From the one and only, Jeffrey Zeldman:
Zeldman Facebook iPhone screenshot
Little tip. People don’t want apps to look and work more like websites. They want websites to look and work more like apps.
My gut reaction to this insight is mixed.
On one hand, many new websites are in essence single serving apps. They have no more functionality than extremely niche smartphone apps. On the other hand, websites are visually distinct from apps. What I mean is, sites have been apps for a while now, but they don’t look exactly like smartphone apps. Even with responsive design, sites simply don’t use smartphone title bars and buttons.
Would the average user prefer simple smartphone app UI over tried and true website navigation metaphors? This could be the tradeoff between vertical-scrolling, hierarchical panes VS complex, kitchen sink pages.