About a year ago, we started using Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). The idea behind PWA was to replace native mobile apps. In this talk, I will show you what is possible to build with PWA, what kind of limitations exist, and what we learned in our journey. Along the way, you will see where progressive web apps can be a good fit for your own projects.

1. A year with progressive web
apps!
Antonio Perić-Mažar, Locastic
06.04.2019., #webinale

2. Antonio Perić-Mažar
CEO @ Locastic
Co-Founder @ Tinel Meetup
Co-Founder @ Blockada
antonio@locastic.com
@antonioperic

3. Locastic
• We help clients create amazing web and mobile apps (since 2011)
• mobile development
• web development
• UX/UI
• Training and Consulting
• Shift Conference, Symfony Croatia
• www.locastic.com t: @locastic

4. Stop call progressive web
apps trendy!

5. Our world today

6. MOBILE

7. UX

8. MOBILE.UX.

12. https://www.morevisibility.com/blogs/analytics/setting-up-and-reporting-on-site-speed-in-google-analytics.html
October 2016

14. Mobile web (UX) is broken!!!

16. And trust me… you will never had enough cheese

17. “I don't care how many kick-ass Visio architecture diagrams
you have; as far as the user is concerned, the UI is the
application. I know UI US HARD, but you have to build an
impressive UI if you want to be taken seriously. Give your UI
the high priority it deserves.”
Jeff Atwood, Coding Horror blog

18. “I don't care how many kick-ass Visio architecture diagrams
you have; as far as the user is concerned, the UI is the
application. I know UI US HARD, but you have to build an
impressive UI if you want to be taken seriously. Give your UI
the high priority it deserves.”
Jeff Atwood, Coding Horror blog

20. Capebility
Reach

21. “A Progressive Web App uses
modern web capabilities to deliver
an app-like user experience.”

22. “A Progressive Web App uses
modern web capabilities to deliver
an app-like user experience.”

23. PWA is:
• Progressive - Works for every user, regardless of browser choice because it's
built with progressive enhancement as a core tenet.
• Responsive - Fits any form factor: desktop, mobile, tablet, or whatever is next.
• Connectivity independent - Enhanced with service workers to work offline or
on low-quality networks.
• App-like - Feels like an app, because the app shell model separates the
application functionality from application content .
• Fresh - Always up-to-date thanks to the service worker update process.

24. PWA is:
• Safe - Served via HTTPS to prevent snooping and to ensure content hasn't been
tampered with.
• Discoverable - Is identifiable as an "application" thanks to W3C manifest and
service worker registration scope, allowing search engines to find it.
• Re-engageable - Makes re-engagement easy through features like push
notifications.
• Installable - Allows users to add apps they find most useful to their home
screen without the hassle of an app store.
• Linkable - Easily share the application via URL, does not require complex
installation.

26. Fast Integrated
Reliable Engaging
4
things to focus on

27. Fast Integrated
Reliable Engaging

28. Fast
• No junky scrolling
• No slow load performance
• Measure and improve all the time
• Bad connection (or no connection) is not excuse

29. 53%
of users abandon
sites that take longer
than 3 seconds to load

30. https://cloudfour.com/thinks/ios-doesnt-support-progressive-web-apps-so-what/

32. App shell model
• Reliable performance that is consistently fast
• Native-like interactions
• Economical use of data

33. Fast Integrated
Reliable Engaging

34. Integrated
• User should not reach browser to reach your app
• They should be able to interact same as with any other
app on their device
• They expect to have all possibilities as other apps
• Users should be able to start app from their home
screen

35. https://www.mobigyaan.com/android-8-0-oreo-vs-ios-11-which-is-better

36. https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/25/majority-of-u-s-consumers-still-download-zero-apps-per-month-says-comscore/

37. https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/25/majority-of-u-s-consumers-still-download-zero-apps-per-month-says-comscore/

38. https://www.technology.org/2017/07/28/progressive-web-apps-vs-native-which-is-better-for-your-business/

39. 80%
users intentionally moved apps
to their home screen

40. Broken experience
• Required user interaction
• Where it will start?
• Would it work offline?
https://medium.com/@saigeleslie/how-to-create-a-progressive-web-app-with-react-in-5-mins-or-less-3aae3fe98902

41. Web manifest
• Simple JSON file
• Tell browsers about your app and how it should behave once
app is ‘installed’
• Having manifest is required to show add to home screen pop-up
• Works for desktop and mobile apps (chrome)
• https://manifest-validator.appspot.com/
• https://app-manifest.firebaseapp.com/

42. {
"background_color":"#ffffff",
"display":"standalone",
"icons":[
…
],
"name":"Twitter",
"short_name":"Twitter",
"start_url":"/",
"theme_color":"#ffffff",
“scope":"/"
}
<link rel="manifest" href="/manifest.json">
You can add it now to
your app

44. https://ponyfoo.com/articles/progressive-app-serviceworker

45. 40%
higher interaction rate from
Home screen

46. Web Payment API!

47. 66%
of purchases on mobile are
on the mobile web

48. 1/3
of purchases on Web are
via mobile
That means the UX
is BROKEN!

49. Checkout forms today:
• Manual
• Tedious
• Slow
• N-taps
http://www.alyssatucker.com/improving-hollars-ios-checkout-process/

50. Autofill - step forward
• Autocomplete attributes
• 30% faster
• Automatic
• Simple
• Slow
• n-taps
http://www.alyssatucker.com/improving-hollars-ios-checkout-process/

51. Web Payment API!

55. Web Payment API!
• Automatic
• Simple
• Fast
• 1-tap
• Supportes payment gatway,
or some applications payment
(Google Pay)
https://paymentrequest.show/images/pr-woocommerce.gif

56. More APIs
• Media Session
• Media Capture API
• Casting support
• Web bluetooth
• Web Share

57. More APIs
• Media Session
• Media Capture API
• Casting support
• Web bluetooth
• Web Share

58. Remember
users expect to be able to
interact with your app in the
same way that they do all of
the other apps on their device

59. Fast Integrated
Reliable Engaging

60. Reliable
Reliability means, never showing the Downsaur

62. Reliable
• The quality of a network connection can be affected by a number of factors such as:
• Poor coverage of a provider.
• Extreme weather conditions.
• Power outages.
• Users travelling into “dead zones” such as buildings that block their network
connections.
• Travelling on a train and going through a tunnel.
• Internet connection is managed by a third party and time boxed when it will be
active or inactive like in an airport or hotel.
• Cultural practises that require limited or no internet access at specific times or days.

63. Reliable
• We need instant loading offline
• 60% of mobile connection is 2G
• Fast Application is UX
• 14 sec to load average website on 4g
• 19 sec to load average website on 3G

64. Service Workers

65. Service Workers

66. Service WorkersService Workers

67. Service Workers
• Rich offline experiences
• Background syncs
• Push notifications
• …

68. Service Workers
• Script that browser runs in background, separated
from web page
• It is Javascript worker, so it cannot access to DOM
directly
• Service worker is a programmable network proxy,
allowing you to control how network requests from
your page are handled.

69. Service Workers
• It's terminated when not in use, and restarted when
it's next needed, so you cannot rely on global state
within a service worker's onfetch and onmessage
handlers.
• Service workers make extensive use of promises
• Service worker is for second load

70. Service Workers lifecycle

71. Register a Service Worker
if ('serviceWorker' in navigator) {
window.addEventListener('load', function() {
navigator.serviceWorker.register('/sw.js').then(function(registration)
{
// Registration was successful
console.log('ServiceWorker registration successful with scope: ',
registration.scope);
}, function(err) {
// registration failed :(
console.log('ServiceWorker registration failed: ', err);
});
});
}

73. Service workers Events
• On install - as a dependency
• On install - not as a dependency
• On activate
• On user interaction
• On network response
• Stale-while-revalidate
• On push message
• On background-sync

74. On install - as a dependency

75. On install - as a dependency
self.addEventListener('install', function(event) {
event.waitUntil(
caches.open('mysite-static-v3').then(function(cache) {
return cache.addAll([
'/css/whatever-v3.css',
'/css/imgs/sprites-v6.png',
'/css/fonts/whatever-v8.woff',
'/js/all-min-v4.js'
// etc
]);
})
);
});

76. On install - not as a dependency

77. Update Service Worker
• Update your service worker JavaScript file. When the user navigates to your
site, the browser tries to redownload the script file that defined the service
worker in the background. If there is even a byte's difference in the service
worker file compared to what it currently has, it considers it new.
• Your new service worker will be started and the install event will be fired.
• At this point the old service worker is still controlling the current pages so the
new service worker will enter a waiting state.
• When the currently open pages of your site are closed, the old service worker
will be killed and the new service worker will take control.
• Once your new service worker takes control, its activate event will be fired.

78. On activate

79. Update Service Worker
• self.skipWaiting()
• Skips waiting for refresh to start using new SW

80. On User Interaction

81. On Network response

82. State-while-revalidate

83. On Background Sync

84. SW: Serving suggestions - responding to requests
• Cache only
• Network only
• Cache, falling back to network
• Cache & network race
• Network falling back to cache
• Cache then network
• Generic fallback

85. Cache only

86. Network only

87. Cache, falling back to network

88. Cache & network race

89. Network, falling back to Cache

90. Cache, than Network

91. Generic fallback

95. Reliable conclusion
• Think how you design for the success, failure and instability of a
network connection
• Data may be expensive, so be considerate to the user
• Make sure performance is part of your design process and UX
• Try to provide offline by default if your app doesn't require much
data
• Inform users of their current state and of changes in states
• https://serviceworke.rs/ - different examples

96. https://serviceworke.rs/ - different examples

97. Your goal is to provide a good
experience that lessens the
impact of changes in
connectivity

98. Fast Integrated
Reliable Engaging

99. Engaging
• Charming and Attractive
• Shift way how we think in patterns and designs from
web patterns to some native patterns
• Push notifications (browser doesn’t need to be
opened)
• Push Notification API

100. Engaging

101. What makes good notification
Push. Push. Back upon now. (Courtesy Enrique Iglesias)

102. What makes good notification
• Timely - I feel I need and it matters now
• Precise - specific info, what happens
• Personal - make it personal

103. What makes good notification

104. https://www.slideshare.net/SeulgiChoi4/pwa-push-notification

105. https://www.slideshare.net/SeulgiChoi4/pwa-push-notification

107. Push Notifications
{
"body": "Did you make a $1,000,000 purchase at Dr. Evil...",
"icon": "images/ccard.png",
"vibrate": [200, 100, 200, 100, 200, 100, 400],
"tag": "request",
"actions": [
{ "action": "yes", "title": "Yes", "icon": "images/yes.png" },
{ "action": "no", "title": "No", "icon": "images/no.png" }
]
}

108. 43%
agrees to an app’s request to
allow push notifications

110. Tools!

111. Lighthouse

113. http://mobilehtml5.org/
http://mobilehtml5.org/ts/
http://mobilehtml5.org/tests/http://mobilehtml5.org/tests/
te
http://mobilehtml5.org/tests/
t
http://mobilehtml5.org/tests/

114. Some show case!

115. 65% increase in page per session
75% increase in Tweets sent
20% decrease in bounce rate
Twitter Lite

116. 76% higher conversation across browsers
4x higher interaction rate from Add to screen
Increased usage of native apps also
Alibaba

117. 80%+ conversation
54% smaller than Android app
120% smaller than iOS app
BookMyShow

118. Cut load times from 11.91 to 4.69
seconds
90% smaller than Native Android App
https://medium.com/@addyosmani/a-tinder-progressive-web-app-performance-
case-study-78919d98ece0
Tinder

119. Myths about PWA!

120. PWAs are only for
offline apps

121. PWAs are a mobile thing

123. PWAs are a Google-only
thing

125. PWAs are not ready yet

130. https://pwa.rocks/

133. Don’t be driven with hype,
choose the best fit for your
project

134. It is not about PWA vs Native
apps, it is about Users

135. Thank you!

136. antonio@locastic.com
@antonioperic
www.locastic.com
Questions?