Kent WebSite Design

Not many people in business with whom I speak are aware of the .mobi domain released last year. Most web designers or marketers are now familiar with the purpose and design issues related to creating a mobile website for a prospective customer.

However, is the jury still out on these type of websites? Is is the future or fad - another internet standard over-hyped?

The design implications of creating a mobile website is built around XHTML Mobile Profile 1.0. The whole basis for this subset of HTML, is due to the restrictive nature of mobile devices currently available. These restrictions include:

• Processing power of device
• Memory Limitations
• Screen Size and Resolution
• Data Bandwidth Limitations

Data Bandwidth restrictions really affect the operability of mobile websites. GPRS offers around 3 to 4 Kilobytes per second therefore downloading anything takes an age. Websites needs to be optimised for minimal page size in order to make it usable. Downloading music such as mp3`s needs 3G speeds (384kbs) or connection to a WIFI Access Point to really have any kind of fast transfer rate.

Apart from technical limitations, there are also the practical limitations of using small mobile devices. Size is everything in mobile devices. Devices are getting smaller and this is the fashion. It`s cool to have something small but supposedly useful. However, the design trend is to be heading toward larger screens, touch screen navigation and the minimum numeric keys to make life easier. One drawback here is that these systems require more software control from the OS - usually Windows Mobile or Symbian, and these are prone to bugs which causes lock ups and crashes.

Considering most users online probably use their personal computer 85% of the time for browsing, purchasing and downloading, using a mobile device is quite restrictive and time consuming. To make things more equal, the mobile website design has to be lightweight, whilst incorperating the appropriate content, images and operability for the user. The standard marketing practices of keyword research, links and content building are still as relative as ever.

If mobile devices/phones eventually become a large touchscreen sensitive mini computers with faster processers, efficient non windows based Operating Systems and acceptable standard data transfer rates, it would not be too much of a problem to handle full size web pages in Micro Browsers which have recently been developed for such practices. (Even though it might require some downsizing of the original page or multi sections, somewhat like the iPhone has incorperated.)

In my own experience of using Ebay, I encountered more “Page could not display” errors than actual search results. Whether this is the limitation of the device or website itself, I`m not sure which. However, it rendered the whole thing unusable. Logging in also requires a text input mode on the device, then returning to the web page to submit the login information. All rather time consuming, especially using the numeric keypad rather than standard qwerty layout.

One area which seems practical to use mobile website design is where the Network operator provides its own content and services, rather than users search the Internet itself. Network providers can implement a whole range of useful services which are integrated into the device and easily accessible via the device menus. Circumnavigating the need for a user having to search for things such as maps, restaurants, cinema information elsewhere etc. One drawback for this is network providers tend to use this as a marketing method for upselling more products, like pictures or ringtunes rather than useful functions.

Whether the average business owner will profit from the additional mobile website content in  terms of selling or advertising remains open to question. At this stage, I think it is more realistic that the larger organisations like Ebay, Yahoo, with their huge development teams, will incoperate mobile website design to its full purpose.

Where do .mobi domains stand? Filling the gap for older devices not able to process full sized pages probably. Until we reach the day where the majority mobile devices can handle the full content of the Internet, moble website design will be required to service the average users technology.