To App or not to App? ... and how hard?
Added 2021-06-08 14:19:06 +0000 UTCHello all you wonder people!
I have been talking with a number of app and web developers, brainstorming on how to improve the experience for TheDuchy on mobile devices. There are a number of ways we can go, from refining how the webpage itself works and tuning that more for mobile, up through creating a native mobile app. There are benefits and limitations to each.
The reason I am even thinking about going down this road is that a number of you have asked for a way to view the tutorials when you don’t have good signal. So… some method of saving the tutorial for offline use.
What is your opinion on this?
- (1) I don’t really need the offline mode. Spend your time and money tuning the site itself to make it better on mobile.
- (2) I do want to save the tutorials, but it’s totally fine to just be able to save the pictures and text. Saving videos would be nice, but it is critical for me.
(Note: We can do this without a native app and therefore without having to go through the app store. This means that we CAN include BTS and examples that contain nudity.) - (3) I really want to be able to save the videos themselves on my mobile so I can watch them when offline, Netflix-style. I understand that this is much more complex and costly, but an app won’t be useful to me if it doesn’t have this.
(Note: This requires that we create a full mobile app and go through the app store. We will not be able to include BTS with this approach. Also, movies files are very large. There will be a limit to how many you can save at one time.
Also feel free to comment wildly below!
Comments
I say go for the website option and talk to web developers about making a mobile specific layout. It's not as costly and time intensive as making a full app and still vastly improves on mobile experience.
Ben Cooper
2021-06-20 01:48:34 +0000 UTCYeah, that looks like the direction we are going to go!
Lazarus Redmayne
2021-06-18 14:57:29 +0000 UTCWhy not a pwa? Is so much done on the backend ? If not you can just declare the Ressources to be saved and have an offline version of your app
J H
2021-06-17 21:39:52 +0000 UTCHaving offline capabilities also works with Web only. Progressive Web Apps allow these Features
Michael
2021-06-11 22:34:07 +0000 UTCI'm a UX designer and I'm fully agreeing to all people who already commented. Don't go for an app. Rework the structure and usability of your website and it will do the job just brilliant. Focus on Content and don't get involved into the headache of maintaining 2 systems. There are no huge advantages which will justify the need of an app.
2021-06-11 20:30:58 +0000 UTCProbably, the creation of a mobile application will take a lot of your time and effort, so better just tune the site.
VitAnyaNaked
2021-06-11 00:50:49 +0000 UTCI’m a developer and for this you don’t need an app. It’s to much work to update and keep current with chances in apis etc. You should spend your time producing content, and maybe finetune some styling.
2021-06-09 22:18:48 +0000 UTCAs a professional web developer, I vote not to create an app at this point in time. It is not necessary when you can provide a good mobile experience and good functionality for both you and your end users via a website alone. Apps can be good for certain business models, but also come with their own set of security, upkeep, etc.
2021-06-09 00:43:15 +0000 UTCDefinitely a better mobile browser experience and not an app! The one feature I really desire is being able to favourite ties and/or pin ties to do later, like a section for favourite ties and a section for “try this later”
2021-06-08 22:03:18 +0000 UTCAnother patron who works in digital and dev chiming in. (Woops - edit - hit enter instead of shift+enter and it submitted) I'd agree that creating a web interface that is better for mobile is the ideal approach. You don't really have any need to use device APIs that the app route would facilitate. A more mobile optimized progressive web app would give all the benefits you'd realistically be looking to get out of going the mobile app route.
2021-06-08 17:46:22 +0000 UTCI would super appreciate the 'download and view later' thing on my laptop even more than I would on my phone (videos or not). Having it be part of a mobile app would actually be a significant downgrade, from my perspective, even before you consider the amount of work it would take. Something worth considering. The only real problem I have on mobile right now is the logging in - I always get confused by the fact that the login button takes me to a place I can't login, no matter how many times it happens!
Kevin McKayven
2021-06-08 16:01:19 +0000 UTC
