Deconstructing the Mobile Web

The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the mobile Web is largely overplayed hype--the clumsy extrapolation of the behavior and use of a basic set of interfaces from one environment to another incompatible one. As a result of this broken mental model of mobile computing, we are not taking advantage of the real potential this technology offers.

Knemeyer, Dirk. UXmatters (2006). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web

Designing Web Content for Mobile Browsers

Because of the limited display area and processing power, mobile computing devices cannot efficiently render Web content that has been designed for a standard desktop browser. As a result, Web content that is to be viewed, or interacted with, on a mobile device should be designed with these limitations in mind. This article provides general guidelines for the creation of such content, with the ultimate goals of optimizing information display and enhancing human-computer interaction.

Cotton, James and Patrick Commarford. IBM (2005). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web

How to Make Wireless Directory Services Useful

Wireless directory services need to recognize both the limitations and the benefits of mobile phones, by making search results more to-the-point and context-sensitive.

Baker, Adam. Merges.net (2001). Articles>Information Design>Wireless Web

Lessons from the Medical Community: Physicians Access Patient Information via PDAs

Genesys, a system of medical care facilities in central Michigan, has introduced an innovative way to couple emerging mobile communication technology with sophisticated medical care. Recently, the hospital system introduced the use of hand-held wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs) by physicians in its 440-bed system, which is made up of three local hospitals merged into one.

Ficorelli, Cindy. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Information Design>Wireless Web>Biomedical

Location-Based Wireless Web Applications  

Imagine that you’re at an amusement park with your children when, in an unguarded moment, the four-year-old wanders away. Today, you would hunt frantically for your missing child. Soon, however, you’ll be able to go to a security office where someone will display your missing child’s location on a map by tracking a cell phone or GPS (Global Positioning System) chip that you rented for the day and strapped to your child’s ankle. Science fiction? Prodgenious (www.prodgenious.com) has offered this service since the summer of 2000.

Perlin, Neil E. Intercom (2001). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web

Mobile Phone Games Designed for Girls

Unlike many game developers, one company creates games primarily targeted at young women and girls. MiniFizz is certainly not just a traditional boys’ game painted pink.

Allaeys, Sabine. Usability Interface (2004). Articles>User Centered Design>Wireless Web>Games

Mobile: The State of the Art

The world of mobile phones is a jungle of technologies with few established standards that, in some ways, resembles the early days of personal computing. Here the author presents an impressionistic landscape of this world, a glimpse of the near future, and thoughts on what it might mean for IAs.

Smith, Shawn. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Information Design>Wireless Web

Waiting for the Wireless Web  

Are you one of those cell phone users who researched all the useful features of your mobile device, and made certain that your phone and/or PDA (personal digital assistant) was WAP (wireless application protocol) compatible? Did you (like me) carefully read the ads and brochures that emphasized wireless data capabilities, which everyone said were the next step forward in convenience and convergence? Now, hands up, all of you who actually use your phone or PDA to access e-mail or the Web! (My hand is not up, either!)

Archee, Raymond K. Intercom (2003). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web

Premium Rate Culture: The New Business of Mobile Interactivity    

This article considers a neglected but crucial aspect of the new business of mobile interactivity: the premium rate data services industry. It provides an international anatomy of this industry model and the ways in which it has been used to capitalize upon the surprising success of short message service (SMS) to provide a basis for the development of consumer markets for mobile data services. It situates this analysis within a wider consideration of the role of premium rate culture in the social shaping of interactivity in convergent media. Specifically, it looks at how premium rate services are being constructed in relation to telecommunications, television and the internet. The article concludes that although premium rate culture has rejuvenated innovation in broadcast television, potentially it may constrain the interactive potential of the mobile internet.

Goggin, Gerard and Christina Spurgeon. New Media and Society (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Wireless Web>Interaction Design

Portable Social Networks, The Building Blocks Of A Social Web

Social networks as we know them—MySpace, Facebook, Twitter—each keep identity and personal relationships separate from one another. Every time you join a network, that information has to be duplicated, by hand, by you. It’s a familiar process, but in 2008 we have the tools to break that trend.

Ward, Ben. Digital Web Magazine (2008). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web>Social Networking

The Web Beyond the Desktop

For the viewer, time shifting has been a dramatic improvement over the traditional experience of watching TV. The web is about to experience as dramatic a shift in place for the user of a website, which will inevitably affect the way we design and develop web sites and applications in the future.

Shea, Dave. Digital Web Magazine (2008). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web

Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0

This document specifies Best Practices for delivering Web content to mobile devices. The principal objective is to improve the user experience of the Web when accessed from such devices. It is primarily directed at creators, maintainers and operators of Web sites. Readers of this document are expected to be familiar with the creation of Web sites, and to have a general familiarity with the technologies involved, such as Web servers and HTTP. Readers are not expected to have a background in mobile-specific technologies.

W3C (2008). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web>Standards

Next Generation Mobile Authoring

Technological convergence, increased connectivity and consumer expectations are merging to create a landscape of opportunity for the next generation of mobile content, services and applications. Success and adoption are dependent on creating usable and useful experiences — positive interactions that are integrated into an individual's actual lifestyle. Emerging technologies providing streaming music, video and entertainment raise the level of interaction and usage to a new level, increasing the complexity of interfaces and heightening challenges to interface designers and usability professionals.

Goto, Kelly. GotoMedia (2006). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web>Usability

E-Commerce on the Go: Selling Through the Mobile

A series of best practice guidelines for removing potential barriers between your customers and your mobile e-commerce site.

Baxevanis, Alexander. Webcredible (2008). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web>E Commerce

Return of the Mobile Style Sheet

If you’re just getting started with mobile design, you may face a number of hurdles, including the cost or technical challenge of designing and maintaining a second site—or a simple lack of understanding of how people on the go might use your site. This article discusses a first step toward mobile design that uses CSS to maximize interoperability across platforms. By starting simple, you can provide a decent initial experience, solicit user feedback, and iterate toward a more mobile-friendly design.

Hazaël-Massieux, Dominique. List Apart, A (2009). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web>CSS

The Foundation for Occasionally Connected Computing

This paper motivates the need for a lightweight, standards-based web services implementation that runs on mass market mobile devices. It describes the advantages of using web services and the challenges which must be overcome to use web services on mass market devices with limited computing power and network bandwidth. The paper concludes by describing a new approach to web services which drastically reduces the code required to exchange data with remote services, enabling the creation of more compelling applications with sophisticated user interfaces and application logic.

Rollman, Rich and John Schneider. IDEAlliance (2004). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web>XML

Improving Mobile Internet Usability

Even in these relatively advanced times, there's a whole set of problems faced by mobile users when it comes to accessing the Internet. Read about the importance of mobile usability.

Webcredible (2009). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web>Usability

Mobile Web 2009 = Desktop Web 1998

Mobile phone users struggle mightily to use websites, even on high-end devices. To solve the problems, websites should provide special mobile versions.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web>Usability

Think Mobile When You Write

Always keep the small screen in mind when you’re preparing your docs. There are some W3C “mobileOK” guidelines to consider to ensure that your content meets requirements. Here are some highlights.

Norris, Julie. 2moro Docs (2009). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web>Technical Writing

Web Apps, Usability, and the Mobile User

Usability and compatibility testing is a must. If you’re developing a Web application, test it with not only the major desktop browsers but with the popular mobile browsers as well. If your application isn’t friendly to mobile devices, say so up front when someone visits that application using a mobile browser. It will prevent a lot of frustration on the part of users.

Nesbitt, Scott. DMN Communications (2009). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web>Usability

Mobile Usability

In user testing, website use on mobile devices got very low scores, especially when users accessed "full" sites that weren't designed for mobile.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web

Toward a Rhetoric of Locale: Localizing Mobile Messaging Technology into Everyday Life    

This article explores the social meaning of locale in mobile communication research and introduces an approach of user localization to study technology integration. It investigates how locale forms an essential role in mobile communication in the way that practice, agency, and identities are articulated into a user localization process of incorporating technology into user's everyday life. It argues that the use of mobile communication technology is both a complex and dynamic interaction with its surrounding social, cultural, technological, and economic conditions, and an articulation work of self and locale.

Sun, Huatong. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2009). Articles>Information Design>Wireless Web>Geography

HTML 5 Links Smartphones, Mobiles, Home Electronics

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) 5 is attracting increasing attention as the standard technology for the next-generation web. Naturally, it will have massive impact on personal computers (PC), smartphones and mobile phones, and the effects will spread out to include other home electronics as well.

Hokugo, Tatsuro. Tech-On (2009). Articles>Web Design>Wireless Web>HTML5