In the line of duty to develop mobile sites, here are a few learning that me and our team came across.
Mobile Web has some limitations that you must know about before you create or modify your website for it.
Speed—The speed of the Mobile Web is not the same as what you get with conventional methods of connection. Even with the fastest Wi-Fi connections, some mobile devices have processors and graphics engines that are still slower than a typical desktop or laptop computer.
Screen size and resolution—Mobile devices have small screens with low resolutions and limited aspect ratios.
Lack of web applications—Not everything that can run on the Web can run on the Mobile Web. Most mobile web browsers can’t run JavaScript or Flash applications, making some content inaccessible. Its does not support images having large size sometimes even in MB also.
Page Sizes—If your website is designed with a fixed width or length, it might not be displayed correctly on the Mobile Web. If you are thinking about a Mobile Web site, pay close attention to your page sizes.
Interface When designing web pages for Mobile Web browsers, keep in mind that the interface design might be completely different than that of a regular web page.
Speed—The speed of the Mobile Web is not the same as what you get with conventional methods of connection. Even with the fastest Wi-Fi connections, some mobile devices have processors and graphics engines that are still slower than a typical desktop or laptop computer.
Screen size and resolution—Mobile devices have small screens with low resolutions and limited aspect ratios.
Lack of web applications—Not everything that can run on the Web can run on the Mobile Web. Most mobile web browsers can’t run JavaScript or Flash applications, making some content inaccessible. Its does not support images having large size sometimes even in MB also.
Page Sizes—If your website is designed with a fixed width or length, it might not be displayed correctly on the Mobile Web. If you are thinking about a Mobile Web site, pay close attention to your page sizes.
Interface When designing web pages for Mobile Web browsers, keep in mind that the interface design might be completely different than that of a regular web page.
■ Shortcuts—Make sure to use lots of shortcuts. On a mobile device, it is easier to select a shortcut than to scroll.
■ Vertical scrolling—This is not the easiest thing to do with some mobile web devices. Keep this to a minimum.
■ Horizontal scrolling—Scrolling across the screen should be avoided at all costs. Some browsers don’t even allow this function.
■ Images—Images are big files that introduce display problems, so keep images to a minimum. If you have to add images, try to keep them under 100x100 pixels.
■ Text—Keep your text and text size as small as you can. Remember that some mobile web users might be paying to download your page.
If you are creating a website specifically for the mobile web user, you might want to create a specific domain or subdomain. Here are some examples of Mobile Web specific domains:
m. Prefix—Sometimes if you go to a Mobile Web site, it might have a subdomain suffix of m.. For example, the mobile version of Google is m.google.com and the mobile version of cnn.com is m.cnn.com. Because most host providers don’t charge for new subdomains, this is usually a free option.
.mobi—There is now a high-level domain for mobile phones, .mobi. This domain was set up specifically to be used with Mobile Web content. This domain was sponsored by major telecommunications and software companies to separate their sites from other domains.
So keep all this in mind while working on the web site for mobile peripherals.
