This is an archive of an inactive wiki and cannot be modified.

Page Construction

When building a page that is aimed to mobile devices you should always keep in mind the small screen and the uncomfortable keys. Something that is not always taken into enough consideration is that mobile devices are used while on the move, this means that the user will often dedicate a limited time and attention to the device. This means that the developer should take all the steps to make sure that the reader immediately accesses the information that he is looking for.

The Best Practice named Central Meaning wants to emphasize this. When building a page you should consider the importance of each element that composes it and place it accordingly.

It is important to also provide the necessary links to navigate the contents and the site. Of particular importance are the Best Practices NAVBAR and Navigation. It is infact important to provide a minimal navigation bar to help the user to jump to other sections or back if he understands the current content is not what he was looking for, but it also important to make sure that the sitemap is balanced and that navigating around does not take too many clicks or users will leave. Take a look for example at the Best Practice called Balance.

If you have pictures along with the text make sure images are of an appropriate size, providing a huge high quality image might discourage users because of the longer waits and the air-time costs. Take a look at Large Graphics.

The real challange of mobile development is to be able to provide all the contents and resources that developers and content providers would like to show, in a way that is suitable for a small device used on the move and often in very different environments. Central Meaning is a Best Practice that should really be taken into serious account, because if a site can provide this effectively, users will be satisfied of the service and come back.

Back to BestPracticesList


CategoryBpCentralMeaning CategoryBpCentralMeaning

Contributions to this wiki are governed by the W3C policies for Contribution to W3C' wiki on Mobile Web.