This is an updated and expanded version of a talk I gave at last year's Forum Oxford. It's aimed at App developers and emphasizes the ways in which they can and should take advantage of the open web for discovery, “sharability” and linkability, as well as encouraging the development of functional web applications where possible.

1. You’re Doing It Wrong
How App Developers can Leverage the Web
Dan Appelquist
Open Web Advocate
twitter.com/torgo

2. The Web is Mobile

3. • The Web’s strength is that it is a commons
• The URL is the fundamental glue of the Web
• No one entity controls URLs and they are interoperable
across the entire world
• People understand URLs
• What happens when someone visits a URL is under
the complete control of the web site owner

4. Antipatterns

5. Let’s Talk about Door Slams

7. Credit: xkcd (xkcd.org/1174)

8. Image Credit: Terence Eden

9. Ok - so non-modal? Better
but not by much...

10. Why would you send your
customer somewhere else?
• Equivalent of saying to someone who walks into your
shop: “go away and buy our stuff at Walmart.”
• Your customer will more than likely be pushed other
competing products ... or just get distracted

11. Even More Mystifying
• “download our app” as a call to action on print or TV
advertising?
• You're jamming your message with other brands, creating a
confusing and frustrating customer experience
• What if they have a phone you don't support? The message is :
f--- you!
• This is 2015 – people know what to do with URLs on their
phones and tablets
• Even if you want to send your user to an app, let the Web page
be the front door – control the experience

12. Nissan
• Television and print
advertising push "download
our app" (IOS and Android
only, please)
• What am I supposed to
search for? "Nissan?"
• This dumps me on a screen
where I could just as likely
download a game...
• And their web site looks great
on mobile devices
(responsive design++)

13. Star Trek
• Clear how to find out more
• Brings you to a responsive web site with
relevant actions you can take (last year:
buy tickets; this year: buy blu-rays)
• Also, download apps

14. What is the call to action?

15. Much better…

16. …or is it?

17. “We Want our App to be on
the User’s Phone”
• FT and many others use
“Save to Homescreen”
• Guide your user through the
process of adding the web
app to their homescreen
• Thereafter, the web app
appears as an app
• Optionally, it can be launched
in a “chromeless” view

18. …but…
• Do you really need your app to be on the user’s home
screen?
• How many apps do you have in your app ghetto?
• Users are getting app fatigue
• One-off experiences such as “buy tickets to a movie” don't
necessarily need to stick around on the user’s home screen
• How about encouraging users to “favorite” or (gasp)
“bookmark” your webapp?

19. Best practice for Mobile
(Web) Apps
• Use the URL - understand that URLs will be passed
around out-of-band and build that in to your design
thinking
• Get a short domain and export short URLs
• Even if your preferred experience is in an app, offer a
Web version of that experience
• If people want to interact with you via the Web, let
them!

20. Sharability / Linkability
• How are people experiencing your service / content?
• Your service / content doesn’t live in a vacuum
• Can you enable sharing through the users choice of medium?
• Permalink – “cool URLs don’t change” – Tim Berners-Lee
• Think about short URLs (nyti.ms, bbc.in) – control the experience
• Think about the whole customer journey
• URL is UX

21. What’s missing from the
Web?

22. From 2010

23. So what’s changed
in 5 years?

25. • Web on mobile is no longer seen as “a mobile industry
thing”
• Major focus in the web ecosystem on responsive
design: mobile first
• SEO boost from designing responsively
• New, more powerful features coming to the web
platform (location, camera, video, sensors, WebRTC)
• More sharing, more linking, more platforms

26. –UK Government Data Services (GDS)
https://goo.gl/YboLjA
“Standalone mobile apps will only be
considered once the core web service works
well on mobile devices…”

27. Web Innovations
• Manifest (Chrome / Firefox)
• Save to Homescreen (Chome / Firefox)
• Push API (Chrome / Firefox)
• Service Worker (Chrome / Firefox)
• App install directly form web page (Chrome / Firefox)
• Chrome tabs instead of web views (Chrome)

28. Security
Permissions
Privacy

29. Take-aways
• Don’t slam the door on your users
• Incorporate the web into the user journey
• Have a URL strategy
• Build a responsive site
• Facilitate as much as possible in the browser
• Use the web as a vector for native apps

30. No app
required…
Danke!
Dan Appelquist
twitter.com/torgo