Web Design Melbourne | Web Development Melbourne| Melbourne, Fitzroy, Northcote, Collingwood, Carlton, Brunswick

04 Jul

2008

Looking towards the phone revolution

With the launch of the iPhone in Australia later this month we will have moved a step closer to the point where phones are the preferred device for accessing the internet. This is already the case in Japan where internet content is almost universally accessed through phones.

The only question is how quickly Australian consumers will follow down the same path.

Ever more immediacy

The easiness of accessing information on the internet has always been part of its appeal. With the internet there in your pocket the immediacy and accessibility will only increase. In shopping centres, or out on the street people will reach for their phones for on the spot market research, searching for contact details or geographic directions.

These new phone users are going to turn to those sources of content that truly serve their needs. It will be these sources that will be directing and informing their decisions.

What can you do?

Start thinking about how mobile phone users will be using their phones – and how you can be helping them. Its all about user focused design. Obviously for each of you it will be a slightly different answer.
Remember – its not just about directing people to become customers, its about being of service to them. Creating relationships with people is what you should be really aiming to do with your site. Giving people something for free.
Using stylesheets. Most of our clients have extremely clean websites that make extensive use of stylesheets. What most of you don't realise is that stylesheets can be tuned to different media. You can set up your website so that one set of style instructions is used for displaying the site on a computer, another for printing out on paper – and a third for displaying on mobile devices like phones.

The biggest difference between viewing a web page on a computer and on a mobile phone is the size of the screen. Optimising your website for this constraint is an important step. You will need to make sure that your site is easy to use and the information is accessible is an important step. Luckily this is easier than you might think. All we need to do is build and add an additional stylesheet.

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