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Videos
November 7, 2012 By Kristy Fifelski
What's better, a mobile app, or a mobile site? And what's the difference again? This GovGirl video explores the pros and cons of each, and covers the best practice of "Responsive Design."
Government agencies are trying to figure out how to adapt and thrive in a time where almost half of American adults have smartphones, 61 percent have a laptop and 18 percent have a tablet computer. When state and local government IT leaders were asked last spring, 39 percent said their agency plans on deploying a new mobile app for citizens within the year.
If you need a quick microsite (a separate site or area within your site with targeted content for a specific purpose -- like elections, open data, etc.), consider using a popular blogging platform. You can quickly make the blog look and function like a regular website. Then, use a pre-built, free plugin that gives you an instant mobile-friendly site. One of my faves for the WordPress platform is WPtouch, which you can find at WordPress.org.
Great sites to strengthen your mobile development vocabulary are A List Apart and Smashing Magazine.
Maintaining a consistent government website is tough when you have multiple authors. Download this free template and use it as a starting point for your own Web Author Handbook. Customize it how you wish and adapt it for your own government's needs.
Kristy is known as "GovGirl" in the government technology industry. She is a former city government web manager who has a passion for social media, technology and the lighter side of government life.
Catch weekly GovGirl videos here on GovTech and follow hashtag #GovGirl on Twitter for more conversation.
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Apps or Sites? Question I ask is: The information you are providing, Will you need to access it if mobile network is down. I.E. Emergency situations? With Apps most information is there,some apps do have to link to information, With Sites you always have to link to it. If connection is down, NO LINK!
We chose to create a mobile site. At courtplus.org, users can access Charleston County Circuit Court records using any internet connected device. Developing a mobile site was faster and considerably less expensive than creating apps for multiple platforms. It is also easier and cheaper to add new features.
This is like comparing apples to oranges. The app experience is much better (esp for phones) for a variety of reasons, especially the native app experience. A mobile website is your website but mobile, so it is a lot of content and text that is usually pretty boring. If you are going to do a simple web app you might as well make a mobile website. If you are creating an app to have a real app, go native. Yes it is more expensive, and as the saying goes you get what you pay for....