Designing websites for small screen portables

[tombstoneweb]

Hi all,
A while back I purchased a .mobi domain for an information site I have. I haven't done anything with it yet, however with the huge difference in screen resolutions currently available I am toying with the idea of putting together a strictly mobile information site.
Does anyone have any experience setting up a website for mobile users? What is the average screen resolution of hand held devices? What about using images? Should I set it up as a fixed width or fluid site?
So many questions. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!!

[MuNKyonline]

Hi tombstoneweb,

Here's a couple of links that may be of use to you:
Mobile Web Design ~ A Book by Cameron Moll
Designing for the Mobile Web [Design Principles]

Hope this helps!

[CSR_VT]

I too have a web site that I would like to make accessible via handheld devices. What is a .mobi domain, should I get one for this purpose?

We'd like to serve a different home page to the handhelds, than we do to the full screen viewers, will a mobi domain help with that?

Sorry for asking such newby questions, but I've got to start somewhere.

Thanks,
CSR_VT

[DaveSawers]

you don't need a .mobi domain name particularly. You can use browser detection to find out who are mobile users and direct them to a different set of pages on your regular site that are narrow and are light on both text and graphics.

The newer generation of mobile browsers (iPhone, etc.) display regular web sites pretty well and doubtless that will be the way that other mobile manufacturers will go too. Therefore, unless your requirement is urgent, I would just wait a little while and you may well find the problem just goes away.

As an experiment, I put together a mobile site a while ago for a shopping center information site, anticipating that mobile users would tend to use such sites more regularly than static users. In the event, mobile browsers still only take up less than 2% of visitors. The regular site is at: Crowfoot Crossing Shopping Centre Calgary - The Premier Outdoor Mall and the mobile version is at: Crowfoot Crossing - Shopping Mall, Calgary, Alberta

[tombstoneweb]

Originally Posted by DaveSawers

you don't need a .mobi domain name particularly. You can use browser detection to find out who are mobile users and direct them to a different set of pages on your regular site that are narrow and are light on both text and graphics.

The newer generation of mobile browsers (iPhone, etc.) display regular web sites pretty well and doubtless that will be the way that other mobile manufacturers will go too. Therefore, unless your requirement is urgent, I would just wait a little while and you may well find the problem just goes away....

I can see what you are saying. The thing is, I bought the domain name a few years back when .mobi was all the thing so I thought I should do something with it. I live in a tourist town and have the local online attraction/business directory website. What I was thinking of was a mobile website to augment/enhance the regular online page so that while our guests are visiting, they are able to find information on what to do in town using their phones.

[Isabel]

I bought a mobi {izziart.mobi} domain because I heard that there was a mobi directory developing because of the high cost and limited usage for handheld device uses. I made a little website for it. i don't think anyone really uses it, but i hold on to it because of the increases usage in handhelds, i know the price for internet connection will go down as the demand goes up -- but which monitor screen -- wide like black berrys , rectangular like LG's and i Pod size too? it reminds me of the early days of trying to be browser compatible... I downloaded Cameron Moll's book, but it was a little heavy for me -- i've seen some extensive realtor sites on them, but who can afford the time to look at them at today's internet connection prices?

[e-dvertising]

One of the first using the .mobi-domains in Europe as an additional channel have been autmobile-manufacturer, e.g. BMW.mobi and they did not change the principle design of the .mobi-site using an approx 350px wide "header"-image and small text-portions linked to some more infos and the basic contact-information phone ...

We only ordered some .mobi-domains for us (e-dvertising . werbeagentur graz - zeltweg :: werbung - webdesign - fullservice - cms) and customers but did not really "launch" it with more than the contact-information.

As you might know on ready.mobi - dotMobi compliance & mobileOK checker is a test with rating, visualization of the page on different devices and with addtional design-tips.

[xtempore]

Like most things with web-design, you just have to try it and see.

I'm no expert and still have a lot of questions of my own, but one thing I found very useful was the device emulators in Visual Studio.

Even if you are not developing in VS, you can still use the emulators to check out how your site will look on all manner of hand-held devices.

They are also useful for finding out how the device will look to your server. I.e. what information you get about screen resolution etc.

I was looking at reworking a site I have for use on hand-held devices. At the moment I've shelved the idea though because the site used a lot of screen real-estate and because it made extensive use of Javascript for menus, pop-ups, and AJAX.

It seems that some hand-helds have either no Javascript implementation or very limited implementations (or is that just the emulator?)

Good luck though. Tell us how it turns out and what you learn along the way.

[ee222]

You can get more info about how to build a mobi website at:

Mobile Website free ! Best mobile websites ( mobile web ) build easily with our mobi site builder.

It is also a FREE mobile website builder...

[sonoff]

I've decided to address this topic "Designing websites for small screen portables" by citing and including here the very same set of comments that I submitted in response to an article entitled "Where Are the Smartphone Standards?" dated 07.18.08 and created by Tim Bajarin -- visit URL address PC Magazine Discussions - Where Are the Smartphone Standards? of the PC Magazine Discussions section of the pcmag.com Web site. Hope this helps everyone to get a better handle on what it takes to achieve success in the ever-evolving mobile Web environment ....

SUGGESTION IS TO FOCUS ON WEB BEST PRACTICES AT ALL TIMES:
A technology-independent focus involving adherence to Web Best Practices regardless of the device(s) used, screen sizes, features (or lack thereof), and so on should be adopted as the dominating consideration to be kept in mind at all times when designing Web sites/pages. By taking this approach, a first-pass solution for Ubiquitous Web Access (UWA) can be achieved.

PROOF BY EXAMPLE:
How do I know that such an approach would meet the UWA objective is possible here and now? The answer is clearly demonstrable by the underlying design architecture that I have implemented -- referred to as Scsi's set of Web Best Practices -- throughout the two URL addresses listed below. Check them out for yourself, and please note that the foundation for the overall success lies in the tenth (Mobile) Web Best Practice, namely: "Every (Mobile) Web Page Validates ...."

Consequently, I conclude that adoption and implementation of device-independent Web page source coding as a comprehensive set of Web Best Practices -- which I have labeled as Scsi's "Perfect 10" Web Site Standard -- can be demonstrated here and now -- and all without having to establish any smartphone standards whatsoever, at least when the fundamental usage focuses on Internet-based Web browsing activities.

Raymond Sonoff, President
Sonoff Consulting Services, Inc.
271 Saxony Drive
Crestview Hills, KY 41017
Bus. Tel. No.: 859.261.5908

Scsi P&KT Web site URL: Home Page of Sonoff Consulting Services, Inc.'s Productivity and Knowledge Transfer Web Site
Gen'l e-mail: info@sonoffconsulting.com
Scsi P&KT Mobile Web Site URL: Mobile Home Page of Sonoff Consulting Services, Inc.'s Productivity and Knowledge Transfer Mobile Web Site

[Dustie]

I'd use caution on creating a mobile (lite) site. There are a couple websites I use on a regular basis that have done that, and for ease of use I choose their "lite" site everytime I visit, even if I'm on my desktop and not on a mobile device. It's faster for me to find the information I need since images and advertising is kept to a minimum on the "lite" site.

I do, occasionally, hit their "regular site", so I can visit a few of their advertisers to say thanks for having the site there for me to use, but I'm sure you know that wouldn't be the case with most people. I just happen to know how important that advertising is and do appreciate them having built their site. Most people though would just use the lite site to pass most the ads all together...and never think twice.

Using a "lite" site alternative of a website is sort of like zipping through commercials with a DVR, and if your site relies on advertising to help pay your way, this is something you might want to keep in mind. I know that there's avertising available for mobile sites, but it's not going to be nearly as lucrative as on your regular site I'm guessing.

[uwe]

For small screens, i.e. mobile phones you should build pages using XHTML MP (mobile profile) or XHTML Basic. Most modern mobile web browsers support these formats. W3C has published some guidelines: Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0

You will find a smart online editor plattform at DotMobiFairy: Only 3 Steps to your mobile website

Have fun!

Uwe

[MattE]

One should also bear in mind that over 50% of global internet access is via handset.

Other than UK users, the next biggest percentage of users accessing the BBC site are using mobile.

There is plenty of scope - but you MUST MARKET IT!!

[DaveSawers]

Originally Posted by MattE

One should also bear in mind that over 50% of global internet access is via handset.

And your source for this unlikely statistic is what?

Data is very hard to find, although there are statistics around that indicate that (very approximately) 10% of mobile users access their e-mails while mobile and that fewer than that have accessed the internet. It seems the most common use for mobile internet browsing is for weather information.

Whilst a small number of mobile users occasionally browse the internet, home and business computer users consume about 99.9% of the bandwidth.

[tombstoneweb]

Wow! Thank you all for your input and insights. It seems I will have my work cut out for me. I will enjoy creating this new addition to my information website. It seems to me that it will be worth my effort if I just approach it correctly.

Thanks again!