Types Of Applications

A programming level, there are several ways to develop an application. Each has different characteristics and limitations, especially from a technical point of view.Although at first glance this does not seem responsibility of the designer, the reality is that the type of application you choose, condition the visual design and interaction.

Native Applications

Native applications are those that have been developed with software that provides each operating system programmers, generically called Software Development Kit or SDK. So, Android, iOS and Windows Phone have a different and native applications are designed and programmed specifically for each platform in the language used by the SDK.

This type of apps you download and install from app stores, with certain exceptions in the case of Android, we'll see in the chapter "Launching the app" - taking good advantage of the different tools of promotion and marketing of each. Article posted by Android Application Development

Native applications are updated frequently and in such cases, the user must download them again to get the latest version, sometimes corrects errors or add improvements.

A feature generally despised native apps is that they can make use of notifications operating system to display important notices to the user, even if they are using the application, such as Whatsapp messages, for example.
Also, do not require Internet to run, so they offer an experience of more fluid use and are actually integrated into the phone, which allows them to use all the features of terminal hardware such as camera and sensors (GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope among others).

In terms of design, this kind of applications has an interface based on the guidelines of each operating system, achieving greater coherence and consistency with other applications and the OS itself. This favors the usability and directly benefits the user is familiar interfaces.

Web applications

Webapps- based programming web applications, also calls is HTML, JavaScript and CSS together with tools already familiar to web developers.

In this case an SDK is employed, which allows programming of the operating system independently in which the application is used. Therefore, these applications can be easily used on different platforms without inconvenience and without having to develop a different code for each particular case.

Web applications do not need to be installed, as displayed using the phone's browser as a normal website. For the same reason, are not distributed in an app store, but are marketed and promoted independently.

Being applications that run on the web, it is not necessary for the user to receive updates as they always will be watching the latest version. But, unlike native apps, require an Internet connection to function properly.

Additionally, they have some limitations and drawbacks in important factors such as memory management and not allow to maximize the power of the individual hardware components of your phone.

Web applications often have a more generic and independent interface appearance of the operating system, so the user experience of identification with the elements of navigation and interaction is generally lower than for the native.

Hybrid applications

This type of application is a kind of combination of the two. The way to develop is similar to a Web application-using HTML, CSS and JavaScript-, and once the application is completed, compiled or packaged in such a way that the end result is as if it were an application native.

This allows almost the same code to obtain different applications, e.g. for Android and iOS, and distributed in each of its stores.

Unlike web applications, these allow access using bookstores, the capabilities of the phone, just as you would a native app.

Hybrid applications, also have a visual design that is not identified largely with the operating system. However, there are ways of using native controls and buttons on each platform to adhere more to the aesthetics of each.
There are some tools to develop these applications. Cordova3 Apache is one of the most popular, but there are others, like Icenium4, which have the same purpose.

Which should you use?
Given the characteristics of each of the applications, choose one or the other is determined by a few key factors and how they ultimately affect the user experience. When the availability of the app without Internet, the possibility of using notifications and access to phone hardware resources are important, a native application will be the best option.If none of these things is really important to the application, it may be easier to design a web application, if you already have the knowledge to do so, inherited from website development. In this case, the development cost is lower and how to work a little quicker.

Regardless, native applications are those that offer a better user experience and above all, performance. Some apps like Facebook or LinkedIn, previously hybrid, have become native for this reason. Additionally, they respond more to the design guidelines of each operating system.Therefore, we will focus on native applications. From here on out, and the remaining chapters still to come, we will study them, know them and see what makes them different.