Mobile web sites and design
The trend for mobile web use is not slowing as more users take to surfing the internet on their mobile devices. Global studies have shown that more people access the internet on their cell phones then via pc around the world and mobile device sales far out number pc sales year on year. With this in mind we know how powerful mobilising your website can be,but launching succesful mobile sites is a tricky business .Here we introduce some important factors when creating your first mobile web site, as well as offer some examples of solutions used on already launched sites.
Mobile web slutions
We have created our own solutions which may be used on your mobile web portal. Mobile surveys can be used for collecting user data and 2D barcodes can help drive traffic to your mobile site. There are of course many other solutions. Lets get started on top tips for setting up your own mobile website.
Device detection
When building a normal website one for browsing on PC the developer need only consider which browser will display the content (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome). Pc browsers are very similar and only require small tweaks for rendering style sheets etc. Mobile browsers are complicated and development is made harder by the different screen sizes and lack of standardised functionality (JavaScript, Ajax). So the first place to start in building your site is detecting the device and understanding what the device can render.
There are three ways you can deal with this.
1) Detect and manage your own mobile devices. This is maintanance heavy but can provide great results.
2) Use a third party product to detect the device , manage the device database yourself
3) Let someone else handle it
We have experience in various types of device detection. To learn more on the subject we have prepared a few links for you.
Mobile device detection with wurfl
Mobile device detection with blueprint
Mobile site templates
Once you have implemented a device detection service, its time to decide on the look and feel of your site. You can use already made templates or design your own. We have a small hand full of prepared templates for you to download in xHtml mp format.
Mobile SEO
Once your site has been built and uploaded, its time to get visitors to your pages. This requires the same skill and technic as you would for your website. Here we discuss Mobile SEO topics to help drive traffic to your site