Experts predict that by the start of 2010 the number of people browsing the Internet on a mobile device will be on a par to the number browsing on desktop computers today. Consequently, with an increasing audience and numbers only set to spiral, making sure your web content is optimised for mobile platforms at this early stage will surely reap the business benefits.  However, before you dive in, remember that just as designing a standard website site that will fulfil the needs of millions of potential users requires some careful thought, so does your mobile offering. Allow our digital specialists to put down their Blackberries for a second to cordially guide you through the minefield…

1. Screen size, handsets and browsers
If you thought multiple screen resolutions and browser versions was a nightmare for standard website development then welcome to the world of mobile phones!  Bearing in mind the huge range of handsets in current circulation, mobile site development needs to aim towards the lower end of the spectrum. Many users will be looking at your site with a screen that can only display 128 pixels (width) by 160 pixels (height). That’s actually only about 10 words per line so you do the maths!

2. Bandwidth and graphic filesize
For a start, most user’s access to the internet comes either for free at work or for a small fixed monthly sum at home. Consequently they can (and often will) spend literally hours surfing away on the Net in relative comfort. Visitors who are browsing your mobile site are unlikely to be in the same position – they might be waiting in a queue, travelling on the train or the bus, running to the departure gate, or lost in an unfamiliar town late at night and trying to get somewhere. Mobile internet is also far slower than your average broadband so these users don’t want to hampered even further by hanging around for large graphics or complicated layouts. Mobile web pages need to be short, snappy, and give the specific information that a user needs. If they want to browse for hours they have the option of doing it much better on their home or work PC.

3. Useability
People don’t use the internet on their mobile phones the way they do their desktop computer. Normally they would have the luxury of a full size keyboard and a mouse for point-and-click duties. Now suddenly they have their mobile device’s scroll buttons, numerical keypads and various other proprietary controls to make even the simplest operation, like filling in a form, a lengthy procedure. All information on a mobile site needs to be instantly accessible from the main home page menu and designing the hierarchy and navigation of a mobile site means thinking simply at all times – nested folders, lots of clicks to get to information, and complex site structure or navigation will simply not work.

4. Web standards
One of the most important aspects of web design for mobile use is to make sure the site complies with current web standards. Desktop browsers can be relatively forgiving and easy to please. A few misplaced HTML tags here and there will, more often than not, be fixed automatically by the browser so that your page is rendered correctly. However, this functionality equate to more code, which means a bigger install and requires more processing power. Mobile browsers, on the other hand, are much less forgiving. They generally won’t have the luxury of a 2 GHz processor and 100MB of disk space available to them. Therefore, rigorous testing is an absolute must if your site is going to be accessible to mobile phone users so make sure your code is clean, precise and passes the W3C online checkers.

5. Oh yeah, it’s not a PC
Many people wonder why their current website cannot simply be changed slightly to fit on a mobile screen. Like many aspects of technology, unfortunately it’s not that simple. Mobile phone browsers do not display websites in the same way as a normal computer – they render a site to varying degrees of success and may choose to not display (or simply cannot display) certain types of information such as Flash. Occasionally, due to factors mentioned elsewhere, what appears on the mobile screen looks nothing like the original site; notably tables, complex graphics and overly complicated layouts often get ripped apart or distorted beyond recognition. Likewise, as mentioned previously, users who are surfing on a mobile device have different needs and requirements to desktop users, so to force-feed them the same content as that displayed on the traditional site is a recipe for disaster.

And finally, just remember, If you can create a mobile website that functions well, looks good, and is easy to navigate, you will have the potential to reach an audience of mobile and PDA users that runs into the millions. And who wouldn’t want that?

Tags: design, development, mobile, useability, web standards, website

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 8:50 AM and is filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.