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.

Okay, I had to do this test. Being surrounded by computers and all things network related, all mathmatical based, I needed to know my nerdi-ness. Just a bit of fun really.

I am nerdier than 80% of all people. Are you a nerd? Click here to find out!

I was asked recently to sort out a problem with a website. A local curtain shop company had hired some guy to do the I.T. set up of the company and also to design and implement a website.
The main problem is that the guy had set up the domain name in his name only and not the Company business name. He hadn’t got around to doing anything on the website and the company was getting frustrated. I call the guy “The Pimpernel” as he could never be found or contacted. The domain was registered in 2003!!

I proceeded happily enough putting some keyword optimised pages together and adding some relevant content to the niche market. You know, all the usual stuff. During this time I was also trying to contact this guy so we could transfer the dns registration over.

Nominet deals with the transfers of ownership of domain names in the UK. Its a process of both parties entering details onto the relevant forms and faxing or posting the forms, duely signed, to Nominet. It took well over 2 months just to complete this simple task as “The Pimpernel” was so hard to contact. Maybe he felt his nose was put out by my intervention into the website design, but surely he held some amount of professional etiquette about himself? Obviously not.

Another problem, that was apparent, was that he held the account information to log into the domain name registrar tag holder - Iomart.
Iomart have a really bad reputation with loads of dissatisfied customers. Just Google the name and read if you care to.

This was beginning to be some recurring bad dream. Again, more forms from Iomart to transfer the account name and password from him to the company.  This took from November to January just to complete this. Most the time the site was sitting ready to go live, though I could test it through the server sub directory. Iomart were dragging their feet, making rediculous excuses, losing faxes etc.
Eventually though, I managed to get access to the account and change the dns nameserver to the hosting server and the site went live. Huh.

The site Anthony Cowie - Conservatory Blinds Kent is nothing big,  just css/html and a few javascripts.

Personally, I would love to see the company take him to court for the time he wasted with his unprofessional attitude. But I doubt this will happen.

I guess the lesson here is make sure your domain name is hosted in your name if anybody is going to undertake designing and hosting your web site.