How to set mobile strategy in the mobile Internet era?

For today's Internet age, the most popular is undoubtedly the mobile Internet, regardless of the developer or ordinary user, almost everyone is talking about it. The way that traditional Internet users are accustomed to accessing content and using services is rapidly changing by devices such as smartphones and tablets. As a provider of online content and services, we must get into this emerging market as soon as possible to learn new rules of the game. Having said that, the "mobile" approach will often find people can not find the North. What should I do? Develop an iPhone or Android application or devise a set or N sets of designs for different mobile devices. The most important thing is to first correct the positioning of the content and function of your product, and to make a reasonable assessment of the extent of the demand for mobility. On this basis, try the mobile approach that is most suitable for you. At present, there are some more common ideas for our reference choice:

do nothing…

This is indeed a choice, and it does not sound as disheartening as it sounds.

Keeping your website in the same way that desktop browsers and mobile devices render - this approach is not unfeasible, especially in the absence of resources for development on all fronts. For the relatively high-end devices such as the iPhone or iPad that have multi-touch capabilities, most users are accustomed to and even enjoy switching between screen and pinch zoom. Why bother to move and move to provide these users a shrunken version of the site?

This is of course a cheap alternative. However, after all, the tablet PC is not a small PC, smart phone is not a small tablet, in many ways, their own characteristics determine the unique interaction. If you want to effectively enhance the content or functionality of the website on different devices to adapt to the development of mobile version alone is obviously a necessary path.

Responsive page design

The main idea of ​​responsive page design is to determine the range of specifications for the size of the browsing environment and load the corresponding default style scheme to adjust the layout structure and the content element size responsively.

This is a long-term guarantee if the page's content structure and style are well separated, and we do not have to design and develop separately for any existing or future devices that have different screen resolutions. This approach, in terms of interactive design or UI visualization, still belongs to the relatively traditional page design and development mode, does not increase the cost too much, and can be said to be a cost-effective option.

For the concept of reactive Web design, components, basic ideas and ways to develop, you can refer to the previous two articles: "What is the Responsive Web Design? How?" And "through the CSS3 Media Query to achieve responsive Web Design ".

Web Application

Using a mix of HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, or related front-end development frameworks (Sencha, jQuery Mobile, etc.), we can create a unique pattern of page content presentation and usage, whether it's visual or interactive Like applications, not the pages we used to see in desktop browsers.

Any installation of a modern browser can browse the use of Web applications, from this perspective, it has a certain cross-platform. Depending on the resource conditions, you can just make a Web application, or use different UI element styles to create different skins for iOS, Android, or Windows and the corresponding behavior triggers.

However, the essence of Web applications is still the page, which depends on the browser environment. So, while similar to native client applications in terms of appearance and behavior, it is still a very limited way in terms of functionality and user experience.

Native Client Application (Native App)

There is a huge difference between native client applications and web pages in terms of how they are presented and how they behave. In this way you can tap into the various technical features embedded in your mobile device's hardware and system such as compass, gyroscope, camera, storage media (including offline storage or cloud), NFC (what is NFC? Near Field Communication, Communication, near field communication) and so on.

Native clients also give users the smoothest operating experience because there is a complete set of standard native UI components and methods for developers to use and follow.

Accordingly, the development cost of this approach is also the highest of the above programs, regardless of technical ability or development time and other aspects. And, we need to develop independently for each system environment and device type. Native client basically does not have cross-platform.

Which way should I choose?

In developing a website product mobility strategy, we need to consider the following factors:

Do I need a client application?

Whether web applications or native native clients, they are primarily designed to provide a specific functionality that helps users accomplish a specific task. If the demand is to corporate site or the same type of site as a whole mobile, then the client application is not a suitable choice. If the target site belongs to customer service, e-commerce, online tools and other types, then the form of the client is worth considering.

I need a client application, but do users really need it?

We must understand our target audience for our websites and products and do research to see if major user groups will use our services through mobile clients.

Different groups tend to different types of devices. Groups of users using the same type of devices also need to be further divided according to different device system environments. For example, iOS users frequently use the App Store more frequently than Android users use the SSH market .

If the product's target audience is too large, then native clients may not be the best choice unless we have enough resources to support several long-term development and maintenance efforts. In this case, the way the web application is worth trying. Although in the user experience, etc. can not keep up with the native client, but from the perspective of platform adaptability and development costs, the overall cost is good.

I do not need a client application

Unless you decide to do nothing, responsive web design is our best practice. However, although the problem surface is about style and presentation, there may be a lot of refactoring work on the page code structure. Of course, it can be relatively easy if your site has done enough to make Web standards-based, such as structural and expressive separation perfect.