How Accessible is your website?
I recently received a link via Facebook for a site, which failed to open because I was viewing the site via a mobile browser.
When I pointed this out to the site owner, their comment was “well I don’t want people on phones on my site”. Whilst their response was meant in jest, it did actually highlight a very important point that many web designers fail to appreciate when designing websites with ever more advanced and complex content structures. Whilst Browsers are becoming expected to deal with ever more complex scripting and dynamic content structures, the mobile browser is still often unable to process even css let alone javascript, php and flash.
As an example of how not being able to read css can affect a page, see the two following examples:
Hawkinzwebdesigns – this uses css to structure the page layout
Hawkinzwebdesigns – this has css disabled
And with the ever increasing use of phones, and mobile computing devices to connect with the internet, it is becoming an increasingly important aspect that web designers have to consider.
So what does this mean – most websites built more than 5 years ago will be largely accessible to mobile browsers, but newer websites will be less likely to be so ‘readable’ There has been a move by some companies to detect mobile browsers and build mobile browser friendly websites, eg facebooks mobile website is m.facebook.com which reduces the content per page to make them faster loading, and keeps what content is provided to the ‘basics’.
One easy solution for website designers is to include a “mobile” link near the top of their home page to link to a more mobile friendly version of the site. Making a mobile friendly copy does mean more work, as you will find yourself duplicating content often. But at the heart of mobile content is the idea of presenting information in a more easily manageable way. As Facebook shows, you can still use dynamic content in a mobile page, but you have to re-think how you present the information.
This is the ultimate question a good website designer has to face repeatedly – “how am I presenting the information, and is it the most appropriate way for my viewer?” NOTE: the best way for your viewer does not always mean the lowest common denominator, nor does it always mean the most eye-catching way. Often it is about understanding where your viewer is coming from, and what they are expecting to see.
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