Mobile versions of sites opinions???

[dj1]

I was talking to friend of mine and he was saying how I should have mobile versions of all my sites, so without really thinking about it I started making a mobile version of one of my sites. The first site I tried was all flash games, so I made a bunch of content using java instead of flash, it all turned out well... but I can't stop thinking that when I browse the web on my phone(I have a small android lg ally)...I hate the mobile versions of sites. I don't mind scrolling around and zooming in on a site meant for a computer screen.
So other than maybe having a non-flash version of a site,
does anyone here really prefer the mobile versions to their normal versions on your phones???

[Fletch XXX]

you should always have mobile version... Anyone who needs help woth mobile email me.

[dj1]

My question was more "Which do you prefer?"... I have talked to a bunch of people and no one seems to prefer the 1 line mobile versions of sites on their phone.. I was just curious what peoples thoughts were here

[ottopottomouse]

I prefer the normal versions. Apart from just the appearance, most sites seem to manage to leave off something on the mobile version that i want.

[dj1]

hmmm...I guess I should have titled this thread Boobies Boobies Pussy Manwin

[livexxx]

Give them a bit of both, let them view a mobile version, give them the option to go to the normal one as well. Sell them some galleries with mobile payment options, give them the option to pay for the full site by mobile biller or ccbill mobile optimised payment pages where applicable. Look at your google stats and see how many you have already on smartphones and tablets.

[Rothstein]

I'm not even sure that mobile versions of sites have opinions.

[candyflip]

I prefer mobile versions, but only if they are done correctly...which often isn't the case.

[raymor]

Agreed, a sure with decent html and css will work fine on my phone and there is another thing to consider. Back in the day people made versions for webtv. Then they made WAP versions. Neither of these did them any good when Playstation became a popular surfing platform, or when other platforms and browsers became popular.

The whole point of a web browser is to display the page properly for any specific device. That's the difference between pdf, MS Word, etc. and html. Html was invented so that you can make one page and have it look nice on any device, by using correct html. That mensa you don't have to replace the webtv version with the wap version, then replace that with the mobile version, then add the tablet version, then maybe we do a vision impaired version and a high speed version, then ...

Just do the correct, universal, version to start with.

[AJHall]

Unfortunately the size and display of something that looks good on a computer monitor looks very different on a 320 pixel wide display. This is why the best approach is to maintain a standard and a mobile specific version. There are enough people surfing on mobile phones now to justify this. While the OP doesn't mind it, a lot of people really do hate scrolling around and zooming in on a site meant for a computer screen. It's a much better experience for an end user of your site to be able to choose which version of the site they prefer to view.

2 years ago we first started offering mobile pay site versions as an option for customers using the Elevated X CMS. Since then I've never had a single user ask me about a universal version instead. I've also heard nothing but positive feedback from customers who have mobile versions of their sites.

A separate, mobile optimized versions is the way to go.

AJ

[bean-aid]

Originally Posted by dj1

I was talking to friend of mine and he was saying how I should have mobile versions of all my sites, so without really thinking about it I started making a mobile version of one of my sites. The first site I tried was all flash games, so I made a bunch of content using java instead of flash, it all turned out well... but I can't stop thinking that when I browse the web on my phone(I have a small android lg ally)...I hate the mobile versions of sites. I don't mind scrolling around and zooming in on a site meant for a computer screen.
So other than maybe having a non-flash version of a site,
does anyone here really prefer the mobile versions to their normal versions on your phones???

Yes, I prefer to visit the mobile version of almost all websites when on the phone.

On a side not... you develop flash and java games? If you are interested in some moonlighting jobs I would like to discuss with you.

mjmj00 [sat] aol

[raymor]

Originally Posted by AJHall

Unfortunately the size and display of something that looks good on a computer monitor looks very different on a 320 pixel wide display. This is why the best approach is to maintain a standard and a mobile specific version. There are enough people surfing on mobile phones now to justify this. While the OP doesn't mind it, a lot of people really do hate scrolling around and zooming in on a site meant for a computer screen. It's a much better experience for an end user of your site to be able to choose which version of the site they prefer to view.

2 years ago we first started offering mobile pay site versions as an option for customers using the Elevated X CMS. Since then I've never had a single user ask me about a universal version instead. I've also heard nothing but positive feedback from customers who have mobile versions of their sites.

A separate, mobile optimized versions is the way to go.

AJ

AJ I'm working with some of your HTML right now. Your stuff looks good and if that works for you, great. Recently one of our customers asked us for a mobile version of our pages. He was very happy with the result. It looked nice on all the phones we tried and all the ones he tried.

What did we do differently on the mobile version? We REMOVED a line from our CSS and sent it back to him. That's it. Just removed one line that assumed a desktop size display and with that line gone it looked great on any display. I realize we were working with a very simple page, so tweaking it to not assume anything about screen size was pretty easy. On a more complex page, building it to not assume a certain size screen is a lot harder.

Definitely harder, but still perhaps worth the effort because I just gave a friend of mine her computer back. It has a 15 inch CRT running at 1024 x 768wide. My widescreen LCD runs 1920x1080 - twice as wide. When you make a "desktop sized" design, is that her desktop, or mine? Is she going to have to scroll back and forth like she's watching a tennis match? I'd rather take more time to make a design that works on her computer, my computer, my brother's giant TV, my mobile, and whatever sells big next Christmas. It is harder to keep in mind that you shouldn't assume the viewer's screen is the same size as yours when designing, but the payoff goes beyond this year's mobile devices.

[AJHall]

Originally Posted by raymor

AJ I'm working with some of your HTML right now. Your stuff looks good and if that works for you, great. Recently one of our customers asked us for a mobile version of our pages. He was very happy with the result. It looked nice on all the phones we tried and all the ones he tried.

What did we do differently on the mobile version? We REMOVED a line from our CSS and sent it back to him. That's it. Just removed one line that assumed a desktop size display and with that line gone it looked great on any display. I realize we were working with a very simple page, so tweaking it to not assume anything about screen size was pretty easy. On a more complex page, building it to not assume a certain size screen is a lot harder.

Definitely harder, but still perhaps worth the effort because I just gave a friend of mine her computer back. It has a 15 inch CRT running at 1024 x 768wide. My widescreen LCD runs 1920x1080 - twice as wide. When you make a "desktop sized" design, is that her desktop, or mine? Is she going to have to scroll back and forth like she's watching a tennis match? I'd rather take more time to make a design that works on her computer, my computer, my brother's giant TV, my mobile, and whatever sells big next Christmas. It is harder to keep in mind that you shouldn't assume the viewer's screen is the same size as yours when designing, but the payoff goes beyond this year's mobile devices.

Ray, you nailed it. For a simple site what you did is all that's needed. Trust me, I wish we could get away with this approach but the goal of our mobile setup is to provide an "optimal" viewing experience that's intended for the behavior and ease of use of a typical mobile user.

I think that's what a lot of people don't get. It's not about making a site load or look good on mobile, it's about making it so people actually enjoy the site and WANT to access it on their phones. That's how stuff goes viral nowdays via social networking.

For the iPad tablet on the other hand, we do standardize and our default set of CMS templates scales and displays beautifully. The site auto-detects the device and serves HTML5 MP4 video and it looks amazing.

I'd love to be able to offer a "1 size fits all" type of template. Unfortunately given how much functionality our pay site setups offer, we would end up sacrificing something for either the PC viewer or the mobile viewer and that's just not an option. Someday perhaps. It sure would save us a lot of work! We're actually going the opposite way and adding MORE functionality to our mobile pay site tours and member's areas. I'm coding an entirely new set of mobile site templates for Elevated X as we speak

Nice to hear that the Strongbox pages are mobile now. That will be great for both our customers.

AJ

[grumpy]

http://www.onlypee.com/index_pee.php

liquid site for pc and mobile platform. Just a little java.

[benk81]

great and interesting postthis. from a mobile ad network perspective its very interestingto read other people's thoughts.

as far as ad revenue is concerned from mobile, a specifically mobile optimised site withteh correct banners have a much higher CTR than ifscrolling around and zooming in which means higherrevs so i guess its clear which of the two options iprefer!
that being said, with the capabilities of todays devices, a suer experience isnt so bad doingthe scrollign etc.
if there were a way to "top and tail" a page with mobilised ads that fit the screen width regardless of the site size "beneath" them then this would be an excellent solution but every time we've tried its always been quite clunk as its only been possible to tdo the T&T by serving up the site in an iframe which in turn means anythign clisked loads inside the iframe and so doesnt work.

any thoguhts?