Welcome to Design Guide
Free Web Page Design Software Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
Designing a mobile compatible website
from: Jon St. George - Designs-By-Jon.comWith the advent of technology like EDGE, GPRS and other more advanced web mobile browsers, users are increasingly surfing on their mobile phones, PDAs and other smaller devices which are easy to carry and can be used on-the-run. When you are designing your website you must keep this increasing set of people/visitors in mind.
Is it that easy though?
Since there are so many manufacturers of mobile devices, and every one of them manufactures so many different types of models with the internet browsing ability. Sadly, there is not much consistency among mobile web browsers. So it’s difficult for a website to work on all the various mobile phones/PDAs etc because of the different technology they use and the only way to check whether your website will work on these devices is to actually try and test running the website from these devices. However, with so many types of devices out there, that’s something that you can never do. Add to this that so many devices are introduced every few months.
In such a scenario what you can do is to make your site suitable/viewable for as many mobile browser platforms as possible. You cannot and should not try to design the website for a particular make/model. Some of the basic requirements would be:
A. Your website should be able to work without images
Many mobile browsers cannot display images- your site will not be able to work if it uses images to display vital information or to make a form work. You should test your web-site without images to check whether everything still works. If you’re using images on a form, you may consider replacing them with Javascript to insert images – as most mobile devices don’t support Javascript, this method should not create any problems for them.
B. Use less bandwidth
Most of the internet enabled mobile devices are access the web at very low speeds – making your webpage’s loading time critical to them. Without images, the loading time does reduce drastically but it still has to load the webpage’s source code before the browser can display it. Here, make sure that your source code is as compact as possible, not repeating itself or using long-drawn-out methods of doing simple things.
To do this, having a working knowledge of HTML can be handy. If you have written the code yourself it should not be much of a trouble then, but if you’ve used a WYSIWYG editor then you should try running the code through HTML Tidy, to see if you can reduce its size.
C. Be careful about Screen Width.
Mobile devices have a much smaller screen width than your computer monitor and so it’s very important to make sure that your website (without images) will work on very small screens. Avoid using tables as they will never work well on the mobile screen. Better compatibility with mobile devices is yet another reason to switch your site over to valid XHTML and CSS, instead of relying on old table hacks for layout.
Benefits of a mobile-website
If your website can work on most mobile devices successfully (which it will if all the above 3 guidelines are followed), then your website will be rewarded. There are not many websites which can be easily accessed through the mobile device and if your website makes it to the list chances are that users will remain loyal to it even when surfing on the computer, thus helping you get a whole lot of new audience. Also, mobile shopping is still quite raw, and there are people trying it out for the first time and starting to build loyalty – you will get long-term customers if you have the first mover advantage. People are also likely to pay for smaller downloads, since they can pay quickly and easily using their mobile phone instead of a credit card.
Even if your website is not selling any product, a mobile website can still be good promotion. Mobile users are likely to use your website to try to get your contact information, or directions to where you are. Anyone who’s taking the time, trouble and expense to look up your site on their phone is likely to be a loyal customer, and you want to make things easy for them.
Free Web Page Design Software News
Professional Printing Services Added to The Funeral Program Site and The ... - PR Web (press release)
Professional Printing Services Added to The Funeral Program Site and The ... PR Web (press release) To meet this need, Creative Media Web, a company that specializes in professional website design, announced that it has added professional printing services to its list of company services for the wedding and memorial program template brands currently ... |
MyAjaxApp Makes It Easier than Ever To Build Web Services - Seattle Post Intelligencer
MyAjaxApp Makes It Easier than Ever To Build Web Services Seattle Post Intelligencer MyAjaxApp technology, available as a service on the MyAjaxApp.com website, allows a web designer to build a full fledged web service or social networking site using only HTML5 and a little bit of JavaScript code. “For the first time ever, ... |
Designing your way into the web market - Times of Malta
Designing your way into the web market Times of Malta As the web becomes increasingly popular so website design standards go up, new programming languages and techniques come into use and ever more complex and attractive visuals are possible. This is where web developers can clean up and the bustling ... |
Chat Wing Introduces Website Chat Tool for Aspiring Web Developers and Programmers - Seattle Post Intelligencer
Chat Wing Introduces Website Chat Tool for Aspiring Web Developers and Programmers Seattle Post Intelligencer Web developers and programmers can now use Chatwing's website chat tool to connect to the world. This application provides 100% unique chatting experience for everyone. Adding to that, Chatwing is very easy to use. Web development has been one of the ... |
Tiger Times: High Tech, High Value - my.hsj.org
Tiger Times: High Tech, High Value my.hsj.org Once they are familiar enough with the digital designing programs, then they are given freedom to work on designing something of their own. The Web Design classes give more focus, not on how to design images, but how to make up web pages so that those ... |
Blackbaud CRM Release Features Powerful New Data Tools for Nonprofits - MarketWatch (press release)
Blackbaud CRM Release Features Powerful New Data Tools for Nonprofits MarketWatch (press release) Powerful multi-channel marketing -- new features designed to execute and analyze multi-channel appeals more effectively, enhanced search engine optimization options and content management system (CMS) improvements to enable efficient and agile web ... |
Media Lab Releases Free SiteGrinder Script Pack - SYS-CON Media (press release)
Media Lab Releases Free SiteGrinder Script Pack SYS-CON Media (press release) LOGAN, UT -- (Marketwire) -- 05/16/12 -- Media Lab Inc., premier provider of Photoshop plug-in website creation technologies, announces the free release of its SiteGrinder Script Pack for Photoshop. The free combo of scripted functions for Photoshop ... |