ne of the important decisions to be made when using mobile for learning and communications is your choice of development route. Will your users access content by downloading an app or through a mobile browser? It’s not as black and white an issue as some make out. Nor is it an easy decision, since whichever route you choose imposes limitations and has knock-on effects. So, it is worth taking some time to understand your options at the outset. This is typically an area where someone from a non-technical background gets called upon to make a forward-looking, strategic-scale decision about a complex technical area; a classic difficult call. But then, technical people don’t always have clear-cut answers either. There are two main reasons why.
Firstly, mobile is an emerging technology area, with standards like HTML5 still very
much in flux. Secondly, the answer depends very much on what you are seeking to achieve (technical requirements and business objectives are not always perfectly aligned). Here are some options, presented with some context around the decisions you have to make.
AVOID FAITH-BASED DECISIONS
An important mistake to avoid is making a faith-based decision because you have been swayed by a sales pitch of falsely simplified choices. For instance, some will tell you that responsive design solves all your m-learning problems at a stroke. Others will say that native apps have had their day, despite the fact that the 2012 figure of 85bn mobile app downloads quoted in ClickSoftware’s research might lead you to believe differently.
Likewise, web apps have their detractors and there are solid business cases for native
apps. But beware of false dichotomies. The decision over development route tends to be presented in starkly either/or terms. Will you develop your programmes as apps targeted at a specific mobile device? Or, will you take a cross-platform approach based on HTML5 and responsive design, developing something that can be accessed on any device? In reality, your choices are not so binary.
Hybrids, such as the Facebook app represent a best-of-both-worlds position between the two extremes. So, you have at least three choices of approach. Taking things a stage further, Forbes Magazine1, identifies four different technical possible configurations:
• Native apps – coded with a specific programming language (i.e. apps requiring high levels of security and transactional functionality. For example, most games and payment apps
April 2013 Inside Learning Technologies & Skills 73
It’s not an either/or choice, argues Ferry van der Vorst.
SELECTING
YOUR MOBILE
DEVELOPMENT ROUTE
• Hybrid apps – serve html pages in a native wrapper (i.e. apps that need to provide real time updates but also require rich functionality. For example, the BBC Olympics app)
• Dedicated web app – mobile website tailored to a specific platform or form factor (For example, the LinkedIn web app, which is 95% web app2)
• Generic mobile app – mobile web sites designed to match every web-enabled
phone (the Wikipedia mobile page, for example).
Perhaps it’s not necessary to get that granular! For the purpose of the decision tools (see table) we’re going to consider three different routes – with the caveat that, depending on your selected development tools, a greater deal of flexibility is possible than such comparisons might suggest.
First, let’s make sure we understand what
we are talking about when we use these terms. Here are brief definitions of all three.
NATIVE APP
A native application is developed entirely in a native programming language for a specific mobile device. It has the advantages of better speed and
performance, and can effectively make use of all features of a device’s onboard functionality, such as camera,
SELECTING YOUR MOBILE DEVELOPMENT ROUTE
74 Inside Learning Technologies & Skills April 2013
Requirement Web App/Mobile Site Hybrid App Native App
April 2013 Inside Learning Technologies & Skills 77 accelerometer, audio recorders, etc.
However, it is generally more expensive to develop and maintain.
This is especially true if it has to be accessed on a variety of devices, since the app will need to be modified or completely redeveloped for each one; iPad, iPhone, Android smartphone, Android tablet, etc. Typically, to update the app or the content, the entire app requires downloading via an app store. A native app also has greater availability offline.
Once downloaded, the app and all its functionality becomes available on the device, rather than having part of the content on a web server. This means that it is far less reliant on a web connection in order to function. There are many native apps for a variety of learning needs. It is a particularly effective route for immersive or game-like learner experiences.
HYBRID APPS
A hybrid application is one combining elements of both native and web apps. While native apps are developed for a specific platform and installed on the device, web apps are generalised for multiple platforms. They are not installed
locally but made available over the Internet through a browser. Hybrid apps are able to function, whether or not the device is connected. They can integrate with a device’s file system and its integrated technologies. A hybrid also has an embedded browser for improved access to dynamic online content; and they can integrate with web-based services such as CMS, LMS, CRM, etc.
This last feature is also possible with a mobile web app (through the JavaScript API) and with native apps (through APIs or custom coding). For example, the LINEstream platform outputs to a hybrid app. This route was chosen for the flexibility it affords. LINEstream uses HTML5, CSS and JavaScript to develop the app and puts the content into a ‘wrapper’ for each specific device.
MOBILE WEB APP
A mobile web app is a mobile website or e-learning site and is written and tailored for a mobile device (i.e. a mobile website) including mobile phones and tablets. To maximise content re-use across devices, CSS3 media queries and HTML5 are generally used to develop rich and
optimised mobile web apps. Where needed, JavaScript/jQuery and other standard web technologies can be employed.
The use of Flash, ActiveX, Silverlight, Java or otherwise are considered only to enrich the user experience and not to form the basis of the site or application. LINE’s Responsive Content Framework, for example, has been developed to create apps of this kind, using responsive design to reconfigure pages dynamically for different devices. See the table on the previous page for a summary of the different capabilities provided by these three approaches based on the requirements of your particular project.
1http://www.forbes.com/sites/fredcavazza/
2011/09/27/mobile-web-app-vs-native-app-its-complicated/
2
http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/02/linkedin-ipad-app-engineering/
Ferry van der Vorst is technical business analyst at LINE Communications www.line.co.uk
Twitter: @fvandervorst @LINEComms
