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Anatomy of a Native Feeling HTML5 iOS App

justinvincent.com

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Re: Anatomy of a Native Feeling HTML5 iOS App

#41

Post by benjamincburns »

jv22222 wrote: post #33
benjamincburns wrote: post #22

I'm probably missing the point (not sarcasm). I'm about to start writing my first mobile app - a UI client to a ReSTful image rating API. I've been debating between native and HTML5 for the past few days, and reading this article makes me lean ever more toward native. I see that the author's goal is possible. However, he's also illustrated that getting an HTML5 app to feel native on iOS requires a deep understanding…

The author here. You bring up a very good point. The caveats will be different for all different devices. And this does depend on a very deep knowledge of HTML5 hacks and tricks as well as a lot of experimentation. Have you considered titanium appcellerator for your project?

I have, but I'd rather stick to one set of proprietary technologies (the app platforms themselves) than learn another proprietary layer atop said first proprietary layer, and risk constantly scratching my head in vain when inevitably the abstraction leaks and things become inconsistent.

Not to mention lock-in. I'm already at the mercy of the respective distribution channels - I don't need to add to that pain.

Edit:

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that these things exist. I like anything that lowers the barrier of entry for people who otherwise wouldn't write software. It's just that you're trading a lot of maintenance/optimization time for a shallower learning curve - and it's important to make that known.

Also one last point - the reason why this kind of stuff typically needs to be learned through painful iterative experience is because it's typically undocumented. In most cases it's undocumented specifically because it's not a supported development path, and as a result it's very likely the techniques you discover today will break tomorrow.

It's a lot like leveraging unspecified/implementation-specific language behaviors in C.

Re: Anatomy of a Native Feeling HTML5 iOS App

#42

Post by benjamincburns »

ianhawes wrote: post #25
benjamincburns wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also another question along this topic: How bad is "not native feeling" for UX? As a poor self-funded "I just need to launch this" wantrepreneur, do I care? I happily used the HTML5 Facebook app on iOS without any notice of its performance "issues." Can someone give me an example of a non-native app where it's lack of nativeness is the cause of poor UX, and for bonus points a similar app with UX noticeably improved b…

Native Twitter iOS app vs the HTML5 Twitter app. Native Twitter is great. Very snappy, great UX. If, by chance, you click a Twitter link in Safari on iOS, you'll be facepalming as you wait.

Is it possible to load both apps simultaneously to do a comparison? I feel like I need to experience the trade-off.

Re: Anatomy of a Native Feeling HTML5 iOS App

#43

Post by Groxx »

Why would you craft all that in CSS, and then use an image to do a simple gradient? Not that I'm claiming there aren't reasons (AFAIK you can't add random dithering to the gradients to make the transition between shades less noticeable) but still - why?

Re: Anatomy of a Native Feeling HTML5 iOS App

#44

Post by lukifer »

ianhawes wrote: post #25
benjamincburns wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also another question along this topic: How bad is "not native feeling" for UX? As a poor self-funded "I just need to launch this" wantrepreneur, do I care? I happily used the HTML5 Facebook app on iOS without any notice of its performance "issues." Can someone give me an example of a non-native app where it's lack of nativeness is the cause of poor UX, and for bonus points a similar app with UX noticeably improved b…

Native Twitter iOS app vs the HTML5 Twitter app. Native Twitter is great. Very snappy, great UX. If, by chance, you click a Twitter link in Safari on iOS, you'll be facepalming as you wait.

Twitter's HTML5 is the worst possible example. That thing is unusably slow on high-end desktops, too.

Re: Anatomy of a Native Feeling HTML5 iOS App

#45

Post by aaronbrethorst »

beaucollins wrote: post #17
jv22222 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scrolling feels 100% native using -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch; I am currently working on the next (more complicated) app for UberMedia that has all of those components and works very nicely. It will be one month or so before it is ready for release.

-webkit-overflow-scrolling:touch disables the feature where tapping the phone's status bar scrolls content back to the top. That has been a showstopper for most of the things I have worked on.

That sounds like a bug. Have you submitted a radar on it?

Re: Anatomy of a Native Feeling HTML5 iOS App

#46

Post by kayoone »

I still prefer writing the core of the application in something platform independent like monoTouch and then building UI with the native tools. I dont even know if its much more work than fiddling with HTML5 for weeks to get it feel right.

Re: Anatomy of a Native Feeling HTML5 iOS App

#47

Post by srid68 »

miles_matthias wrote: post #39

This is a great example of the power of HTML5 and excites me about the future of it. I'm a web and iOS developer and I'm starting a consumer facing app and here's my release priority: 1) Web app for desktop, tablet, and mobile using responsive web design Pro: Every device in the world can reach my app. Since I'm trying to gain exposure, I want everyone to be able to experience what the app has to offer no matter thei…

If you have the time to validate a different approach using Html5 and mixing Native OpenGL, you can see it by download a Android Apk in https://github.com/Srid68/Priya.InfoList (Early Alpha)

Re: Anatomy of a Native Feeling HTML5 iOS App

#48

Post by curtisa »

amadeus wrote: post #27

This app is so painfully a web app. Here's why. First thing I did, started dragging around when I was presented with some grey/brown screen (an intermediary between the load image and the web app actually being loaded?) so I got a nice little rubber bandy action on a grey screen. Web app. Since there is no normal iOS UI pieces, I find myself being more critical of it because it's unfamiliar. I tap the input for the d…

I'm caught btw native vs html5 so if you could list a couple of the decent web apps sites you know, I'd be interested to see good examples. Tks

Re: Anatomy of a Native Feeling HTML5 iOS App

#49

Post by aufreak3 »

Stepping back a bit, I find this incredibly ironic. When the iPhone was a year or less into its release and there was no App Store and when Steve Jobs stood on the stage of (iirc) a developer conference and told devs that the API for programming the phone is simply HTML and Javascript through Safari .... I sensed laughter in the crowd :)

Re: Anatomy of a Native Feeling HTML5 iOS App

#50

Post by chris_wot »

amadeus wrote: post #27

This app is so painfully a web app. Here's why. First thing I did, started dragging around when I was presented with some grey/brown screen (an intermediary between the load image and the web app actually being loaded?) so I got a nice little rubber bandy action on a grey screen. Web app. Since there is no normal iOS UI pieces, I find myself being more critical of it because it's unfamiliar. I tap the input for the d…

I tap the input for the dollar amount, I am presented with the default keyboard. Very crappy for entering dollar amounts. Web app.

I seriously don't get why more developers don't use it.

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