Reader Question: Test a site on a mobile device?
Thursday August 28, 2008
abweb.design asks:
Just curious if anyone had a mobile device with web access and is willing to check the mobile version of our website. If you go to www.abwebsitedesign.com with any mobile browser, it should seamlessly redirect to the mobile version. Please let me know your thoughts.
My Thoughts
I don't have a mobile device with Web access, but when I need to test pages, I use Opera in small screen mode. To get into that open Opera, browse to the page, and then in the View menu, choose " zT="1/1UH"Small screen".
The drawback here is that because Opera is not running on a mobile device, it won't automatically switch. But AbWeb has placed a link at the very top to switch to the mobile site. The mobile site is nice - clean and easy to follow. The only thing I don't really like is that it seems like most of the content is missing. But I suppose that's okay to assume that people wouldn't need all of it from their cellphone.
More Help with Designing Mobile Sites
What do you think?
Do you have a cell phone or mobile device you can test this page in? What do you think of it? Even if you don't have a device, what do you think of the mobile pages in your standard browser? Let us know by posting in the comments or answering the post.
Video on the Web is being upgraded by the W3C
Wednesday August 27, 2008
The
W3C has decided to take a look at Web video with the aim of making it a
first class citizen. This is good news, as up until now, video (and it's companion,
audio) have been difficult to place on Web pages, and have caused problems like slow downloads and difficult compatibility. I put up a video the other day, and it streamed great on my computer, but on my brother's Linux box, he had to download the whole thing before it would even play. And he couldn't even download the first version of the video that I made. So, if you've had trouble
adding video to your Web pages, you're not the only one. Maybe someday we won't be forced to use the
deprecated embed tag, and when we do use the
object tag our videos will play.
Burnout is no fun
Wednesday August 27, 2008
Especially if you're a freelancer. When you're trying to build or maintain a Web design business, you need to stay focused and up-beat, and getting frustrated or sad can destroy your business. Find out more about the horrors of Web design in the two new horror stories from this month. Or submit your own.
Accessibility, usability, and SEO
Tuesday August 26, 2008
I was reading this article today about the
differences between accessibility and SEO and it made me think about usability as well. It's interesting to me how many people equate
accessibility and
usability - it never even occurred to me to equate
SEO into that mix. But as Joe discusses it, I realize that that is something people do all the time. I define them this way:
- accessibility - making a site usable by people with disabilities.
- SEO - search engine optimization; making a site usable by search engines.
- usability - making a site usable by whomever needs to use it.
