What is the Difference Between Web Design & App Design

The difference between a useful website or app and the one you exit or uninstall immediately is the quality of its user experience (UX). It does not matter if the website is responsive and fast-loading or if the app is packed with high-end features. If the user’s subjective experience of your digital product is not positive, rejection is certain.

In this regard, web design and app design are the same. The lines between the two fields are also blurring rapidly due to the rise of mobile-first web design.

Web Design and App Design: Why People Think They Are the Same

Over 60% of the world’s web traffic comes from mobile devices. The average website is 3-times more likely to be visited by a mobile user than a desktop user. That’s why web designers today think of their audience as mobile users and they themselves think like mobile app designers. It means they:

• Exclusively use responsive web design
• Use simplified layouts with only the essentials and not too many fancy design elements
• Build websites with thumbs in their mind
• Use portrait photos only because users browse with their phones upright
• Increase the size of every clickable element to account for clumsy thumbs which are mobile users’ primary navigation tool
• Increase the readability of all labels, headers, and CTAs so that users never mistakenly activate them with a thumb press
• Use shorter copy (as opposed to walls of text) to keep the small phone screen clutter-free
• Avoid using Adobe Flash because it is not supported by mobile (use HTML5 instead)
• Use compressed images to limit the file size and ensure fast loading speed
• Avoid using pop-ups because they’re hard to close on small phone screens
• Only use short forms, not long, complicated forms that are hard to fill on mobile

These are the same things mobile app designers do. On top of that, mobile and web designers use a very similar tech stack:

• Codespaces is a browser-based code editor that’s used to, run, and debug both apps and websites
• Sketch is a popular prototyping tool that both website and app designers use to build wireframes and prototypes
• UXPin is another prototyping tool for both websites and apps
• React is a JavaScript framework that’s used to create interactive UIs for websites and apps with complicated view logic

Now think of these ever-increasing similarities between mobile and web design in the following context:

• Both web and app designers need a solid understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Both roles prioritize user experience design; that means both web and app designers conduct user research, usability testing, and other forms of user-centric practices
• They use Illustrator, Figma, and other graphic design tools to create custom visual elements, layouts, and interfaces
• Both professions are rooted in SEO; just like web designers and search engines, app designers have to optimize their listings for maximum app visibility

What we are trying to say is that web and app design have always been similar. But, in the past 4-years, the similarities between the two fields have intensified. So, many young design professionals think that the two fields are interchangeable.

The Major Differences Between Web Design and App Design

Do not get us wrong — web designers are extremely well-positioned to transition to an app design career and vice versa. But, that does not mean the two fields are not fundamentally different. Here are the major differences between web design and app design:

Approach to UX Design

Remember how we started the article by saying UX design is at the heart of both web and app design? While that’s true, the two deliver completely different types of user experiences. Apps are better suited to serve devoted, long-term users.

Approximately 60% of apps fail because they do not have dedicated user bases to monetize. Websites on the other hand are more likely to have casual users. So, the UX approach of web and app designers is totally different.

Web designers focus on delivering consistent experiences for all users across all devices. App designers focus on creating more nuanced experiences that are tailored to the specific needs of their dedicated user base and the capabilities of their mobile devices.

User Interface (UI) Design

In mobile-first web design, designers may optimize the UI for mobile use. However, they still have to use flexible layouts, CSS frameworks, and responsive design principles to make their app-like interfaces adapt to phone screen sizes.

Mobile app designers have a totally different approach to UI design. They have to use UI components that are native to whichever operating system they are designing for. The specific UI design guidelines they follow to deliver integrated experiences are different from those of web designers.

Interaction with Device Features

Web apps have limited access to device features. Websites have little to no access except for basic geolocation or camera access functionalities. On the other hand, designing for GPS, push notifications, contacts, cameras, and other device features is a key part of mobile app design. Here’s how this critical difference impacts the different stages of the two design processes:

• During ideation and research, app designers have to consider their target devices’ native functionalities and the type of access they have to device features before approving design ideas.
• Responsive design principles are universal, unlike the design guidelines for iOS, Android, iPads, small-screen smartphones, etc. Web designers only need to worry about browser compatibility during ideation and research.
• Web design wireframes do not incorporate device-specific interactions or native UI elements. Mobile app wireframes must include different types of touch gestures and interactions that leverage the capabilities of different devices.
• To design an engaging user interface that fully utilizes the device’s capabilities, mobile app designers have to use platform-specific SDKs and APIs that facilitate access to device features.

During the launch, mobile app designers have to submit their apps to app stores for design approval to ensure compliance with platform guidelines. There is no such strenuous approval process for websites.

Updates

Updates can be made to websites instantly on the server side. It is easier to implement such real-time changes compared to what mobile app designers have to do. They have to prepare device and platform-specific updates every few months and then wait for users to download the new features or fixes.

Technical Capabilities

To create all types of responsive or mobile-first web designs, you need to know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. With mobile app design your learning approach has to be more specific. You need to learn how to code with Swift (at least the basics) to work on iOS apps. Or you can start by learning Kotlin for Android. Either way — the technical curriculums are very different.

Lead Generation and Monetization Design

Web designers have to design landing pages, payment processing pages, and other payment-related pages based on popular eCommerce website models. They also have to integrate ads, affiliate marketing campaigns, SEO, and other digital marketing strategies into their designs.

This aspect of the design process is completely different for mobile app designers. They have to create monetization strategies around their designs. This means including eye-catching in-app purchases on the right pages or creating separate subscriptions-only app sections.

Conclusion

As you can see in most of the differences listed above — the work of the mobile app designer is slightly more complicated. That’s why they earn an average of $84,049 per year whereas web designers earn $69,083 per year. This $15k difference is reflective of the more specialized and nuanced nature of mobile app design.

Still confused between web and app design? Try contacting a professional web application design agency. They specialize in both fields and employ both web and app designers!