I’m developing a website for a client which also has a mobile app for their services.
During our discussions we come to the point that if we should go all the way responsive for web content (Desktop, tablet and mobile) or we should design desktop site seperately and design another website similiar to the experience the mobile app provides.
The site is going to be quite big, a sales site with a lot of product pages, customer pages, payment etc…
What are your toughts on this ? Any tips, articles or suggestions ?
Great, just make sure that all the content on desktop is hidden on mobile (you could do this in the settings panel) as well as have the mobile version not visible in desktop. Be sure to invest a lot in SEO though. Since you are hiding stuff.
First question to ask you is about the task: going for a mobile specific version is easier for a one pager than for a 10 pages website.
Now I do that a lot. Almost for every one pager I think. Because mobile is different, so I prefer to develop a specific experience.
To do so, I use a JS script that targets depending on the OS used. If it’s a mobile OS, then it serves the mobile version. I started doing this to address issues with video backgrounds and I contnue because for one pager it gives you a better chance to really ask yourself what people in mobility need. So you can do a totally different exeperience even is you’re using the same elements.
@VladimirVitaliyevich thanks for the reply but what I meant is Working on two seperate projects like I mentioned 1 for Desktop- Tablet and 1 for Mobile devices OR Working on 1 project completely.
Note that after the design completed, we are gonna add some backend code too manually so please think more broad not just webflow
Do you develop the mobile version in Webflow or a different program? I’ve used Fiddlefly for creating mobile specific sites but if I can achieve this all in Webflow, that would be awesome.
One drawback in hiding content from desktop down to mobile is that Webflow still makes a call to the hidden content, it still loads the content although that content is virtually invisible to the user. Hiding content that is in reality being loaded behind the scenes while also loading separate content considerably slows the site down. I wish they would make it so that hidden content isn’t even called upon
Ah, the great debate of responsive vs dedicated. Here’s the facts, plain and simple:
Mobile users behave differently than they do on desktop. Same for tablet, etc.
If you’re looking to optimize for the best user experience possible, you need to design completely different websites for each platform. That’s truly the best option for business performance goals.
The problem:
Does the clients team have the time, resources, and staff available at their disposal to maintain and update content across two or three separate websites and an app? Most companies don’t, or they think they do and find out very quickly that it’s a daunting task to pull off exeptionally.
Responsive design allows for ONE website to be maintained that flows across all screen sizes. Going responsive means that you’re trading in optimal user experience for less time consuming content management.
So ask the client how willing and prepared are they to maintain multiple sites.
Lastly, A/B split testing goes a long way here. Test a responsive design on mobile against a design that was specifically created for mobile use. If the end users on the mobile specific site aren’t outperforming the responsive site by a margin of at least 10%, I wouldn’t waste my time and resources maintaining multiple websites because the time(money) spent doing so isn’t yielding a return on performance.
At the end of the day, dedicated websites outperform responsive sites. The client needs to decide what best fits their budget, time, staff, and resources.
Thank you @Syndicate15 for your answer. You’ve answered nearly all of my questions in my mind. We have the resources and time. And running an A/B test sounds a good idea. Thank you
It should not be a debate at all. It’s not one or the other. It all depends on factors. First, what will the best experience be? and a very quick second: does the budget allow it, for development and maintenance?
Everybody talks about UX. UX UX UX. UX means decisions. And that’s an UX decision. Where will stand the mobile user when visiting the site, what is he doing? It’s a restaurant site? Ok, on desktop we need to have the contact section in first or second, but on mobile, we need to have the map on first. etc…
It is never about making a site responsive or adaptative. It should never be, it’s only a technical consideration. For a one pager on Webflow, I hardly consider that making a specific page for mobile version is more work, actually. Maybe because when I work the responsive version, I rework everything, not just resize and take care of margins. Every aspect of every element is touched up, I even change the font for paragraphs.
Thank you Vincent for the reply. I know its not one or the other or the factors it depends. I’m looking for stories or examples about what metrics should be followed, experiences of people around here to give me a head start , show me a direction where to look.
And I got that. thank you all.
