Posted by nagasaki mike on 10/16/06 12:05

"Andy Dingley" <dingbat@codesmiths.com> wrote in message
news:1160996936.731741.135970@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
>
> nagasaki mike wrote:
>
> > could someone point me towards any respected sites out there that will
> > explain (simply) the best ways to make websites mobile friendly?
>
> Good, fluid, CSS-based design
>
> Reading Joe Clark on accessibility (much of this is good sense for
> mobiles too).
>
> Good linearisation and good prioritisation, particularly for
> navigation.
> Mobiles don't usefully support 2-d navigation, so the user is forced
> into 1-d scrolling through lists. Make sure that the nav you use is
> workable as 1-d, and that it's accessible (i.e near the top). On the
> "desktop web" consistency is important. On the "mobile web",
> context-sensitivity becomes more useful. Re-arranging the nav in the
> first couple of screenfuls of scrolled content so that it's
> task-dependent can be a very powerful technique. Can you identify why a
> customer is on your site? Can you offer them useful links that you can
> predict they'll find useful? Are they browsing or buying? Is the
> search function more useful to them today than the checkout function?
>
> Understand your network. They're not all the same, particularly if
> you're writing content for a "walled garden" that isn't the general
> web. All the networks have some level of input transcoding (mainly
> fixing up broken HTML and resizing images) but some of these have very
> strange expectations about what they want to receive (e.g. ideas like
> Vodafone's PartnerML).
>
> Test on mobiles or emulators! With a range of desktop emulators you
> can do a whole load of usability testing that's quicker and cheaper
> than with live devices. With live devices you can test the accuracy of
> emulation, and the real effects of speed restrictions. You need to test
> with both.
>
> Measure download size / speed after the networks' transcoders. Big
> images might not be a problem (the transcoder squashes them anyway),
> bloated HTML certainly can be.
>
> Don't assume device charcteristics. Mobile devices are getting bigger
> and more powerful all the time. Don't lock next years HoLeeFuk 9000
> superphone into a 100x100 window you designed for last year's model.
>
> If you find any other sites with good advice, please post links here.
>

cheers for all that - i'll have to do some emulating because i dont have and
never have had a mobile phone myself. if i find some good links i will
definitely post them here. thanks again.

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