Downloading a zip folder on mobile

Question

I am building a website where certain pages display a button to download a zip folder. I am trying to come up with a smooth experience for mobile users to download the zip folder.

One solution is allowing the user to have the zip emailed to them

I would love to hear what your suggestions or thoughts are.

Thanks

Answer 1

form your concern, I got two case

1. direct download the Zipped folder
2. Mail the Zipped file

for the first case: if you allow the users to download the file directly then its taking one click action(that is too much friendly to your users in case of usability) and you can feel the smile of your clients or users.

for the second case: In this case users have to put there email id , have to click the download/send button and then they have to go to there mail and then they have to find where the download link is , and then they will get the file by clicking the link.process is quit large. still these process is too much on the market to get more user/ traffic/ client. but its irritating to user to share there email.

Now a days many people are very aware to not getting spam in there mail. So may be to share email id with your site may will be the one reason to get less traffic and user as comparison to first case.(no doubt if the user are your trusted user they will don't hesitate to share their email).

As per my knowledge base i will choose the one click download button instead of mail the ZIP file but in case of the mobile you can give a reminder option via mail service . that is a good and popular Idea now a days.

Answer 2

Question seems unclear to me. But I give examples for different usages

1. You can also share files through a cloud storage solution like Google Drive or Dropbox. When a mobile user clicks link to download zip file they would be redirected to their cloud storage application and they can save this file to their cloud storage immediately (this operation will be handled between servers so mobile data and battery will be saved) or they can download through cloud storage service application.
2. You can use similar solution like in the first part by using APIs provided by user's cloud storage services. You send files directly from your server to cloud services through these APIs.
3. In Google Photos or Facebook, when you acquire a full backup of your data they will send you an Email when files are ready so you don't have to wait in their sites. If you want to send big files it would be better to inform users through Email and still provide files through browser downloads.
4. Emails have limited capacity of attachements. Generally you cannot send files over 25 MB through Email. So it may not be the best and future proof way.
5. Classic and fast way, direct browser download.