The second post in a series on the developments taking place within mobile technology.
Many modern mobile websites now offer compelling experiences and can increasingly use the device-specific features, such as cameras or mobile payments, to simplify or enrich the interaction.
What is Mobile Web?
These are traditional mobile browser based webpages.
There are two dominant operating systems and associated web browsers for organisations to build for, iOS and Android. Both platforms also offer third party web browsers that can complicate website development but often they support the same core technologies.
Many modern websites are built in a responsive way, able to adapt to the device being used thus simplifying development.
Most modern mobile web browsers have now integrated a variety of native functions, such as mobile payments, that greatly simplify transactional interactions.
Additionally, Android allows the web experiences to interact with Bluetooth beacons and request permission to send push notifications. In general, Android allows for a more app-like web experience than iOS and these differences must be considered when developing for both platforms.
QR codes and NFC tags can be used to quickly link the user to the website. While this can be used to also link to a mobile application, the ease in which a customer can access a web experience greatly reduces the user friction during an interaction.
Mobile web excels when the interactions are infrequent or the user requires basic information.
Benefits of Mobile Web
- Simple for customers to access
- Quickly updateable
- Inherently multi-platform
- Access to camera and GPS
Delivery Challenges
- Limited offline functionality
- Platform differences can create inconsistent experiences
- Interaction with Bluetooth beacons is limited