60. Clear app/ The new cool?

61. Oooh, I can do that in HTML 5
http://clear.youyuxi.com/

62. Well, sorta / But not for any other phones

63. “The Web app and
native experiences
are very similar. We
had set out to mimic
the native app and
make the transition to
the Web app
seamless. Although
it was tricky to
achieve precisely
the same quality
(e.g., access to
apis), we quickly got
very close (say,
80-90% the same
user experience). We
have since stopped
development of the
native app and are
aggressively
developing the
HTML5 version.”
http://url.ie/ew19
You can actually do a lot of this with HTML5

64. But to (nearly) replicate the UI, you’re basically writing
code totally tailored to one device. It’s like a native
app, it’s just a different language.
And the experience will never be quite as good.

66. “It doesn’t feel like a real app”

67. Lesson:
If the experience is part of your
differentiator, you gotta make it native

68. 5. Findability

73. Maybe this will take off?

74. We still live in an app culture
The cold reality:

75. http://tripleodeon.com/2011/09/of-sites-and-apps/

76. People expect you to have an app

77. 51
Source: http://url.ie/f1sk
apps
83 apps
Average iOS device owner downloads this many apps in a year
in 2011 in 2010

79. But hold on a second...

80. What that looks like

81. Are you going to be a top 10 app?

82. To download is not to keep, or use
iOS and Android users

83. The disposable app culture:
Download it,
use it once,
forget about it,
bin it

84. Why isn’t there a parallel debate
about whether to build for the
Mac App store or the desktop browser?

87. Why isn’t there a parallel debate
about whether to build for the
Mac App store or the desktop browser?
Our app culture isn’t all that logical.
(What culture is?)

88. You need to be brave to tell your boss
that our customers won’t be able to
download our app from the app store.

89. Will we see our app culture disappear?
Brent Simmons - creator of NetNewsWire
http://url.ie/f35r

92. The app culture:
Download it,
use it once,
forget about it,
bin it

93. So....
There are loads of reasons to go with the web
• Cost/effort
• Reach
• Links
• Complete control

94. But..
There are good reasons to go native:
• When you have to use the hardware
• When UX needs to be a differentiator
• When you won’t get found unless you’re in the app store
• (Many of us) live in app culture, albeit a disposable one

95. Be realistic,
be brave,
don’t go native unless you
know you really need to

96. iQ Content Ltd, Clarendon House, 34-37 Clarendon Street, Dublin 2, Ireland. +353 (0)1 677 1140
Thanks for listening!