Page 1 of 1

What are you doing with mobile development

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2010 10:36 am
by matthijs
So, as the topic title says, what are you doing with mobile webdevelopment? Are some of you building websites for mobile devices? Or native apps for iPhone, Android or other devices?

I'm asking this, since it seems like it's going to be a huge shift in how we are building websites (including web applications). Just like about 10 years ago the whole web standards movement changed the way we developed websites. But this is going to even more dramatic, since there are so many new and different devices. From small smart phones to big TV's connected to the web. It used to be 800x600 without js, then it became 1024x700 with js, but now it explodes. Everything is possible.

Maybe that nice js dropdown menu you build for that restaurant site doesn't work on a visitor's smartphone. Or those big images you used drain the bandwidth from a mobile user. or those tiny icons you need to click don't work with some Touch based device.

Re: What are you doing with mobile development

Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 8:24 am
by social_experiment
I create seperate stylesheets that are only for mobile devices with a certain screen width and then i try to keep images to a minimun and remove any float items so in effect the page will be displayed as one long page. Few things worse than seeing the horisontal scrollbar of doom in a mobile window.

Re: What are you doing with mobile development

Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 10:36 am
by matthijs
Yes, that seems like a good start. I'm looking into media queries now.

It will not always work, but for an average information-oriented website, having a flexible layout or serving different ones with media queries and keeping the load down should improve the experience on many mobile devices.

Re: What are you doing with mobile development

Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 11:56 am
by social_experiment
matthijs wrote:It will not always work, but for an average information-oriented website, having a flexible layout or serving different ones with media queries and keeping the load down should improve the experience on many mobile devices.
Especially if you take into account the different mobile browsers available and not all of those conform to a single standard when rendering pages.

What are media queries?

Re: What are you doing with mobile development

Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 12:58 pm
by Jonah Bron
social_experiment wrote:What are media queries?
Different CSS rules for different screen sizes.

http://www.google.com/search?q=css+media+query