Everything you wanted to know about the mobile web but were afraid to ask...blueflavor.com

Who am I? * Co-founder & Principal of Blue Flavor. * Mobile Designer since 2000. * Have worked directly with all Tier 1 carriers in North America and most of Tier 2. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Who am I? * Co-founder & Principal of Blue Flavor. * Mobile Designer since 2000. * Have worked directly with all Tier 1 carriers in North America and most of Tier 2. * Helped brands like Rolling Stone, Napster & ESPN with mobile web strategy & design. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Who am I? * Co-founder & Principal of Blue Flavor. * Mobile Designer since 2000. * Have worked directly with all Tier 1 carriers in North America and most of Tier 2. * Helped brands like Rolling Stone, Napster & ESPN with mobile web strategy & design. * Run mobiledesign.org, the largest network of mobile designers. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Who am I? * Co-founder & Principal of Blue Flavor. * Mobile Designer since 2000. * Have worked directly with all Tier 1 carriers in North America and most of Tier 2. * Helped brands like Rolling Stone, Napster & ESPN with mobile web strategy & design. * Run mobiledesign.org, the largest network of mobile designers. * Author of dotMobi Developers Guide. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Jargon Alert Mobile Web The collective term for websites designed for viewing on a mobile device. Websites are published and accessed via the Internet just like a regular desktop website. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Mobile will revolutionize the way we gather and interact with information in the next three years. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Vote Vote Down load Notify WAP IVR Discuss Buy SMS SMS IVR Send to Notify Friend WAP Bluetooth TV Radio Send to Notify Friend SMS Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners. SMS Billboard Live Send to Buy Friend WAP ry Vi to MMS su di al Au Join WAP Site QR Code Word of Print Ad Mouth SMS Kinesthetic Notify Notify SMS Mobile Events WAP Device Buy Send to Friend QR Code Website MMS Join Notify SMS SMS Email WAP Site WAP Site MMS SMS Send to Send to Friend Friend Notify Notify

Jargon Alert LBS Location-based Services The ability for a mobile device to provide information that is relevant to it’s physical location via a Global Positioning System (GPS). Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

The 3C’s of the Mobile Web * Cost If you don't develop your mobile website responsibly, the user could get stuck with a big bill in order to view your content. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

The 3C’s of the Mobile Web * Cost If you don't develop your mobile website responsibly, the user could get stuck with a big bill in order to view your content. * Content Issues like navigation, image sizes, page weight and scripts all need to be considered when thinking about your website on mobile devices. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

The 3C’s of the Mobile Web * Cost If you don't develop your mobile website responsibly, the user could get stuck with a big bill in order to view your content. * Content Issues like navigation, image sizes, page weight and scripts all need to be considered when thinking about your website on mobile devices. * Context What does your website add to the users mobility? How do you add value to the their physical context? What is the context in which they will use your site? On a bus or train? Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Home About Us Company Press Executives Org Chart Overview Releases Products Standard Home Suite Pro Suite Whitepapers Suite Services Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners. License Installation Product Consulting Management Support Services Services Services Services Support Support Intranet Office Hours Contact Request Login News & Events Press News Events Releases Blog Contact Contact Sales Offices Form A Bad Mobile IA

Keep it Simple * Limit categories to 5 * Limit links to 10 * No more than 5 levels deep * At least one content item per category * Prioritize links by activity or popularity Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Home Blog Events News & Services About Us Contact Us Products & Support Locations A Good Mobile IA Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Jargon Alert Clickstream Used to refer to the series of clicks, or path, the user takes to reach a destination in an informational space. Often used to describe user behavior gathered from server logs, but also can be used in early planning, as in “creating the optimal clickstream.” Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Products & Services Support About Us Product & Services Overviews Company Home Overview Navigation Navigation Footer Executive Overview Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners. Navigation Latest News Footer Latest Blog Posts Main Phone Blog Main Address News & Events Footer Contact Events Recent Posts Locations Phone Legend Numbers News Items Primary Navigation Page Address Footer Navigation Contact Form Content Area Footer Navigation Link to Page Footer Designing Clickstreams

Jargon Alert Mobile Service Provider A broad term to describe the mobile network provider that provides subscribers wireless access to voice and data services. Also known as a mobile network operator, or MNO in the telecommunications industry, though usually referred to as carriers in North America and operators elsewhere in the world. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Effort Reward UI Device Time to complete task UI App Design Gateway Effort versus Reward Design Content Goal Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

128 pixels 176 pixels 320 pixels 240 pixels 160 pixels 220 pixels 240 pixels 320 pixels Multiple Screens Sizes Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

128 pixels 176 pixels 320 pixels 320 pixels 240 pixels 160 pixels 220 pixels 240 pixels 320 pixels 320 pixels Multiple Screens Sizes Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

128 pixels 176 pixels 320 pixels 320 pixels 240 pixels 160 pixels 220 pixels 240 pixels 320 pixels 320 pixels 200 x 250 pixels Multiple Screens Sizes Recommended Max Size Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Comparing Mobile Devices * Many devices are similar, but vary based Feature Phones on how they are Phone, WAP, SMS provisioned. * Look only at mass market phones. * Do not design for smart Smart Phones phones or PDA’s. Applications PDAs Keyboard, Stylus Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Primary Directional Orientation Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners. 1 1 Select Previous Link or Scroll Up 2 Select Next Link or Scroll Down 3 4 3 Back or Page Up Forward or Page Down 4 2 Directional Orientation

Jargon Alert XHTML-MP Extensible HyperText Markup Language: Mobile Profile A subset of XHTML Basic and HTML. Used as a primary markup language for the WAP 2.0 protocol. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

XHTML-MP * XHTML Basic and XHTML-MP are virtually indistinguishable * XHTML-MP is the predominant language for the mobile web. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

XHTML-MP * XHTML Basic and XHTML-MP are virtually indistinguishable * XHTML-MP is the predominant language for the mobile web. * It’s possible to use standard tools to create mobile web pages. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

XHTML-MP * XHTML Basic and XHTML-MP are virtually indistinguishable * XHTML-MP is the predominant language for the mobile web. * It’s possible to use standard tools to create mobile web pages. * Since XHTML-MP is similar to XHTML, the transition to the mobile web need not be complicated to developers. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

XHTML-MP * XHTML Basic and XHTML-MP are virtually indistinguishable * XHTML-MP is the predominant language for the mobile web. * It’s possible to use standard tools to create mobile web pages. * Since XHTML-MP is similar to XHTML, the transition to the mobile web need not be complicated to developers. * XHTML-MP is the default industry-supported language for mobile web development. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

XHTML-MP * XHTML Basic and XHTML-MP are virtually indistinguishable * XHTML-MP is the predominant language for the mobile web. * It’s possible to use standard tools to create mobile web pages. * Since XHTML-MP is similar to XHTML, the transition to the mobile web need not be complicated to developers. * XHTML-MP is the default industry-supported language for mobile web development. * Unless a mobile service provider requires providing WML to support older devices, XHTML-MP is the only needed language in mobile web design. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

<? xml version=”1.0” encoding=”UTF-8” ?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//WAPFORUM//DTD XHTML Mobile 1.0//EN” “http://www.wapforum.org/DTD/xhtml-mobile10.dtd”> <html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”> <head> <title>Hello World!</title> Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners. <meta http-equiv=”content-type” content=”application/vnd. wap.xhtml+xml” /> </head> <body> <div id=”intro”> <h1>Hello World!</h1> </div> <div id=”content”> <p>This is a simple XHTML-MP Page</p> </div> </body> </html> Example XHTML-MP

Wireless CSS * Wireless CSS supports most CSS attributes, but not all of them. * More advanced styling techniques won’t likely work across multiple mobile browsers. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Wireless CSS * Wireless CSS supports most CSS attributes, but not all of them. * More advanced styling techniques won’t likely work across multiple mobile browsers. * The best advice is to keep your CSS as simple as possible. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Wireless CSS * Wireless CSS supports most CSS attributes, but not all of them. * More advanced styling techniques won’t likely work across multiple mobile browsers. * The best advice is to keep your CSS as simple as possible. * Try to use document styles versus style Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

W3C Initiatives * Mobile Web Best Practices Goal: To advocate a variety of coding principles and publishing best practices to developers, publishers and mobile service providers. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

W3C Initiatives * Mobile Web Best Practices Goal: To advocate a variety of coding principles and publishing best practices to developers, publishers and mobile service providers. * mobileOK Goal: To create machine-readable labels and a mobileOK trustmark to indicate that the mobile web site adheres to the Best Practices recommendations. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

W3C Initiatives * Mobile Web Best Practices Goal: To advocate a variety of coding principles and publishing best practices to developers, publishers and mobile service providers. * mobileOK Goal: To create machine-readable labels and a mobileOK trustmark to indicate that the mobile web site adheres to the Best Practices recommendations. * Device Description Goal: To create a method of profiling and identifying device capabilities to ease adaptation. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Jargon Alert One Web The principle of making the same information and services to users regardless of the device used. This is a very misunderstood, misused and commonly debated concept. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Correct Encoding & Doctype * Character Encoding Ensuring the use of the correct character encoding and doctype makes sure that the page renders as expected. <?xml version=”1.0” encoding=”UTF-8” ?> * XHTML-MP Doctype The document type (doctype) tells the browser how the page needs to render, including the rules and how strictly to follow these rules. <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//WAPFORUM//DTD XHTML Mobile 1.0//EN” “http://www.wapforum.org/DTD/ xhtml-mobile10.dtd”> Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Use Well-formed Code * All elements should be closed, e.g. <br />. * All non-empty elements should be closed. <p>Example Text</p><p>Example Text</p> * All elements must be closed in the reverse order. <em><strong>Example Text</strong></em> * The alt attribute should be used for all images. <img src=”image.png” alt=”Image Description” /> * Text should appear within a block level element and not directly in the body. <body><p>Example Text</p></body> * Inline elements should always nest with block level elements. <h2><em>Example Text</em></h2> * All attributes should appear within quotes. <hr noshade=”true”/> * All elements and attributes should use lowercase. <p class=”Sm”>Example Text<hr noshade=”true”/></p> Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Avoid Tables for Layout * Layout tables become a big problem when viewed in multiple mobile browsers. <body> <div id=”header”>  </div> <div id=”content”>  </div> <div id=”footer”>  </div> </body> Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Place Navigation in the Content Body * Given the vertical orientation of the mobile page, we show only navigation that’s relevant to the page. <div id=”content”> <ol> <li><a href=”news.html”>News</a><li> <li><a href=”products.html”>Our Products</a></li> <li><a href=”customers.html”>Our Customers</a></li> <li><a href=”about.html”>About Us</a></li> <li><a href=”contact.html”>Contact Us</a></li> </ol> </div> Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Use accesskeys in the Primary Navigation * The primary navigation should include an assigned accesskey that corresponds to a numbered keypad whenever possible. <li><a href=”news.html” accesskey=”1”>News</a></li> <li><a href=”products.html” accesskey=”2”>Our Products</a></li> <li><a href=”customers.html” accesskey=”3”>Our Customers</a></li> <li><a href=”about.html” accesskey=”4”>About Us</a></li> <li><a href=”contact.html” accesskey=”5”>Contact Us</a></li> Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Use Ordered Lists for Navigation * Using ordered lists for navigation rather than unordered lists will indicate to the use the associated accesskey. <ol> <li><a href=”news.html” accesskey=”1”>News</a></li> <li><a href=”products.html” accesskey=”2”>Our Products</a></li> <li><a href=”customers.html” accesskey=”3”>Our Customers</a></li> <li><a href=”about.html” accesskey=”4”>About Us</a></li> <li><a href=”contact.html” accesskey=”5”>Contact Us</a></li> </ol> Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Use Document Styles, Not External Styles * Linking to an external file requires most mobile browsers to first load the XHTML-MP document, and then load the external stylesheet. * When using external stylesheets the user may experience a brief “flash” of unstyled text before the stylesheet has a chance to load. Instead, insert styles into the <head> of a document. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Linking Phone Numbers * One of the benefits of the mobile web is that its users primarily view it on a phone, allowing the user to quickly and easily make phone calls. <a href=”tel:+12065450210”>+1 206 545-0210</a> Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Forms can be Tricky * Entering data into a mobile web site is often a difficult and time-consuming process. * To avoid wasting the user’s time and causing frustration, use few or no forms. * However, when using forms, keep the needed information as little as possible. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Simple Complex Slower SSR Reformat Stylesheets Va lu e Mobile Specific Site Faster Context vs. Content Copyright © 2006 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Supporting Devices & Browsers * Over 500 devices being sold each year. * Over 50 mobile browsers to contend with. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Supporting Devices & Browsers * Over 500 devices being sold each year. * Over 50 mobile browsers to contend with. * Crowding stems from mobile service provider provisioning. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Supporting Devices & Browsers * Over 500 devices being sold each year. * Over 50 mobile browsers to contend with. * Crowding stems from mobile service provider provisioning. * Mobile service provider linked sites must support all provisioned devices and browsers. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Supporting Devices & Browsers * Over 500 devices being sold each year. * Over 50 mobile browsers to contend with. * Crowding stems from mobile service provider provisioning. * Mobile service provider linked sites must support all provisioned devices and browsers. * Adopts standards has been around for much longer in mobile. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Supporting Devices & Browsers * Over 500 devices being sold each year. * Over 50 mobile browsers to contend with. * Crowding stems from mobile service provider provisioning. * Mobile service provider linked sites must support all provisioned devices and browsers. * Adopts standards has been around for much longer in mobile. * Older or poorly designed devices don’t require support. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Publishing Methods * Educate the user to manually enter a mobile URL such as a folder or sub-domain. e.g. domain.com/mobile or mobile.domain.com. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Publishing Methods * Educate the user to manually enter a mobile URL such as a folder or sub-domain. e.g. domain.com/mobile or mobile.domain.com. * Detect the mobile device automatically and redirect the user to a location. In this case, the user simply enters domain.com. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Publishing Methods * Educate the user to manually enter a mobile URL such as a folder or sub-domain. e.g. domain.com/mobile or mobile.domain.com. * Detect the mobile device automatically and redirect the user to a location. In this case, the user simply enters domain.com. * Use the mobile specific .mobi top-level domain. Here the user enters domain.mobi. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Publishing Methods * Educate the user to manually enter a mobile URL such as a folder or sub-domain. e.g. domain.com/mobile or mobile.domain.com. * Detect the mobile device automatically and redirect the user to a location. In this case, the user simply enters domain.com. * Use the mobile specific .mobi top-level domain. Here the user enters domain.mobi. * A SMS query that returns a URL called WAP Push. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

The Device Detection Dilemma * Simple Device Detection Publish only one mobile specific site, designed for the lowest supported browser, routing all mobile browsers to it. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

The Device Detection Dilemma * Simple Device Detection Publish only one mobile specific site, designed for the lowest supported browser, routing all mobile browsers to it. * Advanced Device Detection Programmatically render the best possible mobile specific site to the requesting device. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

The Device Detection Dilemma * Simple Device Detection Publish only one mobile specific site, designed for the lowest supported browser, routing all mobile browsers to it. * Advanced Device Detection Programmatically render the best possible mobile specific site to the requesting device. * Mobile Stylesheets Code XHTML pages with the mobile context in mind and use the media type attribute to render a mobile stylesheet to mobile devices. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

The Device Detection Dilemma * Simple Device Detection Publish only one mobile specific site, designed for the lowest supported browser, routing all mobile browsers to it. * Advanced Device Detection Programmatically render the best possible mobile specific site to the requesting device. * Mobile Stylesheets Code XHTML pages with the mobile context in mind and use the media type attribute to render a mobile stylesheet to mobile devices. * No device detection Rely on an alternate domain or subdirectory forcing the user to manually enter or navigate to the mobile specific site. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Jargon Alert Adaptation The process of dynamically optimizing content to the restrictions of the requesting device. The adaptation model relies on the mobile device’s user agent profile to tell the server to deliver markup or images based on the browser, screen size and device capabilities. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Testing * Desktop Testing Testing from a normal desktop browser is a great way to start. * Browser Tools Browsers like Opera and Firefox have tools specific to mobile testing. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Testing * Desktop Testing Testing from a normal desktop browser is a great way to start. * Browser Tools Browsers like Opera and Firefox have tools specific to mobile testing. * Emulators Allows for desktop verification without loading on to a device. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Testing * Desktop Testing Testing from a normal desktop browser is a great way to start. * Browser Tools Browsers like Opera and Firefox have tools specific to mobile testing. * Emulators Allows for desktop verification without loading on to a device. * Device Testing Test as many as you can, but focus on five good mainstream devices. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Testing * Desktop Testing Testing from a normal desktop browser is a great way to start. * Browser Tools Browsers like Opera and Firefox have tools specific to mobile testing. * Emulators Allows for desktop verification without loading on to a device. * Device Testing Test as many as you can, but focus on five good mainstream devices. * Usability Testing Test early and often with as many users as you can. Copyright © 2007 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

.mobi Developers Guide Mobile Web Developers Guide Part I: Creating Simple Mobile Sites Copyright © 2006 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners. BRIAN FLING with Ronan Cremin, Jo Rabin and D. Keith Robinson http://dev.mobi

Brian Fling Co-founder & Director of Strategy, Blue Flavor brian@blueflavor.com tel. +1 206 545-0210 mob. +1 206 351-6060 http://www.blueflavor.com/sxsw2007/ Copyright © 2006 Blue Flavor. All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of their respective owners.

Everything you wanted to know about the mobile web but were afraid to ask...blueflavor.com

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