iPad-and designing for

[Scotty]

Hi,
This is question for the website 'gurus" and just out of curiosity.
What is the process of designing a website that is used for the new web cabable phones and IPad? Do you design in WebDesigner or Xara Designer Pro at a specific size to accommodate the small screens?
JimM

[jwhitham]

The Cross-platform Browser Guidelines pack by Nokia, and available from this (long) URL http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw.n...uidelines.html I have found invaluable.

[jwhitham]

I really should learn to read the post I'm replying too, innit?

In response to the actual question; I use Xara for mock ups and graphics only with phone stuff. Unfortunately fixed resolution sites are pretty well useless on devices where there are at least four commonly used screen resolutions that can be, and frequently are, switched back and forth between portrait and landscape during a browsing session.

[pauland]

Scotty, the real problem is that fixed sized design is OK, but in practice (as has been said) there are multiple sizes to accommodate. It' s not essential to accommodate switching from landscape to portrait orientation, but it would be nice. However, the real challenge is that when a visitor comes to your site, the site needs to adjust to the device dimensions. In the case of Xara software designed sites, that is going to be a problem. There are a few things you can do.

You can use some Javascript to move the user to mobile-specific versions of your site that are designed for the device size.
You can update your site design to include a link to a mobile friendly version (bit clunky).

The iPhone/iPod/iPad can be used to view your desktop sized site, but it's a bit fiddly on the iphone/iPod looking at desktop-oriented sites. Whatever you do don't include any flash if you want to view the site on a device starting with "i" - there will just be a hole and broken icon where the flash should be.

This is an area where the Xara website solution is rather weak at the moment.

The mainstream approach to this is to drive the design with CSS and/or javascript to adapt the semantic content to the device - not something that Xaras solutions can do (which is fair enough for the ease in which you can create a website).

[Scotty]

Hi,
Thanks to all for the advice and information..always nice to know...I was wondering on how Xarians are dealing (or not) with the IPhone/Pad delema and how they go about it.
JimM

[gwpriester]

I think the short answer is simpler is better for all the above reasons.

[jwhitham]

I think the short answer is simpler is better for all the above reasons.

Agreed.

I'd like to slightly clarify my comment about different resolutions. Obviously desktop/laptop screens offer several different resolutions too, but the commonly used ones don't vary so hugely as mobile devices. For example I have two Android devices I test on, one is 320 x 240, the other 800 x 480 - too big a difference for a site designed specifically for one to work well on the other.

[pauland]

A bit OT but what device is the larger Android and what do you test?!

[jwhitham]

A bit OT but what device is the larger Android and what do you test?!

ZTE Blade as re-badged by Orange as a San Francisco. The smaller device - HTC Tattoo - wasn't bought for testing, that's my personal phone.

As for the testing, I'm building a kind of web shop, I say kind of because the card people aren't keen on accepting payments from mobiles, also trying to get to grips with the Android SDK to build apps for salespeople on the road. Also warehouse data capture software.

[pauland]

Sounds fun. Thanks for the info.