Websites and apps seem at the surface quite
similar to each other and they do have a lot in common.
Each is an interactive medium that is accessed on a digital device.
They also share many fundamental usability patterns such as
scrolling and the ability to click or tap on things to navigate.
Yet, differences between apps and websites do exist and I find that
people often have a hard time understanding what these differences are.
For you as a UX designer,
it's important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of these mediums.
You will likely encounter clients that want to know your opinion,
whether they should develop an app or a website.
Just to be clear you understand what I mean when I say website and app.
A website is accessed through a browser via a website address or URL.
An app on the other hand,
is downloaded and installed onto a device.
If you have an iPhone or an iPad,
you would use the Apple app store.
If you are on an Android device,
you would download apps from Google play.
What other differences are there between websites and apps?
Websites at least if they are coded correctly as responsive websites,
are malleable enough to work on any operating system,
any device, any screen size, and any browser.
So, you can easily go to let's say, www.google.com,
no matter if you are on a Mac computer, or Windows PC,
or you can be on an iPhone,
or an Android phone,
even a Kindle comes through the web browser.
It doesn't matter if you have a really small screen like a phone,
or a medium screen like a tablet,
or giant desktop computer screen.
It doesn't really matter if you use Google Chrome as your browser,
or Safari, or Firefox, or Microsoft Edge.
Now, apps are quite the opposite.
Apps are native to the specific device they are running on.
So, if you're developing an app,
you must create one version for iPhones and another version for Android phones,
and yet another version for Windows phones and so on.
I would also argue that the web is a very democratic medium.
Its open-source nature allows users to have a lot of control over
what to do with the content of the websites they visit.
They can highlight text and copy it for example.
They can download images from a website.
They can even install the browser extension to
change the way a website appears and functions.
For example, you can use an ad blocker to remove
advertisements automatically from a website.
The functionality of apps on the other hand is
mostly restricted to what the app designer intendended.
I'm personally very excited about the medium of the web
because it is such an open and democratic medium.
I also enjoy the challenge of designing websites that work well on any screen size.
Still, there are pros and cons for each.
So, let's go through some of them.
Here is the case for apps.
Apps can have a much better integration into the operating system.
An app on your phone can have access to
any special device capabilities like the camera flash for example,
or the microphone, or the peer to peer Bluetooth connectivity.
For security reasons, access for websites to many of these advanced tools is limited.
Also for apps, no extra UI from the browser gets in the way.
Think about the back and forward buttons that a web browser constantly displays.
Apps are not handicapped by certain browser limitations either.
App developers can sometimes create
certain user interface solutions that are just not possible in web browsers.
If the goal for your project is to create revenue,
apps can have an advantage.
You can sell your app through an App Store,
they don't have to be free.
Also in-app purchases are quite easy and streamlined because
smartphone users will already have entered
their credit card information when they set up their phone.
There's prestige.
Apps can be perceived as cooler and sexier than websites.
But there's a case against apps as well.
Users need to download and install an app in the first place.
That's a lot to ask from the user,
it doesn't make sense for example to install an app for
a cafe let's say just to find out what their opening times are.
There are gatekeepers, the Apples,
Googles, and Microsoft's of this world.
It can even happen that your app is not approved.
Apps are also quite expensive to develop and remember that you will
need a separate hub for each device and operating system.
So, websites have a few things going for them.
For one, they are easy to access.
You just enter a web address in your browser and the site loads.
There is no need to install anything.
We already talked about websites working across all devices,
platforms and screen sizes.
Since the web is built upon the idea of addresses and links,
you can easily bookmark a webpage or send it to a friend.
For content that needs to be found in a search engine,
a website is a better way to go.
Websites are also more economical to develop.
HTML and CSS are pretty easy to learn and all you need is
a hosting account and a website address which are easy to obtain.
Here are some drawbacks.
Capabilities of websites are directly related to the capabilities of web browsers.
So, our websites will only be as good as the browsers that display them.
Websites are also harder to monetize.
Their open nature just makes it hard to control content
and there's a certain sense that web content just wants to be free,
so users can seem reluctant to pay for it.
Lastly, there can be security issues.
Since there aren't any gatekeepers for the web,
it's much more of a Wild West place with some pretty dark corners.
I want to share a curious historical footnote.
This is a Wired magazine cover from 2010,
"The Web is dead", it boldly proclaims.
At the time it seemed like apps would replace websites entirely.
That of course has not happened and with better browsers and better web standards,
the web has had quite a resurgence since then.
The question of apps versus web is probably not even an either or proposition these days.
You'll notice that many companies have a website and an app.
But the bottom line might be this,
everyone needs a website,
not everyone needs an app.
I have already mentioned that in this course,
we are primarily looking at user experience
designed through the prism of designing websites.
But rest assured that,
many of the tools and techniques you will learn here are
applicable for designing apps as well.
Roman JasterVisiting Faculty, Program in Graphic Design
