A couple weeks ago I posted Pretenders: Why mobile Web apps should stop trying to act like native apps. It generated a lot of interest and a lot of great discussion. While responding to comments from around the Interwebs, I managed to articulate the problem more succinctly:
When developers follow the conventions of a native app (the “look”), they set performance expectations (the “feel”) in the user’s mind. When there is a mis-match between the two, right look / wrong feel, users will be frustrated.
Right look / wrong feel can happen in any design, not just mobile Web apps. Ever pull on a door handle that needed to be pushed?
flickr image by Peter Hosey
As product designers, we need to be conscious of the affordances we place in front of users. Those affordances speak to the user and set expectations that can and should work to your advantage in making a product that is a pleasure to use.
You are completely correct.
My latest strong dislike is re-directs to ‘mobile sites’ when using an iPad.
The most glaring example is Google+. The ‘mobile’ site is an abomination, whereas the full site is quite nice. At least with Facebook, you don’t have to use the ‘m.’ site, as the full site works as it has a different URL. With Google+ you have no option at all.
Even on the iPhone, their web apps are hard to take. Load time is infuriating once you are used to native apps, and the part that grates is that you know you are waiting all that time for a really average user experience.
And don’t even get me started on WordPress sites with OnSwipe!
Waiting for mediocrity is not time well spent.
OK… Rant over. I will go take my medicine now
I think this goes beyond affordances into what I will clumsily call “cumulative experience.” It’s still too easy for geeky folks like us to forget that a web app which feels like a desktop app does not automatically translate to a better experience. At worst, it’s a bait-and-switch for the non-geek who’s happy with bookmarks, the Back button, and all that regular ol’ stuff.
As a designer, I think you could do a lot worse than making a nice web app, then spot-treating with desktop metaphors and AJAX where web metaphors are clearly worse for that use case.
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…as an aside, as a solution to the classic “I just pulled a door I should have pushed”, why don’t we just get rid of the handles on the push side completely?
I agree. Typically, a flat push plate works well.
Kinda one of those things that you’d never really think about until the problem was put in front of you