The Mobile Web gives access to the Internet from anywhere, with devices that are small and lightweight. There’s no doubt about it: It’s probably the best thing since sliced bread. But the 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.
■ 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.
I’m going to show you how to create web pages that work best on the Mobile Web and how to test these websites. As with any website, you should follow the steps of planning, designing, building, and then testing. This article covers topics in those areas specific to the Mobile Web.
When people come to your website using a Mobile Web device, you might want to direct them to a particular part of your website. Detecting a mobile web user might not be as easy as it seems. There are scripts in languages such as PHP that can detect a Mobile Web browser and direct the visitor to a more Mobile Web friendly part of your website.
You might not want your whole site accessible to the Mobile Web, or you might want to create a website specifically for the Mobile Web. 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.
You can use HTML to create Mobile Web sites, but you might want to use other languages specifically designed to make Mobile Web pages as easy to use as possible. Here are a couple of options:
■ Wireless Markup Language—An early version of a language specifically for mobile devices.
■ XHTML—A markup language (like HTML) that allows for web pages that work better on some Mobile Web browsers.
Mobile Web browsers have small screens and you want to provide as much information as possible on that screen. Don’t have a huge image or header text on the top of your page or you are asking people to scroll down immediately. 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.
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Note: This article was sent to us by: Edward Carlisle at 01142010
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