Designing and Developing Mobile Web Sites

Tips on Designing and Developing Mobile Web Sites by Kim Griggs, Laurie M. Bridges, and Hannah Gascho Rempel is a interesting article on how to make sites accessible on mobile devices. Writing code for a mobile site is not an easy task but the authors give some great suggestions and include examples of usable coding.   I like how they were creative in their testing by going to a T-Mobile store and using their phones to make sure that the mobile site could be accessed on a multitude of phones.  But since this is not a feasible plan for everyone who creates a mobile site to do they included some testers that could be used such as MobileOK or MobiReady.  Testing is an important part of the mobile development process and the authors feel that these testers are good but they do not compare to actually testing the site on various phones.  This is where the need for feedback from those using the site can become vitally important.  Not only should we want to know what other features they would like to see added to the site but also about any loading problems and conflicts that they may encounter. The list of design tips for the small screen were quite useful.  From the list I determined this analogy, Traditional Sites are to Mobile Sites as Facebook Posts are to Twitter Tweets.  One has to determine the content that is the most important and then they need to cut out or alter aspects in order to get their point across.  In the case of the Mobile Site the creator must make the information accessible on a variety of phone platforms while also making it easy to navigate.
Personally, I like the idea of and using mobile sites.  Most of the time they are just a condensed version of the traditional site containing the information I usually would like to obtain at that time.  I'm not really sure that I would want to be able to access a reference database from a libraries mobile site.  This is because most mobile devices such as smart phones have small screens in which to read the article.  But overall this has become a fast paced world and having the power to gain information from the palm of your hand has become the new norm.