When do you go from homepage to an app?

[kasperhandyhand]

Hey

I am working as an Digtal Concept Developer at Handyhand.dk.
It is a platform a little like Taskrabbit.

60% of oure users is now on mobil. So a big topic at the company is, do we need to make an app?

I am not sure that an app is the solution, because we have many new costumers every day.

Do anyone in here, have som advice or exberience aboute this?

Taks

[ethanroot007]

Hello,

As more than 50% of your users are on mobile. So mobile is best solution for your business growth. You can develop mobile app for users. I will suggest you to develop an iOS app for your Company.

[labofoz]

I would say that any time you have a website that is used often and that may occasionally need to be accessed offline, that it would make sense as an app experience. Furthermore, if your service has notifications, a messaging system, or some sort of social features that need to be checked regularly then you must have an app…especially if most of your users are on mobile!

Imagine the workflow your users are currently taking:

1. First they have to unlock their phone
2. Then they have to open the browser
3. Then they have to wait for the browser to open (which may take a second or two if you previously had a website open)
4. Then they have to navigate to your site
5. Then they have to log in if the session expired
6. Then they can check notifications etc

With an app, you can circumvent all of that with a push notification - they wouldn’t even need to unlock their phones. If they want to manage a listing or check notifications, they can do so by clicking on the app icon from the home page. And with web workers, they can still access key parts of your sites even when offline.

The app doesn’t have to be fancy, and a lot of companies just wrap their site inside of something like Cordova/PhoneGap which is essentially a headerless web browser with access to the devices native API via JavaScript (for things like push notifications).

[LeoCampbell]

You must help your user use your site. If your users prefer a phone, you should make an application. I recommend to test the site on different devices and operating systems. New customers can use new devices.

[ng8423002]

Hello,
Now a days everyone is using mobile phones because as the technology is upgrading the use of cell phones is also increasing day by day. With this several apps are coming in the digital market to provide convenient services to their users. So, this is the main reason to go an app from the homepage because they have to get some benefits from the app.

[WebSteve]

I highly recommend you learn to make your site work across a variety of screen sizes. This is called Responsive Web Design (you can google it). They will be able to read your content comfortably on a mobile phone as easily as on a desktop.

This means your app will fit on a mobile screen and a large screen using the same html page. You would add html lines to the top pointing to an icon so the user can use the browser’s Add to Home Screen feature and when they do, your mobile-sized icon will appear on their screen, making it easy for them to return to your website.

<!-- Example: Icons for adding to home screen on device -->
	<link rel="icon" sizes="144x144" href="icon144.png">
	<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="57x57" href="images/apple-icon-57x57.png">
	<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="72x72" href="images/apple-icon-72x72.png">
	<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="114x114" href="images/apple-icon-114x114.png">
	<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="144x144" href="images/apple-icon-144x144.png">

You would use Media Queries to determine when the layout switches from desktop layout to mobile layout.

<!-- Example of Media Queries -->
/* ------------------------------------ *\
   RESPONSIVE
/* ------------------------------------ */

@media screen and (max-width:3000px) {
/* Big screens */
	#listtable { width: 500px; }
	body {
		background-image:      url(../images/bgxxx.png);
		background-position:   center;
		background-attachment: fixed;
	}
}
@media screen and (max-width:899px) {
/* Medium */
	#listtable { width: 500px; }
	body { background: url(../images/bg-mobile-222222.jpg) repeat; }
}
@media screen and (max-width:640px) {
/* Small */
	#listtable { width: 100%; }
}

You would use fluid scripting to size images larger or smaller (or switch from larger to smaller versions of you images). Use of “max-width” in css is helpful for this.

<!-- Example of header that is at most as 900px, and smaller on smaller screens: -->
#header  { width:100%; max-width:900px;}

These are all possibilities for you to research. Some platforms already are available that will resize your code for you (with your help, of course), such as Bootstrap and Zurb Foundation. However, their codebases are large and will slow down the site if on a poor connection.