Having a mobile CSS and applying or offering it to anyone with a smaller screen
is highly strategic. Great idea.
I have an android 1.x and 2.x phone, an iPod touch, and an iPad accessible to
me. Many of the nokia phones out there apparently use the opera mini browser.
One helpful step might be to look at what mobile browsers are hitting the site
now.
I could imagine a very simple site home page that says login or click here to
view latest headlines or non-mobile version. The main site could offer the
mobile view as a low bandwidth view also.
Other than a home and maybe group home link atop a page any navigation could be
at the bottom.
The logged in home page could offer headlines to the posts of groups they
belong to and a link to the full text of then last ten posts by time of all
those groups. A link to the list of their groups with quick links into the
various post view options by group would be useful. Minimizing clicking and
scrolling to get to the latest content would serve most mobile users well.
I think the biggest challenge might be splitting hard returned message text
into columns that are readable so people don't need to scroll left to right.
I'd also consider replacing links with [link] or something to use less space.
I am combing through my 2010 budget and would consider funding 5 to 10
concentrated hours to contribute toward this task when I confirm I have it
available. Key is finishing the mobile interface work by the end of the year.
Is that possible?
Sent from my iPad
On Nov 11, 2010, at 10:12 PM, "Michael JasonSmith" <<email obscured>>
wrote:
> I have been musing about the problem that the Group Homepage will
> have on narrow screens. Currently the homepage is designed to work in
> screens with a minimum width of 711 pixels. However, not all screens
> are so generous.
>
> Normally a narrow screen is seen on browsers that are running on cell
> phones. However, the issue is not restricted to just phones: a desktop
> browser window may be narrowed down to sit at one side of the screen,
> or a non-mobile system may happen to have a small screen.¹
>
> My gut is to go for a more generic solution than a “mobile
> stylesheet”. The CSS3 media-queries module² allows for different
> layouts depending on the different characteristics of the medium: such
> as a narrow window. It is supported by all the major browsers.³ For
> switching behavior — such as using accordions rather than tabs⁴ as
> Richard suggests⁵ — then JavaScript could be used to switch between
> the two on page-load, using the jQuery "width" method.⁶
>
> There is one major disadvantage of using media-queries: I can test with
> Firefox, Opera and Chrome using my desktop development platform. This
> means I cannot demand a smart-phone (or a range of smart-phones) to
> test on ☹
>
> *Footnotes*
>
> 1. Small screens such as one found on a T-Hub
>
<http://www.telstra.com.au/shop/personal/HomePhone-HomePhones-TelstraT-Hub?SMSESSION=NO>
is highly strategic. Great idea.
I have an android 1.x and 2.x phone, an iPod touch, and an iPad accessible to
me. Many of the nokia phones out there apparently use the opera mini browser.
One helpful step might be to look at what mobile browsers are hitting the site
now.
I could imagine a very simple site home page that says login or click here to
view latest headlines or non-mobile version. The main site could offer the
mobile view as a low bandwidth view also.
Other than a home and maybe group home link atop a page any navigation could be
at the bottom.
The logged in home page could offer headlines to the posts of groups they
belong to and a link to the full text of then last ten posts by time of all
those groups. A link to the list of their groups with quick links into the
various post view options by group would be useful. Minimizing clicking and
scrolling to get to the latest content would serve most mobile users well.
I think the biggest challenge might be splitting hard returned message text
into columns that are readable so people don't need to scroll left to right.
I'd also consider replacing links with [link] or something to use less space.
I am combing through my 2010 budget and would consider funding 5 to 10
concentrated hours to contribute toward this task when I confirm I have it
available. Key is finishing the mobile interface work by the end of the year.
Is that possible?
Sent from my iPad
On Nov 11, 2010, at 10:12 PM, "Michael JasonSmith" <<email obscured>>
wrote:
> I have been musing about the problem that the Group Homepage will
> have on narrow screens. Currently the homepage is designed to work in
> screens with a minimum width of 711 pixels. However, not all screens
> are so generous.
>
> Normally a narrow screen is seen on browsers that are running on cell
> phones. However, the issue is not restricted to just phones: a desktop
> browser window may be narrowed down to sit at one side of the screen,
> or a non-mobile system may happen to have a small screen.¹
>
> My gut is to go for a more generic solution than a “mobile
> stylesheet”. The CSS3 media-queries module² allows for different
> layouts depending on the different characteristics of the medium: such
> as a narrow window. It is supported by all the major browsers.³ For
> switching behavior — such as using accordions rather than tabs⁴ as
> Richard suggests⁵ — then JavaScript could be used to switch between
> the two on page-load, using the jQuery "width" method.⁶
>
> There is one major disadvantage of using media-queries: I can test with
> Firefox, Opera and Chrome using my desktop development platform. This
> means I cannot demand a smart-phone (or a range of smart-phones) to
> test on ☹
>
> *Footnotes*
>
> 1. Small screens such as one found on a T-Hub
>
<http://www.telstra.com.au/shop/personal/HomePhone-HomePhones-TelstraT-Hub?SMSESSION=NO>