Site Design for Balckberry and Iphone

[zeeshanhashmi]

Hi

I have an assignment to develop a site for BlackBerry and Iphone. I have done many design works for a PC Browsers, but this is going to be the first time, I am going to do something for mobile users, and unfortunately, I do know much about it.

What i want is some support / tutorial / guide / suggestion / help / code for the above issue.

I want to know what are the considerations for the sites for these 2 devices, and some help in the CSS etc design code, may be any one of you (or move) can send me 2 HTML files 1 for Blackberry and 1 for Iphone, and I can start the work from there.

Please help !

Thanks
Zeeshan HAshmi

[mack]

Thankfully most modern browsers such as iPhone and Blackberry have got pretty advanced browsers and can in reality handle conventional websites. It does however make sense to have sub sites built specifically for mobile devices.

It can also be of benefit to allow the user to choose what version they want to view. If we take Facebook as an example. If you visit the site using a mobile they automatically forward you to the mobile version, but provide a link to allow you to view the standard desktop version of the site.

One of the factors to take into account when providing a mobile version is data cost and speed. By making your page files as small as possible you will speed up load time and also prevent your user consuming to much of their data plan. Try and make your mobile version retail the same look and feel as your main site, but keep image use to a minimum. For example using text as opposed to a logo and a background color as opposed to a background image will save you data and allow the page to load a lot faster.

A mobile site also calls for a much more controlled layout of the text. When a user is reading content, breaks within the text make it to much easier to read. This is amplified on a mobile due to the size restraints.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Mack.