Hi, an unscheduled event has forced me to rebuild my website. I like to know some of your thoughts on mobile device friendly when came time for you to build your site.
Do you have a different m.website.com version?
If yours is a one size fits all, how far would you go to make it look good on say a 4" iphone 5?
I work as a software developer and have worked on web sites and I am currently working on mobile web sites/apps. My recommendation is to look at "responsive web design". This a design methodology using primarily CSS stylesheets that will allow the site to respond to different browsers, whether it is a mobile phone, tablet or desktop. With more tablets coming out and phones coming in different sizes, the responsive web design allows you to adapt your site easier as technology changes. Having a separate m.website.com means you have to maintain multiple sites.
I use a single unified website like Apple. It looks the same no matter what mobile device it's on. The advantage of that is that it's easy to navigate through since the look is the same every time. I originally had a separately maintained "mobile friendly" site that wasn't too mobile friendly which was why I canned it because it was a pain to navigate. If users want to subscribe to rss, you just put in the website addy and bam! instant rss feed syndication. The main point is to keep the experience the same whether you are on a full computer, a tablet, or a phone.
ryanp wrote:
I work as a software developer and have worked on web sites and I am currently working on mobile web sites/apps. My recommendation is to look at "responsive web design". This a design methodology using primarily CSS stylesheets that will allow the site to respond to different browsers, whether it is a mobile phone, tablet or desktop. With more tablets coming out and phones coming in different sizes, the responsive web design allows you to adapt your site easier as technology changes. Having a separate m.website.com means you have to maintain multiple sites.
Hi Ryan, the new site that I am rebuilding is based on a responsive WP template. While it does respond to various resolution and devices, somehow it is unable to scale to small phones. Maybe it's my images? Shouldn't it resize the images too?
Ghost wrote:
Hi Ryan, the new site that I am rebuilding is based on a responsive WP template. While it does respond to various resolution and devices, somehow it is unable to scale to small phones. Maybe it's my images? Shouldn't it resize the images too?
Looking at the source code, it's not your images that aren't scaling, it's that whoever coded the site left out quite a few rules that would scale images in various locations throughout the theme. That and they use javascript to arrange/size certain elements, and don't have anything in the code to resize/account for different screen sizes unfortunately.
The point of my site is to not "dumb" down content for the device. You get the same experience every time. It's considered standardized instead of responsive. That said, there are active pieces of the website that allow users with larger screens have more space on the sides as well as have access to higher resolution content. It depends on what you want your users to see when they go to your site. I originally had custom CSS built for mobile devices but decided that it was too difficult for users to accept. There are some responsive designs that are good but most times I see a "dumbed" down website, I don't normally stay on it.
That said, Sboerup's website is done pretty well and it works decently.
