Usability: Mobile Apps Dominant... For Now

On Useit.com, Usability guru Jakob Nielsen writes that while mobile apps currently have the leg up on the mobile web when it comes to usability, change is coming. Sure native applications are inherently superior as they can target the specific limitations and functionalities of each and every device, but the cost of mobile app development will increase with continual device fragmentation. Even platforms like Android are "forking" – a good app experience on an Android-powered Kindle Fire requires some radically different back-end work than something on a Nexus S.

However, mobile websites will increasingly feature cross-platform functionality, thank you HTML5, and become the leaning post for many online pubs. "High-end sites will need 3 mobile designs to target phones, mid-sized tablets (like Kindle Fire), and big tablets," Nielsen writes. "Using ideas like responsive design will let you adapt each of these site versions to a range of screen sizes and capabilities. The same basic UI design will work for both a 6.8-inch tablet and a 7.5-inch tablet if you simply shrink or stretch things a bit."

So when will the big shift to mobile web occur? Well, Nielsen isn't sure and admits his prognostication skills have been lacking in the past (e.g., a paper called "Mobile Devices Will Soon Be Useful" in 2001). While mobiles apps will remain dominant in terms of usability for the near future, being prepared isn't just a motto for the Boy Scouts – had a look at responsive web technology?

Interested in learning more about mobile advertising? OPS Mobile will bring digital advertising leaders and ops professionals together to discuss and develop best practices for operational excellence in a world of connected devices. Register today for OPS Mobile, AdMonsters' mobile advertising conference, which will be held April 19, 2012, in New York.