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I don't think there is a correlation between quality user experience and desktop software. He breaks down the difference between desktop and web-based software

I don't think there is a correlation between quality user experience and desktop software. He breaks down the difference between desktop and web-based software only to falsely associate one with user experience and one with mass-adoption. I think choosing between the two depends on what type of app you plan on making, the type of users you target, business goals and a ton of other options. I love how he's correctly reframed the native vs web discussion but am disappointed he decided to make it a war again. It's not a holy issue: choose what's best for your business.

Hrothgar15 15y ago
Latency and responsiveness are still a huge problem for web apps, especially on mobile devices. Elements consistently come into view only when they're ready, jerkily appearing out of nowhere, as opposed to in native designed interfaces in which everything is presented instantaneously. UI feedback is often delayed, inappropriate, or at times nonexistent. This is pretty consistent across the board. As for the user experience argument, I'm still looking for a valid excuse why the Facebook mobile website is so astronomically poorer in all aspects to the Facebook for iPhone app. In theory, they can and should function exactly the same when viewed on such a device, but they are leaps and bounds apart.
- kenjackson 15y ago
  Latency is still a huge problem for web apps, especially on mobile devices. Elements consistently come into view only when they're ready, jerkily appearing out of nowhere, as opposed to in native designed interfaces in which everything is presented instantaneously. This is pretty consistent across the board. Ironically this is almost the polar opposite of Gruber's view. Gruber argues in this piece that web apps are local client apps running on your mobile device (and he urges you to view source). Both forms of apps (native and web apps) can mask latency in the same ways.
- ryanisinallofus 15y ago
  Latency and responsiveness are still a huge problem for all network-heavy apps. We have a professionally used iOS app that relies on server data (the magical cloud) and the number one user complaint is speed. Creating your client on iOS rather than in HTML/JS doesn't give you any magical "Latency and responsiveness" user experience unicorns.
  - glassx 15y ago
    Distributed software will work perfectly, provided it works under perfect conditions :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacies_of_Distributed_Computing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacies_of_Distributed_Comput...
AllenKids 15y ago
Oh but it's real and people are choosing Reeder over Google reader, people are choosing mail.ipa (or Android equivalent) over Gmail web interface. With good API, people will choose native Google Docs apps too. Cloud is the service is the soul and is the only truth, but it also works best invisibly.

Hrothgar15 15y ago

Latency and responsiveness are still a huge problem for web apps, especially on mobile devices. Elements consistently come into view only when they're ready, jerkily appearing out of nowhere, as opposed to in native designed interfaces in which everything is presented instantaneously. UI feedback is often delayed, inappropriate, or at times nonexistent. This is pretty consistent across the board. As for the user experience argument, I'm still looking for a valid excuse why the Facebook mobile website is so astronomically poorer in all aspects to the Facebook for iPhone app. In theory, they can and should function exactly the same when viewed on such a device, but they are leaps and bounds apart.

kenjackson 15y ago
Latency is still a huge problem for web apps, especially on mobile devices. Elements consistently come into view only when they're ready, jerkily appearing out of nowhere, as opposed to in native designed interfaces in which everything is presented instantaneously. This is pretty consistent across the board. Ironically this is almost the polar opposite of Gruber's view. Gruber argues in this piece that web apps are local client apps running on your mobile device (and he urges you to view source). Both forms of apps (native and web apps) can mask latency in the same ways.
ryanisinallofus 15y ago
Latency and responsiveness are still a huge problem for all network-heavy apps. We have a professionally used iOS app that relies on server data (the magical cloud) and the number one user complaint is speed. Creating your client on iOS rather than in HTML/JS doesn't give you any magical "Latency and responsiveness" user experience unicorns.
- glassx 15y ago
  Distributed software will work perfectly, provided it works under perfect conditions :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacies_of_Distributed_Computing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacies_of_Distributed_Comput...

AllenKids 15y ago

Oh but it's real and people are choosing Reeder over Google reader, people are choosing mail.ipa (or Android equivalent) over Gmail web interface. With good API, people will choose native Google Docs apps too. Cloud is the service is the soul and is the only truth, but it also works best invisibly.