Creating Usable Mobile Phone Web Pages

With the popularity of mobile devices steadily increasing, many developers are now charged with the challenge of creating web pages that can be viewed on them. Obviously, mobile website design needs pages that are easy to read, and is very important because of the small screen size. Since many limitations with regards to location have almost been eliminated through the use of high speed CPU and memory chips and radio technology, the ability to access data online has become easier from a mobile phone.

Users accessing the Internet from home on their desktop PC are now able to display the same information quite easily on their mobile phones or PDA’s (Personal Digital Assistant), while commuting between home and work. It should be remembered, however, that information displayed on a large screen may not be all that readable when condensed into a smaller screen.

The majority of web pages are designed and tested on PC’s which have large color screens. Even though mobile phones have become more technically advanced, they still utilize comparatively small screens thus limiting how much information can be displayed upon them. With the casino deposit bonuses so many people are able to play online for a lot longer. This means that greater consideration needs to be made when designing web pages that can be viewed on a mobile device.

Factors that should be considered in building mobile websites include: how much color information to use (16 bit or 32 bit), the slower input of text, the absence of a mouse thus slowing a users interaction, scrolling is only possible vertically, commands executed by soft keys, slower data transfer, limited storage for data and the cost of transferring data.

Mobile device users, in general, would rather use a short URL in order to cut down on typing. Text links, however, should be long, making them easier to see and to tap on. Navigation icons should not be placed at the top of the screen, place them further down. Do not use too many text styles and sizes on one page and don’t use the special formats like italics or underlining too often.

Make use of small images on the page. The phone is able to zoom in on images but keeping them small saves on the time taken to download them. I like it most at the British online casinos as they offer all my favorite casino games. Displaying large images can draw attention away from the message that is being delivered. Large images should not be placed at the top of a page as it is tedious to wait while they download before any data that is informative can arrive.

This article has examined the criteria for designing mobile phone web pages and to summarize, here are the salient points. The small screen version should be designed to be extremely readable. Alignment, colors and fonts should be chosen with care. The design should take cognizance of the document order, and finally, only images really suited for a small screen should be used.

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