Evaluating Progressive Web App Accessibility for People with Disabilities
App development is a steadily growing industry. Progressive web apps (PWAs) constitute a technology inspired by native and hybrid apps; they use web technologies to create web and mobile apps. Based on a service worker, a caching mechanism, and an app shell, PWAs aim to offer web apps with features and user interfaces similar to those of native apps. Furthermore, technological development has created a greater need for accessibility. An increasing number of websites, even government ones, are overlooking the need for equal access to new technologies among people with disabilities. This article presents, in a systematic review format, both PWAs and web accessibility and aims to evaluate PWAs’ effectiveness as regards the corresponding accessibility provided.
- Research Article
10
- 10.60087/jaigs.v6i1.269
- Dec 3, 2024
- Journal of Artificial Intelligence General science (JAIGS) ISSN:3006-4023
Growing use of the cell phones and tablets over the computer for humans’ daily life has increased the development of mobile apps. Different paradigms have been introduced to develop a mobile app. Up till now, the major paradigms have been introduced are native apps, hybrid apps, web app and the new trend namely progressive web app (PWA). Each methodology has its pros and cons. This paper discusses about native development issues and how web app aimed to solve these problems. The hybrid apps will be discussed as a solution of cross-platform development problem of native apps. In addition, problems of web apps and the gap between web app and native apps will be introduced. PWA is supposed to bridge the gap between native apps and web apps. The main technologies –service worker- will also be discussed.
- Research Article
7
- 10.36982/jiig.v12i2.1944
- Dec 31, 2021
- Jurnal Ilmiah Informatika Global
Progressive web App is a web-based application development that includes the application of the latest technology from a browser that can be accessed quickly into one application without having to install. Progressive web applications can run like mobile applications in general, and the user interface is like using native applications. Progressive web app was invented in 1990. Progressive web App uses the latest Technology to produce web apps that provide a better User Experience and User Interface than mobile native. Progressive web app that is supported by a system called Service Worker, where the technology provides Offline Functionality, Notifications, Content Updates, Connectivity Changes and others. So that in a slow connection or an unstable connection you can access websites quickly and have the same appearance as the last time you opened the application via a Web Browser. This progressive web app can optimize web app performance to allow users to have an accessible experience with quickly and easily through browsers such as notebooks, personal computers or through mobile devices. This progressive web app is a service worker that allows a web app that can be run through all existing browsers and has a fairly simple and transparent process. So that the page that is opened, on the service worker site which is a proxy client that can be written in javascript, as well as being able to cache the assets needed for offline support which can determine certain events to activate the service worker such as push notifications, camera, and background sync. Keywords : Progressive Web Apps, Web, User Interface, Native Apps, User Experience
- Research Article
1
- 10.29121/shodhkosh.v5.i6.2024.5977
- Jun 30, 2024
- ShodhKosh: Journal of Visual and Performing Arts
This study investigates the rise of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and their impact on the landscape of web applications. PWAs, built on standard web technologies, bridge the gap between traditional websites and native mobile apps by offering features like offline functionality, push notifications, and app-like user experiences. This research delves into the core functionalities of PWAs, exploring how they address the limitations of web apps and provide an enhanced user experience.The study aims to Analyze the key characteristics and capabilities of PWAs, Evaluate the impact of PWAs on user engagement and accessibility, Explore the potential benefits and challenges associated with PWA development and adoption for businesses and discuss the future potential of PWAs in shaping the evolution of web applications. By examining PWAs through these lenses, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of their potential to revolutionize user experiences and redefine the way we interact with web applications. Progressive online Apps (PWAs), which bridge the gap between conventional webpages and native mobile applications, represent a paradigm shift in online technology. This study intends to explore the complex world of PWAs, examining their features, benefits, history, and consequences for the digital environment.The paper starts with a thorough investigation of the fundamental ideas that guide PWAs. It outlines the fundamental characteristics that set these apps apart, including their solid security procedures, responsiveness on many devices, dependability under erratic network situations, and interaction through app-like experiences. These qualities serve as PWAs' cornerstones, allowing them to leverage the adaptability of web technologies to deliver immersive user experiences that compete with native applications.In addition, this research carefully analyzes the intrinsic benefits of PWAs. It clarifies their accessibility, removing the obstacles related to app downloads and guaranteeing their general availability via web browsers. One important factor that stands out is cost-effectiveness: PWAs eliminate the need for separate platform development initiatives, which reduces overhead and compatibility difficulties. Additionally, they are more visible in search results and load faster, which adds to their allure and increases user engagement and retention. Additionally, the study looks at how PWAs are changing a variety of businesses and use cases. Case studies from well-known companies like Flipkart, Starbucks, and Twitter Lite demonstrate the effectiveness of PWAs in providing customers with quicker, more interesting, and more accessible experiences. These practical applications highlight the observable advantages of PWAs and demonstrate how they may transform social networking, e-commerce, and service-oriented applications. The study also explores the technical foundations that support PWAs, highlighting the function of caching methods, HTTPS protocols, and service workers in guaranteeing robust security measures, faster loading times, and offline capability. It clarifies the best practices for development and architecture that make it possible to create PWAs, promoting a better comprehension of the technical aspects supporting these apps. This study concludes by promoting PWAs' transformational potential in transforming the digital landscape. It emphasizes their function as a driving force behind providing exceptional user experiences that combine the finest aspects of mobile and online applications. PWAs are positioned to change web development standards as they continue to develop and gain popularity. They provide organizations and users with an attractive alternative that puts accessibility, engagement, and efficiency first.
- Conference Article
33
- 10.23919/cisti.2018.8399228
- Jun 1, 2018
The mobile apps have been reaching a huge success on the mobile market. This opportunity attracted a lot of interested companies to have their own optimized mobile apps for all major mobile operation systems. However, these developments are expensive when developed natively for each mobile platform. New improvements done on the web technologies, allowed more features and capabilities than previously was only possible on apps that was developed natively. This started new possibilities on consolidate all developments only on web apps, that are apps that runs on web browsers. This paper intends to understand which evolutions, capabilities and limitations exists on developing a web app to run in all devices. We present the new concept of Progressive Web App, created by Google, in a way to normalize all web developments. It will be introduced the major advantages on developing the apps centralized as a Progressive Web App, comparing on developing the same solution for each different mobile platform. It will be also described the current state of web technologies and in which preferable scenarios the Progressive Web Apps are a strong alternative to the mobile native apps.
- Conference Article
54
- 10.1109/mobilesoft.2017.7
- May 1, 2017
Context. Mobile web apps represent a large share of the Internet today. However, they still lag behind native apps in terms of user experience. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are a new technology introduced by Google that aims at bridging this gap, with a set of APIs known as service workers at its core. Goal. In this paper, we present an empirical study that evaluates the impact of service workers on the energy efficiency of PWAs, when operating in different network conditions on two different generations of mobile devices. Method. We designed an empirical experiment with two main factors: the use of service workers and the type of network available (2G or WiFi). We performed the experiment by running a total of 7 PWAs on two devices (an LG G2 and a Nexus 6P) that we evaluated as blocking factor. Our response variable is the energy consumption of the devices. Results. Our results show that service workers do not have a significant impact over the energy consumption of the two devices, regardless of the network conditions. Also, no interaction was detected between the two factors. However, some patterns in the data show different behaviors among PWAs. Conclusions. This paper represents a first empirical investigation on PWAs. Our results show that the PWA and service workers technology is promising in terms of energy efficiency.
- Research Article
- 10.55041/ijcope.v2i4.547
- Apr 22, 2026
- International Journal of Creative and Open Research in Engineering and Management
Mobile applications are an integral part of our daily life. From ordering food to online banking, they are used for a multitude of daily tasks. Currently, there are two main ways to build mobile applications — native apps and Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). Native apps are built separately for Android and iOS, while PWAs are web-based apps that function similarly to native apps within a browser environment. This paper compares these two technologies based on performance (speed, memory, battery), user experience (ease of use, satisfaction), and development efficiency (cost, maintenance). Real-world examples like Starbucks PWA, Twitter Lite, and Ma-Ease (a native Android app) are used to clearly illustrate these differences. The study found that native apps are superior in terms of performance and user experience, but PWAs are more cost-effective to develop and simpler to maintain. The System Usability Scale (SUS) scores for native apps were 83.2 (Excellent) and those for PWAs at 76.5 (Good). This paper assists developers and organizations in deciding which technology to choose based on their needs and budget. Keywords: Progressive Web Apps (PWA), Native Mobile Applications, Performance Benchmarking, User Experience (UX), System Usability Scale (SUS), Service Workers, Mobile Development, Cross-Platform.
- Research Article
4
- 10.33564/ijeast.2023.v07i09.003
- Jan 1, 2023
- International Journal of Engineering Applied Sciences and Technology
The proposed system uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Deep Learning (DL) techniques to extract voice data and translate it to text during medical consultations. Iterative model was adopted in the design of the system and the user interfaces was implemented by using NLP techniques, especially speech recognition and natural language understanding. Deep learning algorithm shows a great ability to build clinical decision support systems by extracting various information for medical diagnosis and produce result is few seconds. The result form the system testing shows that the installation size of the Progressive Web App (104 KB) is 42 times smaller than the native Android app (4.37 MB). In terms of render-speeds, the PWA rendered different results. The native app will launch the Android activity after 1408 ms after app icon tap (launch), while the progressive web app launches the application in 230 ms. The advent of cross-platform application development frame-works have made it much easier to create applications for multiple platforms for mobile devices. In spite of reduced learning effort, usually lower costs, and a faster time-to-market cross-platform methods always do not prevail in most cases. Although there are normal exclusions – like graphic-intensive games, which should to be programmed with the native software development kits (SDKS), choice between native apps, cross-platform generated ones, and Web apps can remain delicate. Whereas many diverse efforts have been made with respect to how cross-platform development frameworks ought to work, no technology is deemed unequivocally superior than the others. But a cross-platform mobile app has got an edge over native app development. It also recommends that developers adopt this technology of mobile app development due to its huge gains.
- Conference Article
14
- 10.1109/iccomm.2018.8430158
- Jun 1, 2018
Mobile software development is an emerging technology and so are the strategies to build them. This paper focuses on the budding technology i.e. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), which bridges the gap between web and native mobile apps. Service Worker is the backbone of any PWA. It enables caching of memory, offline access, and other gem features. To prove that caching memory improves the performance, tests have been performed. Taking the advantage of Google's Lighthouse (beta) tool, metrics have been calculated and solutions to improve them are suggested. We has demonstrate the service worker and its impact on cross platform approaches and compare android, iOS and PWA performance growth.
- Conference Article
13
- 10.1109/icacce.2018.8441715
- Jun 1, 2018
Mobile software development is an emerging technology and so are the strategies to build them. This paper focuses on the budding technology i.e. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), which bridges the gap between web and native mobile apps. Service Worker is the backbone of any PWA. It enables caching of memory, offline access, and other gem features. To prove that caching memory improves the performance, tests have been performed. Taking the advantage of Google's Lighthouse (beta) tool, metrics have been calculated and solutions to improve them are suggested. We has demonstrate the service worker and its impact on cross platform approaches and compare android, iOS and PWA performance growth.
- Research Article
- 10.51582/interconf.19-20.08.2025.027
- Aug 20, 2024
- InterConf
This article analyzes and contrasts the use cases, Cultivation Methods, Tools, and User Experiences of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and Mobile Native Applications. It notes that since 2015, the use of PWAs has surged as a result of faster download times, offline usability, lower development costs, and enhanced engagement. Key PWAs For the Building of PWAs includes Service Workers, Web App Manifests and Responsive Web Design; the article showcases practical code examples for registering service workers, and handling notifications, as well as caching resources for a seamless user experience. Popular frameworks for PWA development includes Angular, React and Vue.js. For the user interface, Framework7, React Native, Ionic and Onsen UI provide a native user interface and feature design and offer enhanced usability. To empower PWAs, best practices include notifications and caching for heightened user reliability. Exercises in the article include tables showing the advantages and disadvantages of methods, tools sticks, and practices which outline the best routes for the developers. In essence, the article states that PWAs provide high-performance levels, are scalable, secure, and user-engaging, thus going through the same competition as native applications besides maintaining development and maintenance costs to their lowest. As the browser capabilities advance, it will become an ever-important chair for modern web development.
- Conference Article
21
- 10.1145/3184558.3188742
- Jan 1, 2018
Progressive Web Apps (PWA) are a new class of Web applications, enabled for the most part by the Service Workers APIs. Service Workers allow apps to work offline by intercepting network requests to deliver programmatic or cached responses, Service Workers can receive push notifications and synchronize data in the background even when the app is not running, andtogether with Web App Manifestsallow users to install PWAs to their devices' home screens. Service Workers being a Web standard, support has landed in several stand-alone Android Web browsersamong them (but not limited to) Chrome and its open-source foundation Chromium, Firefox, Edge, Opera, UC Browser, Samsung Internet, andeagerly awaitediOS Safari. In this paper, we examine the PWA feature support situation in Web Views, that is, in-app Web experiences that are explicitly not stand-alone browsers. Such in-app browsers can commonly be encountered in chat applications like WeChat or WhatsApp, online social networks like Facebook or Twitter, but also email clients like Gmail, or simply anywhere where Web content is displayed inside native apps. We have developed an open-source application called PWA Feature Detector that allows for easily testing in-app browsers (and naturally stand-alone browsers), and have evaluated the level of support for PWA features on different devices and Web Views. On the one hand, our results show that there are big differences between the various Web View technologies and the browser engines they are based upon, but on the other hand, that for Android the results are independent from the devices' operating systems, which is good news given the problematic update policy of many device manufacturers. These findings help developers make educated choices when it comes to determining whether a PWA is the right approach given their target users' means of Web access.
- Research Article
- 10.47533/2020.1606-146x.173
- Sep 15, 2022
- Bulletin of the National Engineering Academy of the Republic of Kazakhstan
These days, almost every successful company owns a web application for their business. Essentially, companies try to develop a website that is easy to navigate, so that a user could have a great experience regardless of a used device. But, a web app, even if developed to be used on any device, can be constraining for a user as it does not have features that have been reserved to native apps. Thus, companies are forced to develop a native application for their product and two applications are needed for two different OS IOS and Android to reach all potential users and match the modern criteria of a successful product. However, such a strategy of developing a web and two native applications are time and money consuming, which is far from ideal from a business point of view. In 2015, Google introduced Progressive Web Apps (PWA), which aims to close the gap between web and native applications by combining the best features from web and native apps. In this article I am going to describe several APIs that can make PWA feel like a native app.
- Conference Article
15
- 10.1109/tcset.2018.8336168
- Feb 1, 2018
The given paper deals with the modern approaches for development of mobile apps. For this reason the convenient distribution techniques and architecture solutions are discussed, inter alia fat and thin clients in the context of cloud access, n-tier-architectures etc. The mobile apps operate nowadays on the advanced hardware. Therefore, performance aspects are important but play a rather secondary role. What is namely important for up-to-date mobile apps? The taxonomies to mobile apps are given as well as pro and cons for native, web-based and hybrid apps are examined. The software-technological approaches as well as available frameworks to their development are represented within the given work. They use surrogate proxies, OS containers, sandboxes, AJAX and so-called service workers to accelerate the execution and isolate the apps from OS details and malware. The so-called Progressive Web Apps can represent an efficient alternative for the plain web apps. Further development of mobile apps towards 5G of mobile radio nets is additionally investigated. In connection, the architectures of fog-cloud cooperation under use of mobile access, as well as corresponding standards and frameworks are discussed.
- Book Chapter
2
- 10.1007/978-981-19-4193-1_55
- Sep 29, 2022
With the advancement in technology in each counting second new solutions to new problems comes into the picture and PWA are one of them which came as an alternative to the current leading technologies like android and Web, combining features of both the technology and overcoming the shortcoming of both the technologies. Progressive Web Apps are web apps that are built using the Service Workers API which can work offline by intercepting HTTP requests and delivering cached responses. The concept of progress is an approach that takes advantage of the capabilities of the environment instead of having rigid requirements. PWA is built without requiring the installation of a native app and works seamlessly across various platforms. Many Android Web browsers support Service Workers, which is a standard component of the PWA landscape. This paper aims to analyze the current state of support for PWA features in Web Views and how it fits into the overall web experience.KeywordsProgressive web appsInstall abilityIn-app browsersInformation technologyService workerApp ShellNative android application
- Conference Article
13
- 10.1109/icws.2018.00032
- Jul 1, 2018
With the evolution of mobile devices and app eco system, all major content providers develop services in native apps and web-apps. Web-apps have an inherent advantage of platform independent and uniform experience across devices, but the page load time, battery usage, and bandwidth consumption have to be improved. To solve some of these issues, there has been an introduction of Progressive Web Apps (PWA) by content providers. PWA apps use an effective caching policy on web resources based on its property. But the webpages are overwhelmingly non-PWA compliant. There is a need for non-PWA web pages to be effective in bandwidth utilization so that we can avoid the exchange of needless resources. This paper proposes a new method to inject a service worker into a webpage at Proxy Servers. This service worker is packaged along with non-PWA webpage as a response to web browser requests. The web engine then runs the service worker to identify stale web resources which in turn will be helpful to avoid transfer of redundant web resources. The proposed approach was evaluated using top 25 Non-PWA sites from Alexa 100 websites for one month. It saved an average of 25% data traffic and also provided an offline experience of these websites. This proposal can be further extended to create a generalized framework for seamlessly converting Non-PWA apps to PWA apps.