How useful is it to distinguish between a website and a web app?
That’s the question CSS-Tricks posed to their users back in September. They shared the results last Friday, and the majority of respondents — 72%, in fact — said that yes, sites and apps are different things with different concerns.
But how do you define the difference?
This is where we run into trouble. From looking at the collected feedback from the poll and the comments on the poll results, we can see a wide range of varied opinions.
There is just nothing but questions, excemptions, and gray area.
If we could pin down a super accurate definition that we agreed on, even then it might not be particularly useful. And since we can’t, I argue it’s even less useful.
Yet, the poll numbers show otherwise. Most of us are convinced there it is important and useful to distinguish between these things. I guess more investigation needs to happen.
What do we think?
It’s a sliding scale.
On one end of the scale we have the simplest form of a website: A set of of webpages linked together. There’s no scripting or programming here, just HTML and CSS. You come to the site, you consume, and then you leave. It’s entirely passive. IMO, Joshua Porter’s Principles of User Interface Design is a one-page example of what makes a basic site.
On the other end of the scale we have pure web apps. You need to interact to get any use out of the experience. Chances are you’re not going to be going to Trello.com on a regular basis unless you’re actively using it to organize tasks and projects.
To put it another way:
A website is a digital publication. A web app is a digital tool.
A website has visitors (passive). A web app has users (active).
Most experiences are somewhere in the middle.
YouTube is both passive and interactive. Sure, you could just sit back and watch videos — as most people do — but you can also upload and edit videos. You can read blogs on WordPress.com without registering for an account, but if you do, you can also create blogs of your own.
Exercise: Is it a website or a web app?
Go through your favourite sites and try to classify them as a website or web app (or something in-between). In each case, explain why you came to that conclusion.
