This document discusses options for developing mobile applications for libraries. It compares developing native apps, mobile web apps, and hybrid apps. Native apps are built specifically for each device platform but require coding in different languages. Mobile web apps use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and can be tested and updated more easily but may have usability and performance issues. Hybrid apps also use web technologies and can be installed like native apps but are still platform dependent. The document weighs the pros and cons of each approach in terms of development, usability, testing, deployment, measurement, and updating to help libraries determine the best mobile strategy.

1. Mobile that works for
your library
Jeff Wisniewski
Web Services Librarian
University of Pittsburgh
facebook.com/wisniewski.jeff

2. Why go mobile?

5. State of the union

8. Development
• User needs
• Functional and content specs
• Interaction design/IA
• Testing
• Visual design
• Development
• Testing
• Done

9. Dimensions
• Ease of development
• Usability and UX
• Ease of testing
• Ease of deployment
• Ease of measurement
• Ease of updating

10. Options
1. Native app
2. Mobile web
3. Hybrids

11. Native app
• Lives on the device
• Downloaded to the device
• Built specifically for that
device/platform
• Built using some programming
language and SDK

12. Native app
Companies Must Have An
iPhone App or They “Don’t
Exist”
-Walker Fenton, GM of NewsGator’s Media & Consumer
Products

13. Native app programming
languages
Java
Objective C

14. Mobile web
• Lives on a webserver
• Accessed by a device
• Browser as software
interface

15. Mobile web languages
• HTML, HTML5
• CSS
• JavaScript

16. Hybrids
 Generally use languages familiar
to web developers
– HTML
– CSS
– JavaScript
 Installed like a native app

17. Hybrids
phonegap
Appcelerator Titanium
rhomobile
MotherApp
boopsie
netbiscuits

18. Ease of development
• Native apps require coding in
non-web languages
• Mobile web uses HTML, CSS,
JavaScript
• Hybrids often use web
languages

19. Usability and ux
Subjective
Apps rated more favorably than mobile
web
speed/latency
click investment
usability highly influenced by browser

20. Usability and ux
Objective:
“App users…suffered much less
misery than users in our mobile
website tests (Nielsen)”
– platform optimized
– strong guidelines and conventions

21. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/consumers_find_m
obile_web_disappointing_slow_to_load.php#more (2009)

22. Ease of testing
• Test paper prototypes
• Mobile web site easiest to test
– Accessible everywhere
– Desktop, simulators, emulators
• Native apps
– Tested in SDK
– Install to test, refine, reinstall, repeat
• Hybrids..test in cloud

23. Ease of deployment
• Native apps deployed via
mediated process
• Hybrid either via direct download
or via app store
• Mobile web instantly deployed

24. • June 2009 Google Voice app
submitted to Apple
• July 2009 app rejected
• January 2010 Google Voice via
mobile web launched
The curious case of
Google Voice

25. Ease of measurement
• Apps require special analytics
tools
• Mobile web can leverage existing
web metric tools

26. Track activity in your mobile
apps(Android and iOS only)
http://code.google.com/mobile/analyti
cs/

27. Ease of updating
• Native app: cyclical
• Hybrid app: depends
• Mobile web: instantaneous

28. Native apps: the good
• Responsive
• Persistent
• Automatically “bookmarked”
• Built-in marketing via app stores
(caveats apply)
• Instant one-click access
COOL

29. Native apps
Level of commitment ….but more
“casual dating” than “till death do
us part”

30. 35% of adults have cell phones
with apps, but only two-thirds
of those who have apps
actually use them
-http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/The-Rise-of-Apps-
Culture/Overview.aspx

32. Native apps: the bad
• Fragmentation
• Walled gardens…often don’t play
with other services
• The best tend to be single
function…are we single function?
– Gmail app, Maps app, Google
Navigation app

33. My dad got a Sprint EVO 4G last
weekend and texted me asking why
Pandora, which he was excited about
downloading, needed access to his
contact information (when you
download an Android app you get a
nice little list of things the application
has access to on the phone). I told him
I didn’t know, and he subsequently
decided he didn’t want to download it.
-Stacey Higginbotham, GigaOM

34. Native app got game
• Performance
• Offline use
• Deep integration
required…GPS, camera, etc.
• Monetization

35. Why mobile web?
• No child left behind
• Findability via mobile search (can
submit to google)
• No approval process
• Familiar technologies…HTML5,
CSS, JavaScript
• Integration between desktop and
mobile
– Fennec

36. Why not mobile web?
• “If you don’t have an app you
don’t exist”
• 19 flavors +- of WebKit
• How many clicks?
• Not persistent

37. Why a hybrid?
• Develop with familiar technologies
• Persistence of a native app
• Al Gore told me to

38. Why not a hybrid?
• Still platform dependent

40. Platform proliferation
• Today: iPhone, Android,
Blackberry, iPad?
• Tomorrow: WebOS, Windows
Phone 7, Android tablets,
Blackberry tablet(s), Windows
tablets…..??

41. Cool tools…code free
• Hidden peanuts MSG
http://www.hiddenpeanuts.com/
msg
• Widgetbox mobile
http://www.widgetbox.com/mobil
e/

42. Questions & discussion?
Kthxbai
