We often look at web design and app design as two same things, if not related in the same genre or otherwise. Although both platforms are designed to look something similar, still there’s a lot of things that compartmentalize them from each other.

Mobile app and web apps are both designed to offer the most suited needs of a consumer but the key difference lies in their target audience, required features, intended purpose, and available budget. Understanding this difference is paramount, especially for someone who is designing both of them.

The Fundamental Difference of Mobile App vs Web App

The main difference that sets both these terms apart is the ability to lay out information that you want your audience to consume. Here’s a quick example, a website like BBC is filled with a lot of different columns and informational architecture. There are panels, widgets, important news, and much more that a general user can click and read.

Since the primary aim of BBC is to let the visitor consume as much information as possible, designing the User Interface is the prime importance in their design.

On the other hand, apps like Trello aims at helping you organize your daily tasks and project. Now, Trello is very minimalistic in terms of design, they don’t have a special panel, widgets, or other important news on your display screen. Instead, they follow a more User Experience approach where a user interacts and experience the tracking of problems and completing the task.

Now the main thing to consider here is to not make your UX just bland. Your audience still needs something to interact with. Like in Trello, when you click on the Plus (+) sign, you’ll get the option to make new boards, assign them to different team members and other relevant options.

The idea of a Web app and Mobile app is to layout the information in a seamless way, that lets the audience not tangled around with too many options.

Web App

• Website users are looking for a more robust experience
• They want to do many things at a time
• Follows a convenient App Design Trend

Mobile App

• Mobile users want to do quick actions (like finding direction, looking for suitable hotels, etc)
• They want a minimalistic design with easy-to-follow instructions
• Follows a minimalistic app design trend

Other Differences Between Mobile and Web App

When you think of both terms independently, there’s actually quite a lot of differences. Some of which are:

• Designing the Security of Web Applications
• Making a Reporting system and Analytics
• Designing the Approval Workflows
• Designing the User Collaboration
• Optimizing the native application and processing required
• Notification system etc

And the list goes on. One thing worth mentioning here is that you’ll have more freedom when designing a web app since the mobile interface is tightly contained and you have to adjust all the important elements at the right place. Offering the most basic controls on your app, while still maintaining the minimalistic approach is the main challenge here.

Conclusion

As mobile usage continues to grow around the world, the app vs web question remains a considerable debate in an organization. However, if you get hold of the User interface and User Experience - And then carefully select which one to use in which scenario, you can make a responsive design for any platform.

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