Mobile devices

When designing a website, do you think it's important to consider what kind of device it's likely to be viewed on? Mobile devices come to mind. Does it really make any difference?

Uhm, that's why mobile designs are utilized. You don't design your entire site to accommodate it being seen on a mobile device. You design your site to function on a grid that will be used on monitors/lcds.

You then have a separate site/design dedicated solely to a 'mobile view' if you want your site to be more accessible. Whether you literally create a new design/site, like say m.talkfreelance.com or you just use a script to sniff the useragent, you can then have it load a mobile version automatically.

Obviously it would make a difference. Would you want to view cnn.com on a mobile phone as you would on a desktop? Or would you want it to be more accessible by having it optimized for a phone (be it an iPhone, Android or Blackberry.) Sometimes you just have to use common sense re: your "does it make any difference" comment.

I would imagine free lancers tend to do smaller jobs that may or may not demand "max accessibility"? Sounds like the "mobile view" could, in some cases, be a nice "extra" to offer customers for a little "extra" in your pocket?

Originally Posted by Libby When designing a website, do you think it's important to consider what kind of device it's likely to be viewed on? Mobile devices come to mind. Does it really make any difference?

I think it is important to at least consider the possibility that people using mobile phones would be going to your website. It also depends on who your target audience is, does your website contain content that people using mobile devices would want to access.

On a programing level, you could assign different CSS to your HTML files that target different screen sizes, this could be done easily using Dreamweaver. Or like Jordan suggested, create a mobile sub domain.

Just think if you have a graphic intensive website that loads perfectly fine when your hooked up through a T1 or WiFi. But what about the person who wants to access your site using 3G signal, they aren't going to share the same experience, when your site take 3 minutes to load.

For an example, my Local Bank has a website that work fine on my desktop but when I go to their website on my Blackberry, I get a non-mobile page and I have to zoom in to even find the place to log in, and what takes me 2 minutes to do on my desktop take about 5 on my phone.

What kind of devices?
blackberry's, iphone's and ipads aswel as other tablets, android based phones, the list goes on...

This is a very big subject and many more people could add to what I have posted. The bottom line is definitely consider the mobile world when you design your site's.

If a site is already fairly simple, is it still necessary to change it for mobile access? I can see where a large, complicated site (like this one or a banking site) would want a scaled-down version for mobile. I'm not so sure that *all* sites need the same.

Personally I never browse on my iPhone, too. And if I do, I never use mobile versions, they always leave information out.

And in case any of you guys do a mobile version, please disable it for the iPad. It really frustrates me when I get the unscaled mobile version on my iPad and when I can't move to the desktop site.

Originally Posted by Morning If a site is already fairly simple, is it still necessary to change it for mobile access? I can see where a large, complicated site (like this one or a banking site) would want a scaled-down version for mobile. I'm not so sure that *all* sites need the same.

If the site is simple, maybe not, but if it's simple it cant be that hard to program a mobile site!
Think of it this way, if you are a web design company/freelancer, you might want to make a mobile version of your site, if for nothing else, to enhance your portfolio and to show clients the potential/benefits of a mobile version.

To address Eightloops concerns:
Some/Most websites do have mobile versions that leave stuff out, but if you program for a site to dish out different CSS, that target different screen size's (i.e. mobile phone, tablet, desktop) all your content remains, and just the way your HTML is formated, is changed.