Native vs Web, Mobile vs Desktop

A more detailed take on plaform and OS differences.

Phenomenological Matrix

Platform	Mobile	Desktop
Apps	Private, with limited view and control	Private, with granular control and more oversight
Web	Public, with limited view and control	Public, with granular control and more oversight

Let’s start again with the general overview and dive deeper with a concrete example.

Websites

• Less screen real estate
• One frameworks
• OS-independent design expectations
• Typically lower performance
• Framed by browser UI
• More volatile
• In close proximity by other sites and services

Native

• More screen real estate
• Different frameworks, deper integration
• OS-dependent design expectations
• Higher performance
• Unframed, and multiwindow
• More volatile
• Isolated, intimate

Mobile

• Small viewport
• Touch interaction, bold

Desktop

• Big viewport, oversight
• Point and click, thus granular interaction

Let’s see an example

Mobile vs Desktop

This is a presentation app in view mode. On the left you have the teleprompter. On the right you have the slide.

What do you see that’s device/platform specific for desktop native?

Answer: Multiple windows, somewhat standard horizontal, windowed viewport, high performance, high granularity, deep OS framework integration, platform standards for UI elements.

This is how it looks on a phone. Well, actually this is not how it looks on a phone by default.

Because the default orientation is portrait mode:

Let’s compare: As you can see, now, there is only one window, so where do we put the teleprompter?

Multiple windows become layers: Use subtitles.

Mobile vs Desktop Native: Mostly a fight against limited space and less granualr control

2. Web Desktop and Native