Coding for the Mobile Web

Good evening — in this article I will aim to demystify the world of mobile web development, or in other words, developing web sites so that they will provide an acceptable user experience on mobile devices. I’ll run through how “the mobile web” differs from the normal web, the basics of techniques you can employ.

Mills, Chris. Vitamin (2008). Academic>Web Design>Wireless Web>HTML

Customers as Designers

The change to customer-designed products is based on the ability to connect the user interface to the manufacturing backend through a computer. As the product is manufactured, the computer knows what customer it is intended for, what that customer specified, and how to track the product through the manufacturing process so that it can be shipped directly to the desired destination. No inventory (one of the business benefits of custom manufacturing).

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2000). Articles>Usability>Wireless Web

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 the Mobile User Experience

Today, we're trying to understand how mobile devices--and by extension the mobile Web--can fit into and even enhance our day-to-day lives. As we do so, we should endeavor to avoid the mistakes we made before we understood the opportunity inherent in the Web.

Cecil, Richard F. UXmatters (2006). Design>Web Design>Wireless Web>Mobile

Designing Wearable Performance Support: Insights from the Early Literature    

According to Gery (1991), an electronic performance support system (EPSS) is an electronic environment available to and easily accessible by employees that is structured to provide online access to all information to permit them to do their jobs with minimal intervention by others. Why do we assume that this support must be provided on a computer? If effective performance support must be 'available' and 'easily accessible,' how can designers provide support to people whose jobs require mobility? Such jobs include (but certainly are not limited to) supervising a manufacturing operation, inspecting foods, and repairing equipment. A designer for any EPSS being developed to support jobs such as these would have to take the employees' mobility into account.

Gobert, Danielle. Technical Communication Online (2002). Design>Content Management>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

Designing Web Sites for PDAs

Imagine that you're riding on the local urban underground railway. It's the morning commute, and the train is packed. The stranger next to you flips methodically through the Times Tribune Chronicle in a way that lands half of the paper in your lap. You want to teach this space invader a lesson. So you tear the paper from her grasp, ball it into a mass, and squeeze with the transformative might of Superman until the lump is shaped into a perfectly readable, rectangular object that can be held comfortably in one hand. This is similar to the challenge of designing content for the PalmPilot. I came upon this analogy while designing a Wired News mini-site for the PalmPilot's AvantGo browser. During the project, I learned some fundamental guidelines that should be kept in mind when designing Web content for a PDA audience, which I'll share over the next few pages. But first I want to put in a word about the importance of the Web to the PDA.

Stowell, Carter. Webmonkey (1999). Design>Web Design>Wireless Web>PDA

Disrupting the Computer Lab(oratory): Names, Metaphors, and the Wireless Writing Classroom  

Considers metaphors that may be created or carried over from wired, face-to-face, and non-academic experience as names for wireless writing places. Ultimately, it suggests that names for wireless sites have the potential to enhance writing instruction’s status on campus and provides a naming heuristic for those seeking to accommodate local complexities.

Zoetewey, Meredith W. Kairos (2004). Articles>Education>Wireless Web>Tropes

Does Communication Everywhere Improve Communication?

As much we think we are multitaskers, there's a limit to what we can process. How has technology's enabling of communication anywhere and everywhere affected us in the context of traditional activities? How do they interplay with each other?

Cheng, Kevin. OK-Cancel (2005). Articles>Technology>Wireless Web>Collaboration

Fashioning the Emperor's New Clothes: Emerging Pedagogy and Practices of Turning Wireless Laptops Into Classroom Literacy Stations @SouthernCT.edu  

It seems humans want the best of technology without having to look at it, or what it does, closely. Though wireless technology makes a great pun about how it improves our ability to be "wired," not everyone is laughing. In this collaborative hypertext, four English professors explore their learning curves in a newly created, wireless, laptop-equipped classroom. Our research and writing was guided by these four questions.

Dean, Christopher, Will Hochman, Carra Hood and Robert McEachern. Kairos (2004). Articles>Education>Wireless Web

The Future of the "Mobile Internet"

In the near future the number of mobile Internet access devices will surpass the number of PCs in the world. This obviously has a number of implications for the future of the Internet and what form it will take in this changed environment. A recent article in the Economist compares the transition to that from the telegraph to the ‘speaking telegraph’, or what we now call the telephone. In both instances a technology which had been the preserve of specialist operators was passed into the hands of the public. And in both cases, this transition caused huge changes despite the underlying technology remaining largely unchanged. New usage models emerged as the user base changed.

Farrell, Tom. Frontend Infocentre (2001). Articles>Usability>Wireless Web

Guidelines for WAP Interface Design

Research and user testing has highlighted certain key guidelines for WAP interface development. Just as with any other device, content, design and navigation must be developed in a way that meets the needs of typical users. Some of the more significant recommendations, within each of these categories, are listed below

Cahill, Joan. Frontend Infocentre (2000). Design>Web Design>Wireless Web>WAP

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

Improving Web Interaction on Small Displays

Soon many people will retrieve information from the Web using handheld, palmsized or even smaller computers. Although these computers have dramatically increased in sophistication, their display size is – and will remain – much smaller than their conventional, desktop counterparts. Currently, browsers for these devices present web pages without taking account of the very different display capabilities. As part of a collaborative project with Reuters, we carried out a study into the usability impact of small displays for retrieval tasks. Users of the small screen were 50% less effective in completing tasks than the large screen subjects. Small screen users used a very substantial number of scroll activities in attempting to complete the tasks. Our study also provided us with interesting insights into the shifts in approach users seem to make when using a small screen device for retrieval.

Jones, Matt, Gary Marsden, Norliza Mohd-Nasir, Kevin Boone and George Buchanan. Eighth International WWW Conference (1999). Design>Web Design>Wireless Web>PDA

iPhone是否名符其实？

终于问世了，iPhone的可用性测试！毫无疑问，iPhone广告营销和推广已经超过了当代所有的消费设备，达到了登峰造极的程度。但是它真的名符其实吗？ inUse公司几位最好的可用性专家组织了一次比较性的可用性测试，测试了5个用户，比较了四款手机。众所周知，人们会很容易喜欢上那些外表华丽的产品，可是 如果这个产品很难使用，新鲜感就会烟消云散，沮丧和挫败感就会随之而来。 那么测试结果如何呢？难以置信！iPhone 给这个世界带来了全新的交互方式，再次证明在用户体验上“简洁才是王道”。

uiGarden (2008). (Chinese) Articles>Usability>Wireless Web

Is RSVP a Solution for Reading from Small Displays?

In the last five years, we have witnessed a virtual explosion in the number and variety of hand-held devices that use small-screen interfaces (SSIs). These devices, which may include everything from personal digital assistants (PDAs) to cellular telephones, offer the convenience of portable, or even wearable interfaces. This convenience, however, comes at a price; the amount of information that can be displayed on the screen at one time is very small. Moreover, manual scrolling, tabbing, and paging are required to present successive displays of information. This, of course, limits the usefulness of these devices, especially if the information that is viewed is more than just a small amount. These limitations serve as a critical usability concern as more and more consumers use hand-held devices for such things as reading e-mail, browsing the web, and reading documents.

Bernard, Michael, Barbara S. Chaparro and Mark Russell. Usability News (2000). Articles>Usability>Wireless Web

Lessons From Google Mobile

Basic problem solving still completely swamps any other creative concern when working on mobile sites. A refreshing blast of Spartan usability problems, mobile site design is uncluttered with your typical mamby-pamby web problems. Can a user get the information, and fast? Answer this question and you're far ahead of everyone else. The design process described was quite effective at powering through a lot of basic usability problems, but struck me as potentially ill suited to a younger project that might still be finding itself.

Lord, Max. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Design>Web Design>Wireless Web>User Centered Design

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

M3W

M3W is a journal and site that provides the latest news, products and techniques for the mobile web.The journal provides a discussion blog and reviews technolgoy related to handheld and mobile web browsing.

Marcello, Vincent. SoNet (2006). Journals>Technology>Wireless Web>WAP

Make it Mobile

Handheld devices are everywhere. How can you start delivering Web content that can be viewed on these devices? This article discusses the challenges of writing for these devices, what specific issues are involved. Also included in this discussion is a case study of one organization going mobile and the challenges it faces.

Rose, Emma. EServer (2001). Design>Information 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 Phone Usability

Nokia are the world's leading maker of mobile phones. Their user-centred approach to developing products has been identified as one crucial factor behind this success. 'Nokia starts its planning from what the consumer actually wants while Ericsson and Motorola tend to be more engineering driven' commented Mark Davies Jones of Schroder Solomon Smith Barney. Anecdotal evidence and our own previous observations suggest that consumers find Nokia's mobile phones easier to use than many of their competitors and often take this into account - either consciously or sub-consciously - when making their purchasing decision. Frontend decided to evaluate the usability of a Nokia phone, the popular 3210, against a competitor, the older Siemens C25. We found that the Nokia is significantly easier to use in a number of areas.

Magennis, Mark. Frontend Infocentre (2001). Design>Usability>Wireless Web