‘Targeted’ websites , which are tuned to a specific demographic or profession, are full of meaningful information that at some point, may be needed immediately.  The information could be necessary to make timely decisions or share with others and not being able to find it, could cause setbacks that could be costly in more ways than one.

Certainly, in an office environment where computers are available, with their full screen monitors and mouse or trackpad, finding and accessing the information on a website is relatively quick and easy. However, out in the field when only a smart phone or tablet is available, weeding through the layout and format of a traditional website that was developed to be viewed on a full screen monitor is time consuming and sometime frustrating.  Browsing these websites on a smart device means constant scrolling and resizing until you find what you’re looking for and thus, a lousy user experience which reflects on the website and its future potential usefulness.

So, how do we make the information from traditional websites easily accessible and viewable on a hand-held smart device?  How do we deliver a better overall user experience viewing a website using a smart device?  Basically there are two solutions, Native Applications and Responsive Web Design. 

Native Applications:  Creating native smart device applications for operating systems such as Apple iOS and Android delivers a rich user experience by taking advantage of all the smart device’s capabilities such as GPS location, accelerometer, touch screen, etc. while allowing the delivery of targeted content to the user.  Native applications are created specific to the device they are intended to work on and require specialized development resources.  However, the device’s rich development potential allows highly customized applications to be developed.

Pros:  rich user experience, performance, security and potential use when not connected to a network or data plan.  

Cons:  Initial development cost, cross platform development costs, fragmentation within operating systems, availability of programming expertise, importance of immediate updates and distribution control. 

Responsive Web Design:   Using the Responsive Web Design approach means that the web pages automatically adjust the content and formatting based on the viewing area of the browsing window. This requires the reworking of an existing traditional website or the creation of a new website utilizing the techniques built into HTML5 and CSS to create these web pages that are ‘responsive’ to the viewing size of the browser, not a one format fits all.  On a full size desktop monitor, the user would see the website content maximized to fit the full size of the window and then on a smart device the content and formatting automatically adjusted to best use the small viewing area.  

Pros:  lower development cost vs. native applications, short initial development time and distribution control; immediate and ongoing updates; single source across all devices and browsers. 

Cons:  user experience is not as rich vs. a native application; browsers can fragment the screen; performance may not be as good; no availability when not connected to a network or data plan.

Both approaches have their merit and should be considered carefully to find the solution that best meets your objectives.  If you want to make your website mobile friendly, consider talking to us at SREF as we can help you through this process and with the creation of a site using either approach.  

We invite you to take a look at Georgia Forestry Commission’s new mobile website http://www.gatrees.mobi.  The new site was developed by the IT staff at SREF utilizing the Responsive Web Design approach and now delivers a better user experience out in the field.  Contact us here at contact@sref.info to discuss your organizations mobile information delivery needs.