Mobile Device Optimization

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I've received quiet a few emails from readers asking for my website to be better optimized for mobile devices. I've only been able to view it on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, but I've been told that it is horrible on the Opera Mini browser. I used their simulator, but I feel that it most likely holds little truth in comparison to the real deal.

Any Wordpress plugins that make a decent looking Mobile version? Most of the ones I've seen are horrible looking, and I can't really do any testing - my phone doesn't have internet on it.
#website design #device #mobile #optimization
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    [DELETED]
    • [1] reply
    • Aye, that's why I've never really optimized. I've tested it across all of the Apple mobile devices (I own one and the other two are easily accessible), but they're using a fully-HTML supported Safari Browser. So it always look be a WYSIWYG compared to the PC.

      I've used some themes for mobile devices in the past, but they all look pretty crumby.

  • Maybe you can make your website is responsive. so your website can detect it automatically for fixed resolution. you can find it on tuttplus , there is a tutorial in there .
    • [1] reply
    • I've thought about it - I've done it with other smaller sites. It's just hard to test - I'm limited to simulators.

      Thanks (;
  • New kinds of mobiles have enough capability to read and use websites or web pages. \

    Thanks
  • Have you try to take a look on those plugins on this article:
    dailyblogtips.com/10-mobile-plugins-for-wordpress

    Just my two cents
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks, buddy. Checked out the article and found the one I liked. Got a few emails from readers the next day thanking me (;

      Cheers.
  • What type of site do you have - is it a wordpress blog or a business type of website?

    Responsive design looks great but is far from being optimized for mobile in terms of file size and speed... technology and network speeds need to catch up first before they can be fully utilized across the broadest range of mobile devices - for right now an adaptive website with content rendered to specifically suit the mobile operating system/device/browser is by far the best solution in terms of compatibility and speed to bridge the gap of the now and future needs of mobile, HTML5 standardization in the next 18 months will be what supersedes both adaptive and responsive design.

    They maybe powerful, but you still have to zoom and pan to get access to content, when sites are scaled down navigation can be a nightmare, let alone the use of flash and overloaded content - this is neither efficient or a good end user experience for the mobile visitor... dismissing the need for a true mobile optimized website is very blinkered especially when you see the huge increase in mobile usage, if you haven't seen some of the staggering statistics of mobile usage you need to start researching and re-thinking your approach to mobile.
    • [1] reply
    • I'm currently using Wordpress. Like I said, I don't have access to mobile devices (other than the Apple line) regularly, so it's very difficult to test. I know that, out of all of my mobile visitors, those with Opera Mini are the most common.

      I really am looking for a plugin that makes a nice looking design for mobile sites. I've used some in the past (nearly two years ago :/ ) but they looked like crap, so I never really had a mobile version. But with this relaunch, people want a mobile version -_-
  • Mobiles have become a very important part of our daily life. A lot of people are using them for surfing internet and its usage is increasing at a very fast pace. There has been a rapid increase in the demand for smartphones which requires net connection for proper working. So your website should be optimized in such a way that it can run smoothly on computers as well as on mobile phones. One thing you need to take care of is not using a lot of flash technology on your website as it can slow down on your website.
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  • You should consider using a "RESPONSIVE" theme that adjust according to the screen size. A mobile version is an old concept now.
    • [1] reply
    • Give it 18 months and a standalone mobile site maybe an old concept but that's simply not the case right now, certainly not at this very moment...

      Optimization for mobile is not just about squeezing everything onto a smaller footprint and making it look pretty. In most instances the content that is displayed on a regular desktop site is not the content that people want to view when they are on the go. For a brick and mortar business for example the content needs to be specifically optimized for mobile, so people can get the information they need like address/location, telephone number, coupons etc quickly - they are typically not interested in the companies blog, about us page or waiting to finish downloading a pointless slideshow or fill in complicated forms that are best left for a desktop browser.

      There are still a great number of people who cant take advantage of JQuery, HTML5, CSS3 with their feature phones, by using a responsive design that includes any of those technologies will immediately alienate that mobile user... if the site uses flash you can hide it but it still gets downloaded on the users phone... for the time spent on designing a good responsive design you may as well have created an adaptive design that works on both smartphones and feature phones.

      Dont forget despite the fact the Android OS runs on a huge number of mobile devices, they are not all fully fledged smartphones with touch capability. Many have inferior screen-size's in comparison to their touch enabled counterparts, this in itself sets them apart and puts them in the feature phone category... accordion type menus are great, as are touch enabled slideshow, but are certainly no fun when trying to click on them with a little pointer on your phone.... bottom line its all about the end user experience - it has to be!

      In most instances with a responsive design you can forget about load speeds and validation too... Google thinks those are pretty important features for mobile so ignoring that fact probably isn't such a good idea unless you think Google is wasting its time with its "How To Go Mo" initiative its probably spent a small fortune on... and the R&D its done creating specific mobile crawl bots that simulate both smartphone and non smartphone user agents. Remember also that a responsive design gives ZERO identification to notify Google that it is actually a mobile friendly site... and in my eyes there's a reason for that - because its not!

      Everyone to their own but to say "a mobile version is an old concept now" I totally have to disagree with your views on mobile optimization.
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    Mobile Device Optimization

    I've received quiet a few emails from readers asking for my website to be better optimized for mobile devices. I've only been able to view it on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, but I've been told that it is horrible on the Opera Mini browser. I used their simulator, but I feel that it most likely holds little truth in comparison to the real deal. Any Wordpress plugins that make a decent looking Mobile version? Most of the ones I've seen are horrible looking, and I can't really do any testing - my phone doesn't have internet on it.