When people need to find and understand your service
A clear website should explain who you serve, what you offer, which questions you can help with and how to contact you. This often calls for more precise content and a better enquiry journey, rather than a separate mobile app.
When an action needs to be completed in a browser
A web application may suit a customer portal, order management or internal administration. Here we are talking about states, permissions and system connections as well as content pages. Such a task is not automatically the same as building a company website.
When a dedicated mobile interface provides the value
For frequent use, on-site work or actions linked to a device, a mobile app is worth considering. The decision also involves how users will get the app and why they will open it again.
Five questions to guide the decision
- What should the user accomplish by the end of a complete workflow?
- How often and in what situation will they use the solution?
- Which data and actions should be accessible on the device?
- Which existing system will continue to own the data?
- What is the smallest first version that already produces a meaningful result?
The capabilities of web applications and installable web solutions depend on the device and browser. Critical features must be verified in the target environment; a technology label alone is not a specification. Technical background to web applications
Two planning examples
Attracting new enquiries: a service business wants to increase enquiries. The first step should be to improve the offer, website and form, rather than automatically build its own app.
Daily field job sheets: colleagues record recurring tasks on site. Here we compare mobile solutions based on frequency of use, connectivity and device requirements.
Sometimes the best first decision is to start smaller
Not every idea needs to go into a single release. Experience from the first working process makes it easier to define the next development.