Design of a Mobile Web Page - Assignment Example

COMP 6050 Internet Communications Research Report-2011 Executive Summary You definitely have experienced an increase in the number of visitors viewing your site thanks to the advancement in the technology that is currently being used by the mobile phones which leads to very many users making use of their smart phones and even older versions of phones in accessing the internet (Stemkoski, 2009). The major difference between the mobile web pages and the other website pages that are readable on a desktop or laptop is that the design of mobile phone web page requires a mobile specific Doctype and also the addition of the mobile specific Meta tag that will allow the devices to know that the web page needs not to be shrunk since the site is intended for mobile web (Johnson, 2007). There is a great disparity in the mobile phones in use today; they differ greatly both in size and their abilities hence the variation in their web browsers. Web browsing using a mobile phone can be tedious, frustrating and time consuming, for this reason, the design of mobile web is of immense concern to web developers (Johnson, 2007). While designing mobile web pages, the designers should keep in mind the reason why someone would want to view their web pages from a mobile phone or a PDA which in most cases would be to get the location of a store, to get a contact number and maybe for an organization that is advertising on the website, they would want to check out the pricing of their products and make swift comparisons while shopping around (Ma, 2011). M-commerce is a term that is used to refer to a commercial transaction that is done with the use of a mobile device, a PDA or the smart phones that are emergent today. Among the services and products that can be traded via M-commerce include information services, which comprise of services such as news, information on stock, scores from different sports, reports on the traffic and financial recording (Warner & La Fontaine, 2010).This report gives the details of the design for a mobile web page dedicated to mobile commerce for a News website. This report addresses a variety of issues that will involve the webpage. Such issues vary from the content of the site which should take into consideration the varying screen sizes of the users’ mobile phones, security for the users of the service, ability to advertise goods on the page, how to attract more clients to the webpage, matters that touch on privacy and also it should allow its users to make subscription to their newsletters. The report concludes with some recommendation for the design of mobile web pages that will cater to the needs of the users both in content and style. Table of Contents i) Executive Summary………………………………………………………..…2 ii) Table of Contents……………………………….............................................4 1) Content vs. Screen size……………………………………………………….5 Menu and Navigation Buttons Content Fragmentation and Layout Font Sizes 2) Security………………………………………………………………………….6 3) Advertising Space………………………………………………………………6 4) Attracting Web Clients and New Clients to the Mobile Page………………….6 5) Privacy Concerns………………………………………………………………..7 6) Newsletter Subscription…………………………………………………………7 7) Conclusion and Recommendations……………………………………………...8 1) Content Vs Screen Sizes For a long time now, mobile browsing has been faced with many challenges some of which include; delayed downloads, small screens, input that is clumsy and difficulties in navigating through the web pages. It is apparent that for mobile websites functionality is of much importance than style and so designers should be keen on using the least available space for the main contents and still continue to be interesting to the users (Firtman, 2010). Menus and Navigation Buttons The menu is placed at the top of the web page. Before any coding is done, the contents of the user’s navigation tree should be defined. This involves definition and ordering of the use case in terms of the most common for a mobile user. Every case should bear fruit for at most three clicks. Information is placed in a manner that is easy for the users to read and to navigate through the pages. A link should always be present to lead users to the primary website (Firtman, 2010). Since it is quite difficult to move around a site using a mobile phone, the site provides the users with back buttons to prevent them from getting to dead ends. Content Fragmentation and layout For this news mobile web page, only the important content is placed in the web pages; the content of the site is put in a single column to avoid scrolling horizontally and the content that is of low priority is discarded. The articles are broken down into smaller portions with links which when clicked directs one to the full website so that if the users are interested in reading the whole article they follow the link to get the whole article. Use of tables and images is reduced since the pages should be small in size a maximum of about 20 Kb. When it is not avoidable, small JPEG and GIF images are used (Ma, 2011). Font Sizes The text is adjusted to a font size that is easily readable this is done to avoid the idea of zooming. Headings are used to manage the sizing of fonts. 2) Security In ensuring subscribers are protected from fraudsters and other criminals on the internet the users are provided with a notice that gives them adequate information that will enable them to evaluate whether they should or should not provide their personal data. The users are made aware of the applications that will need personal information and how the information is changing hands with the server. The moment the user accesses the applications, the notice also appears. The application is made in such a manner that it does not force the users to enter their personal details and when the user declines to enter the details the application recovers without much struggle. 3) Advertising The site has positioned adverts to embed in its site through a process that is web based. This takes two forms that include the use of banners or images and the use of links which are in text form. Using the tools for sort and refinement is crucial as is the visibility of these tools in a mobile web page. For each product that is advertised adequate information on the product should be given i.e. the price, availability, shipping, and a short description of the product. Since the mobile screens are small, care should be taken in associating the correct product to the “add to Cart” button (Warner & La Fontaine, 2010). 4) Attracting Web Clients and New Clients to the Webpage. It is quite a task trying to add traffic to the mobile webpage it involves a lot of commitment and assertion. First the content of the web pages is kept up to date and is fresh and catchy too. Articles that were written in the past are put in archives so that people can refer back to them. This keeps the users that are already subscribers. Ardent participation in blogs and online forums is an efficient way of attracting web clients to the web page. After visiting other sites and blogs leaving a comment with your name, email address and a link to the web page attracts new clients who could be readers of the blogs and members of the sites you visit. Another means of attracting clients is by submitting to online directories and web galleries. Running competitions on the site is also a tool used to attract new clients (Wilson, 2011).One can also give business cards with the website’s URL to friends and other business associates and also in your emails to friends and other associates always include your URL in your email signatures this may prompt new clients to click on the URL and visit your site. 5) Privacy Concerns Privacy is constituted by the authorization of personal privacy concerning transactions or the transmission of data over the internet and the power exercised on the kind and the amount of information that is disclosed about a person and the individuals who may have access to the information.” The privacy policy for this news site explains the kind of information which the site can collect from the users, how and when the information collected will be used, whether or not the site will relay the information to another party and lastly the users’ choices concerning the information they offer. The site is committed to safe guard the details of its users and it is obliged legally to use the information in accordance with the data protection laws which are concerned with the protection of the users’ personal information (Ma, 2011). 6) Newsletter Subscription This is a feature that allows the users to make a subscription to the newsletter from the administrators of the website regarding issues that affect them and includes also articles that are too big to be posted on the mobile webpage which means that the users will find it hard to access them using their mobile devices. The users click on a link in text form which prompts them to enter their details which include their names and email addresses after which the administrators of the website send them copies of their newsletters to their email addresses. 7) Recommendations and Conclusion A separate mobile version of the website is created to cater for the people using mobile devices. To add this version a domain or a sub domain that is separate from the primary domain is created. Very many users still find themselves being directed to the primary site via results from a search or maybe through direct typing. To avoid this browser detection is required whereby the program detects the kind of device that is being used to access the site and it directs the user to the appropriate web page (Stemkoski, 2009). The major way of writing the mark-up for mobile phone browsers is by the use of XHTML or XHTML-MP and it is of great importance to ensure that valid mark-ups are used since mobile phones browsers are so specific unlike the browsers that have been in use before. This means that if a tag is closed in a wrong way, the viewing of the webpage becomes impossible. It is also important for mobile web designers to keep in mind that the users pay for every byte they download from the web pages for this reason they should make sure that the users get services which is worth the money they pay for (Johnson, 2007). References List Firtman M. (2010). Programming the mobile web, O’Reilly Media Inc. Print Johnson R. (2007). Should you create a mobile specific page and how, retrieved: 1st October 2011. http://3.7designs.co/blog/2007/01/should-you-create-a-mobile-specific-page-and-how/ Ma S. (2011).Designing for the mobile web: special considerations, retrieved: 1st October 2011. http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/01/designing-for-the-mobile-web- special-considerations.php Stemkoski R.(2009). How to design websites for mobile phones, retrieved: 1st October 2011. http://www.stemkoski.com/how-to-design-websites-for-mobile-phones/ Warner, J.&, La Fontaine, D.(2010). Mobile Web design for dummies, Wiley publishing Inc.Print Wilson R.(2011). How to attract visitors to your website, date retrieved: 1st October 2011. http://www.wilsonweb.com/articles/attract.htm Read More