Difference between revisions of "Mobile Access"

Revision as of 20:29, 19 January 2009

This page contains ideas related to use of a mobile device.

Goal

To make using Dreamwidth-based sites from a mobile device a delight.

Background

There are so many ways in which we can make DW /the/ place to share your work if you rely on a mobile device for part of your browsing that we needed somewhere to write them all down.

It's important that users of mobile devices don't feel like they're being shoehorned into something limited - instead, they should ideally have access to the entire site, in what is a more elegant and refined experience than panning around the site like crazy in a tiny viewport.

Biggest Needs

• Way to reliably detect mobile devices and serve appopriate content (with an override parameter, as well.)

Technical Hurdles

• Not all devices implement JavaScript properly, but because they attempt to use JavaScript they don't fall back on non-JavaScript controls.

Site Scheme

Currently, the lynx scheme (accessible with usescheme=lynx and format=light) is recommended for browsing on mobile devices. This does not change the way the page content is presented, but just the navigational style that appears on every page. List functionality that should be improved/changed:

• Login/Logout both appear - only the link that's appropriate for the given user should be displayed.

/mobile/

/mobile/ is designed specifically for mobile devices and low-bandwidth users, but hasn't been updated in a long time. List functionality that should be improved/changed:

• Logged in users are still given the option to Log in, although they're told before they follow the link that they're already logged in. They're not given a link to log out. This behaviour should be changed.

Journal Styles

Currently, no journal styles are designed to be used with mobile devices, but rather users are recommended to use /mobile/ for reading entries. List features that would make a journal style ideal for a mobile device:

• Single column style
• No userpics (or small userpics?)

Page Content

Currently, only the /mobile/ pages are specifically designed for mobile browsers. Some pages degrade better than other. List pages/functionality that should be improved/changed:Cateogry: Wishlists