Janine Warner, an international trainer and author who lives in Los Angeles, just released her excellent new book "Mobile Web Design for Dummies." An expert in the field and an award-winning journalist, Janine has published more than a dozen books about the internet since the mid-1990s. Janine, the best-selling author of "Dreamweaver for Dummies" (every edition) and "Web Sites Do-It-Yourself for Dummies," continues to write prolifically and already finds herself near completion of an upcoming book on iPhone/iPad Web Design.
In addition, Janine presents and trains internationally on web design topics and hosts a growing collection of training videos for KelbyTraining.com in Web Design, Adobe Dreamweaver, and Cascading Style Sheets.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to get to discuss with Janine some of the topics she covers in her "Mobile Web Design" book:
L.C. Which specific strategies would you most recommend to web designers interested in developing sites for the variety of mobile devices currently on the market?
J.W. First of all, don't use Adobe Flash. I know that sucks for all the Flash developers out there, and I personally love what you can do with Flash, but it does not work at all on the iPhone and iPad (and doesn't work on most low-end mobile devices either).
If you have web sites designed in Flash, at least create a simple alternate design that has the most relevant information in a format that does work on all devices. For example, if you've created a site for a restaurant in Flash, create an alternate version in XHTML MP (that's the XHTML Mobile Profile). In that version include the info that someone is most likely to need if they visit your site on a phone. That includes the address, and links to Google maps or MapQuest (both of which offer mobile-friendly versions). And of course, include the phone number with the tel tag attribute that makes the phone number a link to call. It's super easy, here's an example of the code: Click to Call: <a href="tel:555-555-555">555-555-5555</a>.
Please check back for part II of this exciting interview with Janine as we discuss essential aspects of visual layout on mobile devices, HTML5, CSS 3, and much more!!
Comments
Awesome article! With superstar wonderful Warner- so informative!!! Can't wait for part II!!!
Thanks so much for sharing this interview--great information!
What a great series!
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