UI for a mobile web app

[vaib]

Hey all,

I am in the process of building a web app targeted at smart phone
users. It's a web app so it'll use the browser on the phone.

Now there's a problem. I am a web developer at work and I have never
developed a web app targeted for mobile phones.

I want to know whether there are any tools\emulators which I can
download and see how my site would look on the mobile screen. Also, I
want to know about some design principles when developing a web app
for mobiles. So if you know about any such good resources kindly point
me to them.

Thanking in anticipation.
kv.

 

[Andy]

Hey all,

I am in the process of building a web app targeted at smart phone
users. It's a web app so it'll use the browser on the phone.

Now there's a problem. I am a web developer at work and I have never
developed a web app targeted for mobile phones.

I want to know whether there are any tools\emulators which I can
download and see how my site would look on the mobile screen. Also, I
want to know about some design principles when developing a web app
for mobiles. So if you know about any such good resources kindly point
me to them.

Thanking in anticipation.
kv.

Hi,

You might find this useful...

http://cloneforsuccess.com/mobilepagecreator/


Andy

 

[Tom vC]

kv,

I'm in a similar situation. I have found a couple useful tools for
simulating smartphones:

1) To emulate an Android device, get the Android SDK:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

2) Blackberry offers simulators: http://www.blackberry.com/developers/downloads/simulators/

3) Unfortunately, you need a Mac in order to simulate the iPhone and
iPad. I am testing using an iPod Touch, however, since it is cheaper
than an iPhone and is basically the same thing but without phone
functionality.

4) When developing on the desktop (in between testing on the
smartphone), I use the Google Chrome browser. It is based on WebKit,
which is the engine for the default browsers on the iPhone and Android
devices. (Safari is also based on WebKit).

I don't think anything can beat testing on actual smartphones,
however. I have found that some things that worked fine on my desktop
were too slow on the actual phone.

There are two frameworks that seem to be pretty good for mobile
browsers. But neither are quite mature yet.

1) Sensa Touch. It's a pure JavaScript framework. Main drawback (A
killer for me): it only works with WebKit right now.

2) jQuery Mobile. It augments existing HTML. But it is still in beta,
and has some issues.

Here are some links I have found to be helpful:
http://labs.thesedays.com/blog/2010/07/16/10-tips-for-designing-mobile-websites/
http://www.noupe.com/how-tos/tutorials-for-making-your-website-mobile-friendly.html
http://www.adaptistration.com/blog/...-difference-between-apps-and-mobile-websites/
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2075851/avoid-mobile-site-suckage

Regards,
Tom vC

 

[vaib]

kv,

I'm in a similar situation.  I have found a couple useful tools for
simulating smartphones:

1) To emulate an Android device, get the Android SDK:http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

2) Blackberry offers simulators:  http://www.blackberry.com/developers/downloads/simulators/

3) Unfortunately, you need a Mac in order to simulate the iPhone and
iPad.  I am testing using an iPod Touch, however, since it is cheaper
than an iPhone and is basically the same thing but without phone
functionality.

4) When developing on the desktop (in between testing on the
smartphone), I use the Google Chrome browser.  It is based on WebKit,
which is the engine for the default browsers on the iPhone and Android
devices.  (Safari is also based on WebKit).

I don't think anything can beat testing on actual smartphones,
however.  I have found that some things that worked fine on my desktop
were too slow on the actual phone.

There are two frameworks that seem to be pretty good for mobile
browsers.  But neither are quite mature yet.

1)  Sensa Touch.  It's a pure JavaScript framework.  Main drawback (A
killer for me): it only works with WebKit right now.

2) jQuery Mobile. It augments existing HTML.  But it is still in beta,
and has some issues.

Here are some links I have found to be helpful:http://labs.thesedays.com/blog/2010...ickz/column/2075851/avoid-mobile-site-suckage

Regards,
Tom vC

thanks a lot. that was really helpful