Mobile Web design: chaos now, revolution later
April 19, 2007 by Andy Hagans
You've heard the statistics. There are over 190 million mobile device users in the United States. There are over 1.5 billion mobile devices in the world—one for every four people. As Brian Fling points out in 10 Reasons to Publish to Mobile, this equates to three mobile devices per personal computer. And as networks get faster, the scope of what's possible on the mobile Web only increases.
OK, we get it. The mobile Web is The Next Big Thing™.
Really, it's not just The Next Big Thing™. It's bigger than The Next Big Thing™. In fact, the potential of the mobile Web is humungous.
But you already know that, so I'll spare you the inspirational hype. Let's get to the nitty-gritty.
The mobile Web from a webmaster's perspective
If you're a business owner, manager, or webmaster, you probably have many questions about the mobile Web. The most important of these might be "How can I serve my users on the mobile Web?"
For starters, to even have a presence on the mobile Web (the prerequisite to achieving your objectives), your content needs to be available on the mobile Web. To make your content available, you have two "high-level" strategic options:
- Make a mobile-specific Web site (i.e. at a separate URI such as http://mobile.yoursite.com), or
- Ensure that your "regular" Web site is accessible on mobile devices. (I.e. www.yoursite.com degrades gracefully on small screens and is usable with no stylesheets.)
This decision can be pretty complex; it depends on your business goals, the nature of your site/service/product, and, possibly, a cost-benefit analysis. (We'll discuss these issues in upcoming articles).
But let's assume you've made your decision—either to make a mobile-specific Web site, or to ensure that your "regular" Web site is widely accessible on mobile devices (or both). Now what?
Enter mobile Web design. Jimmy and I have decided to blog about this headache. Why? Call it sheer boredom. Call it an obsession with complexity. Call it overcompensation for our relative girth. Or maybe we just like chaos.
Yes, I said chaos
The current mess in designing for the mobile Web dwarfs that which plagued the World Wide Web in 1998. Compared to the problems afflicting the early WWW, the mobile Web has:
- more types of devices and platforms
- more variation among screen sizes
- more profit-hungry vendors in the equation (who love the word proprietary), and
- less adoption (or even plans for adoption) on the standards front.
None of which bodes well for mobile Web designers.
Just for kicks, assume you have been assigned the following project:
Design a Web site specifically for the mobile Web, ensuring that it is both highly usable and accessible across the vast majority of mobile devices.
Hey buddy, guess what. You just got punk'd! Your project is impossible.
The case for mobile Web standards
This impossibility could become endless possibility, if only mobile vendors across the world would agree to adhere to standards. I usually point to the W3C when I use the word "standards". Yes, it's been a bit slow in coming, but the Mobile Web Initiative is indeed a welcome participant, or even leader, in this conversation.
In all probability, mobile vendors aren't going to author, agree on, or implement useful standards on their own. But the W3C, along with demand from mobile users, can hopefully prod them in the right direction.
If the push for standards succeeds, great! We'll have a powerful, easy-to-develop-for mobile Web in 2013.
In the meantime, let's figure out how to build usable, accessible mobile Web sites with the tools we have available now. More on this later.