Apex, North Carolina is Going Mobile

First things first, all of the sites our team creates has mobile users in mind. They have to. Too many people access the web on mobile devices for us not to consider their experience.  But some of our clients are choosing to take the next step and build a mobile version of their site. Mobile sites have obviously been around for a while, so there is nothing really new there. But what our friends in Apex, North Carolina decided to do is actually pretty neat. Knowing that they eventually want both a mobile website and an app (and yes, there is definitely a difference), we were asked to design the mobile version of the site as if it were an app. Then, when it's time to take the mobile site and create an app, the process will be surprisingly straight-forward.

The first thing we had to decide was which components of the full Town of Apex site would be on the mobile version. Some smaller sites might get away with putting everything on the mobile version, but Apex has hundreds of pages and somewhere north of 1,000 pdfs available, so that wasn't an option. Typically a mobile user is looking for key information like who to call if the power is out, not something as detailed as "what does the full comprehensive plan say about landscaping in the historic district?" The latter will almost always be best suited for the desktop (or telephone).

Whether a resident needs to look up a town department, report a pothole, reach out to an elected official or just find Town Hall, the new Apex mobile site will quickly get them where they need to go.