Web development has been in production for the past 20 years — it’s not a relatively new field. It’s inevitable that web development trends will change; however, the details will always stay the same. Yet as soon web developers felt like they were getting the hang of web development, along came a curveball: mobile app development.
As more and more people use their mobile devices exclusively to search the web and connect with people, developers are scrambling to accommodate the mental shift involved with developing for mobile sites and apps.
Adjusting From Web Development to Mobile Apps
Don’t fret, developers; there are a few easy ways that you can make an easy adjustment from web development to mobile app development. The first step? Adhere to user guidelines. Unlike web development, which essentially offers the developer a blank page with which to work from, mobile app development adheres to a set of user guidelines that differ across platforms.
Don’t ignore these guidelines — doing so will ensure that you end up with a mobile app that doesn’t work nearly as well as it should.
Differences in User Experiences
One of the challenges that web developers face is ensuring that their sites can function across several different types of browsers. Generally speaking, the experience across all browsers will remain the same, allowing web developers to use one uniform design.
Mobile app development, however, dictates that each mobile platform is uniquely designed. Mobile apps can differ drastically depending on which platform they’re currently being executed on — and that’s okay. As long as the app is still visually engaging and functions well across every platform, the user experience will remain positive.
Single Purpose or Multi-Purpose?
Purpose is perhaps the largest difference between web development and mobile app development. While websites serve multiple purposes, mobile apps generally only serve either one purpose or a few related purposes. Refrain from attempting to design a mobile app with the functionality of a website — the app will have a high crash rate, and a correspondingly negative user experience.
