Comments on: iPhone specific web sites — do they make sense?

By: Cait

Cait — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:45:15 +0000

iPhone specific pages are so annoying! I have an iphone simply because it has real web browsing- if I wanted to have a specific iPhone page I would just get the app version

I really hope apple release something that will make it so websites can’t see we’re on an iPhone so we won’t get directed to those sites. I always click on the “regular site” buttonthats usually avaliable which means it’s an extra step- again SO annoying!

By: Ashley Sheridan

Ashley Sheridan — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:30:50 +0000

Jeff Croft mentions a lot of points why viewing “normal” sites on the iPhone is sometimes only passable. Sorry, but Apple have been touting this for ages as the first phone with a “fully-fledged” browser on-board. I’m able to browse sites just fine on my LG Shine using Opera Mini Browser, and with the exception of typing (which is always going to be difficult on ANY hand-held device), browsing the web is a pleasant experience. I don’t see why developers should be forced to cater for the iPhone because Apple rushed it and said goodbye to usability.
Clearly, from looking at preliminary statistics, it is obvious that rather than focus on iPhone specific design, we should develop for mobile phones. Period. The iPhone is not ready, it doesn’t have a Flash player, it can’t handle Java (which most modern phones can do), navigation is an issue if you have fat fingers (and with populations in the locations the iPhone is sold getting larger, this IS an issue,) where do I stop?
In short, developing websites according to standards never got anyone fired, but trying to develop for new, unknown technology that is not ready for the market did. Enough said.

By: Martin Kleppmann

Martin Kleppmann — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:27:23 +0000

Pete — that is indeed right, there is no Flash player on the iPhone at the moment (although rumor has it that it will be coming at some point). This means that a lot of sites which rely on Flash are simply not going to work on the iPhone. YouTube, for example, uses Flash on its standard website — for the iPhone, however, the videos have to be translated to the H.264 video standard. This sort of translation is possible for some types of content, but it definitely adds another level of complexity.

By: Pete Boyd

Pete Boyd — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 23:09:31 +0000

What does Jeff Croft mean when he says “On the iPhone, you don’t have access to Flash or Java bits” – does he mean the iPhone doesn’t have a Flash player?

By: Jeff Croft

Jeff Croft — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 22:09:51 +0000

One of the most important things to understand about ANY kind of design is context. How, when, why, and where will this product be used, and how does the answer to those questions affect what makes good design? There are several things that are very unique about the iPhone (and possibly copycat devices like it) that give it unique context. In order to do the best possible design for the iPhone, you need to design for this context. For example:

* On the iPhone, you “click” with your fat fingers. Links and buttons may need to be bigger to accomodate this.
* On the iPhone, you have to scroll the page around a lot more than you do on a large desktop screen. Ideally, you design for minimal scrolling on the iPhone.
* On the iPhone, typing is much more painful than on a desktop computer, and you can’t copy/past. Because of this, you may design forms with more select/radio type fields, rather than text input.
* On the iPhone, you don’t have access to Flash or Java bits.
* Etc.

The mobile context (for both the iphone and other mobile devices) has several unique aspects, too.

The point of doing specific designs for iPhone is that we recognize the unique context iPhone users are in when they visit our sites, and we want to give them the best possible experience for that context.

Are iPhone-specific sites necessary? No. The iPhone can browse websites designed for desktop computers in a totally passable way. But, for some of us, “passable” isn’t good enough. The only way to make something that kicks ass on iPhone is to design for iPhone. Period.

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Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:03:35 +0000

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By: Johannes

Johannes — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:39:00 +0000

Welll, I still consider the Iphone versions as an attempt to participate in the incredible hype. But since I dislike both the Iphone and Facebook, I better stop my rant here.

By: Max Deng

Max Deng — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 03:16:20 +0000

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By: Martin Kleppmann

Martin Kleppmann — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 11:48:24 +0000

Thanks for your comments.

@Andrew — I’ve corrected the link.

@Johannes — I fully agree that there is a need for mobile-adapted design, and that it should take precedence over an iPhone-specific design. And in defence of the websites mentioned above, at least Amazon and Facebook already offer good sites for general mobile use (slim and compact pages, mobile-appropriate navigation) — not sure about the others. They’ve already got the general mobile users sorted out and still have cash left to spend, so they go a step further and make the iPhone version as a kind of intermediate between mobile and desktop (still a single-column layout, but with a more fancy design).

The separation of content, design and technology isn’t quite that simple though, due to the huge variation in phone browsers’ capabilities. Some browsers have very restrictive limitations, and these may affect the possible range of content if you don’t want to simply settle for the lowest common denominator. A second point is that navigation needs to be structured differently in a mobile site (in a nutshell, you can’t have as many links in a page as you could have in a desktop site). One day there will be frameworks which allow you to separate all these things cleanly, but I don’t think we’re there yet. At the moment, they really are different versions, merely drawing from the same data sources.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 11:26:47 +0000

I think that with reference to your Netvibes URL, the correct URL is in fact http://iphone.netvibes.com/