This document provides guidance on how to build effective mobile web apps. It discusses understanding the mobile landscape and user needs, designing for a mobile-first approach, leveraging HTML5 features, optimizing for touch interfaces, and using technologies like CSS3, JavaScript, and device APIs. The key recommendations are to focus on the most common user tasks, reduce content, and make all functionality accessible within 3 taps or clicks.

1. MAKE YOUR MOBILE WEB APPS ROCK!
Chris Love
Tellago Inc.
http://ProfessionalASPNET.com
http://Twitter.com/ChrisLove

2. TELLAGO

3. REFERENCES
 Mobile Web Books
 Mobile First
 http://bit.ly/jMSGAB
 Programming the Mobile Web
 http://amzn.to/bZMOch
 Mobile Web Development
 http://amzn.to/9cvDoE
 Mobile Design and Development
 http://amzn.to/hh8cPd

4. KNOW THE LANDSCAPE
 Mobile Devices Are Prevalent Around the
World
 SmartPhones/Devices Becoming Common
 Mobile Data Plans (3/4G)
 HTML 5 Is Here, Embrace It ;)

5. MARKET REALITY
http://on.mash.to/k38NZw

6. MARKET REALITY
http://bit.ly/tFdyXF

7. USER PROBLEMS

8. UNDERSTAND THE LANDSCAPE
 Lots of Phones Out There!
 Several Browsers
 Opera,Safari, IE, FireFox, many others you
never heard of
 Proxy Browsers
 Opera Mini

9. GRADING BROWSERS
 Assume Modern
Smart Phones
 Most Are Webkit &
Support Most
HTML5 Features
 Confidently
Assume No
Feature Phones
http://haz.io
http://html5test.com

10. WINDOWS PHONE 7 IE 9
 Like Desktop
 Supports Basic HTML5, CSS3, Canvas, Media
Tag Stuff
 GPU Speed
 Does Not Support Touch
 Does Not Support Input Types
 http://bit.ly/ij3RAj
 http://bit.ly/kYOZ5W

11. MOBILE FIRST
“designing for mobile first not only prepares
you for the explosive growth and new
opportunities on the mobile internet, it forces
you to focus and enables you to innovate in
ways you previously couldn’t.”
Luke Wroblewski

13. MOBILE FIRST

14. DETERMINE CONTENT
 Define Use Cases
 Order Cases by Most
Frequent for Mobile
 Make Cases Successful
within 3 clicks
 Always Offer Link to
Desktop Site
 Determine if User
Location Matters

15. DETERMINE CONTENT
http://bit.ly/aD1dr3

16. USER CONTEXT
Don’t Miss The Boat

17. DETERMINE CONTENT
 Reduce Form Pages
 Avoid Welcome
Screens/Splash
 Predict User Actions
Based On History
 ThinkLocal
Storage/Tombstoning

18. CONTEXT
 Where Is The User
 Why are They on Your Site
 What are they looking for
 What can you offer for mobile
user to solve problem
 Where will the user be
accessing the site

19. META TAGS
<meta name="description" content="">
<meta name="author" content="">
<meta name="HandheldFriendly" content="True">
<meta name="MobileOptimized" content="320"/>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="@Url.Content("~/apple-touch-icon.png")"/>
<link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="@Url.Content("~/img/h/apple-
touch-icon.png")">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="@Url.Content("~/img/m/apple-
touch-icon.png")">
<link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="@Url.Content("~/img/l/apple-touch-icon-
precomposed.png")">
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="@Url.Content("~/img/l/apple-touch-icon.png")">
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes">
<meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" content="black">
<link rel="apple-touch-startup-image" href="@Url.Content("~img/l/splash.png”)">

20. HTML5 BOILERPLATE
http://html5boilerplate.com
http://html5boilerplate.com/mobile/

21. TOUCH ICONS
 Allows You to Set the
Home Screen Icon
 Comparable to
favicon
 Apple Convention
 Supported on Most
Android Platforms

22. ADD TO HOME SCREEN
 Promptsthe User to
Add The App To the
iOS Home Screen
http://bit.ly/fi1wqp

23. APPLE-MOBILE-WEB-APP-CAPABLE
 Allows You To Hide Mobile Safari Chrome
 Gives You Native App-Like Experience
 iOS Only At This Point 
 Does use a Different JS Engine Than Safari
http://bit.ly/ilKFKT

24. APPLE-MOBILE-WEB-APP-STATUS-BAR-STYLE
 Allows You to Hide
Status Bar @ The
Top of The Screen or
Set The Color.
 <meta name="apple-
mobile-web-app-
status-bar-style"
content="black">
http://bit.ly/9Mgv0y

25. UNDERSTAND THE VIEWPORT
 ViewableArea on Device
 May actually be very wide
 iPhone is actually 980pixels
wide
 Internet Explorer Assumes
1024 pixels wide
http://bit.ly/e18svU

26. SET THE VIEWPORT
•MetaTag
•Width
•Height
•Initial-scale
•User-scalable
•Minimum-scale
•Maximum-scale
<meta name="viewport"
content="width=device-width,initial-
scale=1.0,user-scalable=no"/>
http://tinyurl.com/wp7viewport

27. TYPICAL LAYOUT
Header
Navigation
Content
Footer

28. RETHINK LAYOUT

29. TOUCH

30. LEVERAGE HTML5
 Semantics
 CSS3 is AWESOMIER
 New Form Input Types Help
 New Form Input Attributes
Really Help

31. INPUT TYPES
 HTML5 Adds Many New Input Types and
Attributes
 Telephone, Number, URL, E-Mail, etc
 autocapitalize, autocomplete, placeholder,
required…

32. INPUT TYPES

33. 6. UNDERSTAND CSS3
 Animations
 Gradients
 Transforms
 Shadows
 Rounded Corners
 Media Queries
 So Much More!!

34. TRANSITIONS
 2D Transformations
 Shadows. Rounded Corners Etc
 3D Keyframe Animations!
 CSS3 Animations w/jQuery Fallbacks
 http://bit.ly/oBDnko

35. SINGLE PAGE SITES
 Use AJAX to Transition Between Content
 Use HashTags to Track State
 jQuery BBQ plugin
 http://bit.ly/abippr
 Allows Transition Effects
 jQuery Mobile, jqTouch & Sencha Leverage

36. TOUCH EVENTS
touchStart touchEnter
touchEnd touchLeave
touchMove touchCancel
http://tinyurl.com/webtch

37. TOUCH GESTURES
 Fingers Are Fat
 20px Spacing
 Primary Items Min 40px W &H
 Provide Quick Feedback of Touched Item
 Include Auto-Clear Feature for Text Inputs

38. TOUCH FIRST LAYOUT
Recommended size
7x7mm
Optimized for accuracy
9x9mm
Optimized for small size
5x5mm
Each target has 2mm padding

39. HOW TARGET SIZE RELATES TO ERROR
RATES

40. TOUCH GESTURES
 touchstart  gesturestart*
 touchend  gesturechange
 touchmove *
 touchenter  gestureend*
 touchleave
 gouchcancel
http://bit.ly/ion0Um
http://bit.ly/bYeSRT
* Safari Only

41. WINDOWS 8 TOUCH

42. OFFLINE & STORAGE
 Application Cache
 Sort of Buggy - http://bit.ly/oryAF5
 Local Storage
 localstorage
 sessionstorage

43. THE DEVICE APIS
 Accelerometer  Gallery
 Gyroscope  Camera
 Messaging  Calendar
 Address book  Device status
management information
 Geolocation  Native menus