XKCD – The App
William
In Accessibility, Interaction Design, Mobile, Usability, User Experience, Web Design Posted February 15, 2013
XKCD nailed it again. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this and it’s always the same. I think the most guilty of this has to be LinkedIn. They constantly send emails and then load the “touch” version of their site (which I have to say, takes about 1 full minute to load) before trying to get me to download the app, then sending me to the homepage.
Awful.
This is a key example of why I’m such a big fan of going responsive for mobile web. This type of behavior is generally pushed through by marketing, to make a splash with either investors or some other market segment without thinking about research into user trends or user interaction.
When designing applications (especially those applications that tie back to web), ask yourself if there are behaviors there that users need. Do you interact with the OS layer to provide new and needed functionality to your users? Do you have a user base which is using your service or product so often that you need an application that users have to open faster than their browser?
Apps are great, but so is the web, put in the time and leg work to find what your users need from you, then build!
