The Role of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) in Enhancing User Experience
Every website owner knows how important user experience (UX) is these days. Shoddy design, clunky performance and confusing navigation are not things the typical web user is prepared to put up with anymore. Because, quite simply, they don’t have to. They know they can go elsewhere and have their expectations met.
Indeed, with two-thirds of people saying they judge whether a site will give them what they are looking for within seconds of landing on a page, businesses don’t just have to worry about creating the right experience. They have to ensure the UX impact is instant and favourable.
Understandably, the web development community is always looking for ways to push UX forward to meet those high user expectations. New design approaches, principles and technologies are continuously being trialled in the never-ending search for perfection.
In the tech camp, one of the most promising trends of the past few years has been the emergence of progressive web apps, or PWAs. PWAs represent a new approach to how web applications are built that combines the best features of traditional web pages with the advantages of mobile apps.
Studies have shown that using PWAs as part of your website stack increases traffic, reduces bounce rates, and boosts both the average time spent on a site per session and the number of pages viewed per session. These four things combined amount to the holy grail of UX improvements, a sure sign that you’re not only meeting visitor’s expectations but creating the conditions that are likely to lead to them making a purchase from you.
So, with that in mind, how do PWAs work, and how and why do they have such a significant impact on the online experience?
How do PWAs Work?
PWAs are a genuine hybrid. They are built using the same coding languages as regular web pages, i.e. HTML, CSS and JavaScript. They can run in a web browser, just like regular web pages. But they aren’t reliant on web browsers to operate. They can run on a device as an independent app, just like the mobile apps we’re all used to on smartphones. But they don’t have to be downloaded…
The detail of how all of this works gets quite technical. But just to cover some of the essentials, PWAs feature special background scripts (called service workers) that allow the apps to run independently. They also cache HTML, CSS and JavaScript on the device, allowing PWAs to function offline, and access device features independently. This means PWAs can do things like send push notifications to users even when the app isn’t open.
How do PWAs Enhance the User Experience?
So how does this translate into PWAs offering a better user experience compared to regular websites run in a standard browser? The benefits of PWAs can be broken down into two main categories – speed and the fact that they deliver more of a ‘native’ experience.
Faster Loading Times
Let’s start with the performance feature that defines web UX more than anything – load speed. We’ve mentioned how quickly the majority of people make up their minds about whether a website is going to give them what they want. That snap decision includes the time it takes a web page to load. So, if it’s slow and sluggish, that’s most people’s minds made up. They’re not going to waste any more time, they’ll go looking elsewhere.
And we really are talking seconds here. According to Google, average bounce rates (someone leaving a web page) are 32% higher when pages take three seconds to load compared to one second. Flip that around, and eCommerce sites that achieve average page load speeds of around one second achieve conversion rates 2.5 times higher than those with load speeds of five seconds.
PWAs help to push load speeds decisively back towards that one second mark. They do this through a combination of caching and dynamic loading. As explained above, PWAs cache app scripts on the device, which allows for offline functionality. But this also speeds up loading. This is combined with something called the App Shell Model. This means the app loads a minimal ‘shell’ of core functions when it is first opened, making it fast. Other features are loaded on demand.
The biggest benefits can be seen on mobile devices, where average PWA load speeds clock in at under three seconds for a first load, and under two seconds thereafter, compared to an average of eight seconds for websites in a mobile browser.
Native-like experience
One of the things that slows down web pages is the fact they have to be channelled through a web browser. Browsers are essential pieces in the internet jigsaw. They act like mediators between your device (what gets called the ‘client side’ in web development speak) and all the resources that make up web pages and websites that are stored somewhere way out in the wilds on anonymous servers (the ‘server side’).
Browsers do the critical job of interpreting what you type in an address bar or a search engine, or the link you click on, and retrieving the right resources. And then interpreting all the code so it displays and functions correctly on your device. It’s essential work. But it adds time.
By contrast, applications that are installed on your device don’t have to do any of that recovery, travelling and interpretation work. There is a mediator involved, the operating system, which sits between the software and your processing hardware and makes the two work in sync. But it’s a very, very short pathway. So everything feels fast, almost instantaneous.
PWAs are not ‘native’ apps installed on your device. But they try to mimic how native apps function in a number of ways. Including loading faster by using cached data stored on the device. This ‘native-like’ performance also helps to improve the user experience in other ways.
One we’ve mentioned already, and another function of the caching capabilities of the service worker scripts, is the ability to use PWAs offline. So if you’re working on a plane or a train, or you’re using your phone in an area with unreliable signal, PWAs let you carry on without interruption.
Other benefits include the fact that users can include PWAs as icons on their home screen. So instead of having to open a browser and then look up a website, they can just click the icon to open it. The shorter path makes access faster and more convenient. PWAs also give direct access to on–device features, including cameras, microphones and full-screen mode, as well as push notifications already mentioned. All in all, it adds up to a more seamless, intuitive experience.
Summary
In performance terms, there’s little contest between PWAs and traditional websites. On pretty much all counts, PWAs are more flexible and deliver a better user experience. However, they do require a different development approach to standard websites. And that’s probably the only reason why browser-based sites are still the go-to choice for most businesses. The resources required to build websites, including the modern class of ultra user-friendly no-code site builders, are well-established, well-understood, and readily available.
However, taking the leap and switching to a PWA can give you a significant advantage over competitors by raising the digital experience you offer to another level. To find out more about PWAs, their development and the rest of our web development services, please feel free to contact the Key Element team.
Robert Cowell
