Tips to make your Web site iPhone-friendly

[by Jay Kinghorn]

For most photographers, their Web site is their #1 marketing tool. As a result, your Web site should be compatible with as wide an audience as possible. Increasingly, this includes mobile devices like the iPhone, Droid and iPad.

To make sure your Web site is mobile-friendly, follow these few simple rules:
Make it quick. Avoid long animations and optimize images to improve download speed on slower connections.

  • Keep it simple. Reduce or eliminate Flash, Java and other technologies that aren’t supported on all mobile phones. HTML and JavaScript is widely supported across desktop and mobile browsers
  • Keep it small. Mobile Safari opens pages at a default view of 980 pixels wide. If your site is wider than that, site viewers will have to scroll side to side. Simplify your splash screen to ensure it all fits on the opening screen.
  • Keep it separate. Increasingly, companies are creating separate, mobile-friendly versions of their Web sites to accommodate mobile visitors. For some sites, this can be accomplished through the use of JavaScript and CSS, but for more elaborate sites, you may need to create and maintain a duplicate, mobile-friendly copy of your site.

Resources:
- iPhone WebDev: http://www.iphonewebdev.com Forums, FAQ’s and tips for optimizing or developing sites for the iPhone.
- SiteCatalyst NetAverages: Free subscription with purchase of Adobe CreativeSuite CS5, aggregates data from Omniture’s web analytics customers to show trends for desktop and mobile browsers
- iPhone/iPad Simulator: Register for the free iPhone SDK to download the iPhone/iPad simulator application to test your site. (Or, save the 2GB download by asking your friends to test your site for you and send screengrabs.)

By Jay Kinghorn | Posted: July 7th, 2010 | 2 comments


 

2 Responses to 'Tips to make your Web site iPhone-friendly'

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  1. Very timely post for me. Thanks

    By Vincent Gagnaux | Jul 7, 2010

     

  2. If you have to go with a template site, Sitewelder is now offering built in smartphone alternative with your site, so when you access the site, it redirects to the smartphone version.

    By scott trimble | Jul 7, 2010

     


 

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