Gary Price posted a great list of local mobile search tools several months ago that is definitely worth reviewing for those interested in mobile, as well as local search.
]]>A year later, the mobile Web has matured a bit in the U.S., but not much. Cameron Moll has recently posted a concise survey of practical tips for building a mobile site. In it, he addresses the same question. What building blocks should you use?
If you choose to code your site with XHTML-MP, all carriers strongly suggest providing both XHTML-MP and WML versions of your site...XHTML-MP carrier support is growing with each passing year, but it still has a long way to go.
Locker Room Rally
The Carrier Web is still a behemoth in comparison to the Mobile Web. The more of us that develop for mobile and push the limits of design, usefulness, and functionality, the sooner device manufacturers, carriers, and mobile browser developers may increase support for “mobile web standards”. Fight team fight!
So the question is, what type of mobile Web standards will we have? But a second question is, what type of mobile standards do we want? What will users want? What will 'indie webmasters' want? (Remember, the vast majority of content on the Web is generated by these indie webmasters.)
As a user, I will definitely want the following:
As an indie webmaster, I will not want two things:
These desires are not met by WML. Nor are they met by a dual XHTML MP/WML mobile Web. These desires will be met only by the full support of XHTML and CSS on mobile devices.
The carriers are stubborn, and they will not switch to standards or full XHTML and CSS just because I want them to. But sooner or later, the users will get what they want.
Consider this: although there are still many 'legacy' mobile devices in use, this percentage decreases with every generation of purchases. These generations cycle quickly: a mobile phone is not something you generally keep for 7 years. And when people replace their legacy phones, many of them will be making the switch to phones with more robust mobile browsers (like Opera). They will like these browsers. These browsers will give them access to most of the traditional Web. These browsers will even increase the utility of many mobile-specific Web sites.
In time, they will demand these browsers. Their friends will demand these browsers, too. And the remaining carriers will have to respond.
XHTML and CSS are the languages of the near future mobile Web.
]]>The following best practices will make your current site more accessible to mobile device users and will make any subsequent implementation of a mobile-specific site much easier.
]]> 1. Keep it succinctThe use of basic, succinct copy is a best practice for the WWW anyway. Web users do not want flowery marketing language, they want the "meat"—and they want it quickly. Usability pundit Jakob Nielson summarizes this preference in Reading on the Web: "Web users are busy: they want to get the straight facts."
If Web users are busy, mobile users are busier. Mobile users are often only accessing sites to look for specific information (such as an address); they are usually not browsing for leisure. So give them the information they want—without making them scroll endlessly!
Again, using semantic markup wherever possible is a normal Web design best practice. Its importance however increases on mobile devices. For instance, many mobile devices do not support CSS; on such devices, your font specifications will be useless. But if you are using elements like subheadings correctly, these browsers can at least render these subheadings according to their default settings.
I.e., <H2> can be rendered as a subheading because there is a default style associated with this element; on the other hand, <p class="subheading"> requires CSS to render as a subheading. Many mobile browsers will simply render this as a paragraph. It will not be differentiated visually as a subheading.
The bottom line: if you have not yet given up on the illusion that you have total control of your site's presentation, do so now! Using semantic markup will minimize the "damage".
On mobile devices, standardistas may finally have their revenge. Unlike modern desktop browsers which can usually correct even the most egregious of errors in markup, many mobile browsers will not properly render sloppy code. Therefore, the use of valid markup will ensure that your content can be displayed legibly on more mobile devices.
Many designers heavily rely (or even over-rely) on SPAN and DIV tags for presentation. This is a bad practice even in desktop Web design, since it decreases the portability of content. If a design only uses a few DIVs, it is much easier to transfer this content to a new design (or to change its presentation via CSS, for that matter). In the same way, minimal use of DIVs will make it easier to author a handheld style sheet. Furthermore, extra tags will result in additional code. Bandwidth is relatively expensive on some mobile services, and download speeds are relatively slow.
Adhering to accessibility standards might be the best thing you can do for your users, period. If you are unfamiliar with these, Section 508 or WCAG 1.0 are good places to start.
I cannot even hope to describe all of the ways increased accessibility will help your users. The entire point of accessibility is to make content available to anyone, regardless of any disability they have or the device they are using. Hint: this includes mobile devices! Standards are a guiding light in this sometimes confusing aspect of design. Accessibility standards such as Section 508 are not always perfect (or completely current), but if you adhere to them, you can achieve relatively high accessibility for your site without spending a lifetime on it. And as the standards change, moving content from the old standard to the new will be much easier than building it from scratch.
The good news is that readying your Web site for mobile users will improve its accessibility and usability for desktop Web users as well. Even if you are not sure if you want to implement a mobile-only site, the above practices are sure to make your content more accessible to mobile users now, and it will also make porting your content to a mobile-only site later much, much easier.
]]>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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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.
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