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Wearing a suit not required while using a mobile device.
Luke Wroblewski, author of “Mobile First,” makes the case that all Web sites should be designed for mobile before any other device or screen. The explosive growth in mobile web browsing calls for this sort of strategy for most projects.
However, several strategies and technologies exist for the development of your mobile site plan. Which one will work best?
Apps
The word of the year in 2010, the “app” became synonymous with mobile computing. Entire companies, like Zynga, built their empire on app development. Apps require custom development per platform (iOS and Android), but provide the user with a focused experience: their entire screen is dedicated to only one task.
Apps also offer financial growth opportunities through the iTunes Store or Android Market. If you’re a consumer-driven company, especially one with multiple locations, creating your own app is essential. The app should provide a simple, engaging experience for the user that provides the most meaningful information first. For example, a restaurant’s app should make their hours of operation, address, and menu available as easily as possible.
Responsive Design
The latest in design strategies, responsive design creates a mobile-specific web experience from your existing “desktop” site. The mobile browser relies on CSS media queries that call for a set of design rules based on the width of a device or browser window. This strategy does not require much custom development – only knowledge of CSS and an attention to detail.
Users would visit your website through their mobile browser and experience something different from the traditional desktop site. Responsive design also allows for custom queries for devices like the iPad. Instead of developing your app for several different devices, you can simply write a different set of CSS rules for specific browser window widths. As with apps, mobile web sites should also display the most important information to the user. Small businesses would gain much from using responsive design – it might not make sense to develop an app, but providing a mobile experience remains paramount.
Let’s do both!
It’s not uncommon to create both a responsive site and an app for a company. In our restaurant example, the responsive site might offer the hours, address, and menu, while a custom app focuses solely on nutritional recommendations.
In the end, responsive design and app development offer myriad opportunities to businesses. Regardless of the strategy used, owning a mobile strategy is critical to any company’s online branding and development.
