04-20-2005, 03:31 PM
|
|
Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
|
|
WebIS Mobile Site And CSS: The Future of Web Design?
If you hit the WebIS site with a Pocket PC, you'll be in for a nice surprise: a perfectly formatted mobile site. Now here's the interesting part: there's no template wrapper (like we do) or re-direction to another Web page (like some do). Instead, you're looking at the same content: but by using CSS they've enabled mobile devices to view a friendly format of the same content. Here's a quote from, you guessed it, Fabrizio Fiandanese on how he approached the challenge:
"The future is about web standards, about the separation of style from content. How do we achieve it? Creating minimal, meaningful markup, abstracting everything has to do with "look" from the HTML code. All style definitions will be stored into the CSS files. The net result? The minimal HTML code will be readable on every device out there, and we'll have the ability to serve different styles to different clients."
I think this is a great approach to the problem. For many years the expectation has been that a Web site should have a mobile version of their site - specially-formatted HTML pages and graphics for mobile devices. Then, as the separation of content and form became more common, we had database-driven sites that had mobile-device friendly templates. Not every site is database driven, however, so this wasn't a practical solution for everyone. This CSS solution is interesting because it can apply equally well to static or dynamic content, and a variety of devices can be targeted. My Web design Kung-Fu has become weak, but from where I'm sitting this seems like an excellent solution.
So if you're a Web designer, it's time to start thinking about using CSS to format your content in such a way that any computing device can consume the content. We're looking at doing the same thing here. And if you're a business looking to do something similar with your site, Fabrizio is the person to talk to. ;-)
|
| |
|
|
|
04-20-2005, 03:40 PM
|
|
Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,520
|
|
I think this is an example of the way the web, internet was meant to be. Not hack solutions like what ICANN just accepted with TLDs like .mobi
Question for you Jason, do you think that a CSS driven presentation would be less of a performance strain than the current template design of PPCT?
If I read your statements correctly the template design (or atleast this template design) involves database IO. Or is the db used to distinguish between subscribers versus non subscribers.
Perhaps the front page could convert to a CSS implementation, while the forums remained template driven.
Just thoughts from the outside looking in. 
__________________
Phone: Nexus one Backup Phone: AT&T Samsung Jack; Future Phone: I'm Watching WP7; Media Player: Platinum Zune HD 32GB; Home Server: HP MediaSmart Server LX195 Console: XBox 360, PS3, Wii |
| |
|
|
|
04-20-2005, 03:44 PM
|
|
Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by sojourner753
I think this is an example of the way the web, internet was meant to be. Not hack solutions like what ICANN just accepted with TLDs like .mobi
|
Exactly! The whole concept of a mobile device domain is completely and utter asinine. :evil: Expecting users, and companies, to create/go to mobile-specific domains is absolutely the wrong way to go about things. I think it's just a money-grab.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by sojourner753
Question for you Jason, do you think that a CSS driven presentation would be less of a performance strain than the current template design of PPCT?
|
I'm not sure. If I understand things correctly, the CSS layout is done by the client - it's only so much code as far as the Web server is concerned, and the client on the other end assembles that code into the proper layout. So, in theory, this should mean less server load versus a database load + template wrapper from the server. I could be wrong though. :-)
|
| |
|
|
|
04-20-2005, 04:10 PM
|
|
Pupil
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 43
|
|
I have been using a CSS layout on my own web site for a while now and as well as mobile device layouts it is possible to create layouts for things like printing which makes maintenance of a site much easier and quicker. There is also the benefit that a site that is not based around an underlying tables structure for its layout will conform to more standards and be more accessible to partially sighted visitors.
The only down-side is that CSS is not uniformally standard and some browsers do not always handle it properly. You get one guess at who one of the biggest offenders is in this area!
|
| |
|
|
|
04-20-2005, 04:35 PM
|
|
Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 333
|
|
This is so cool. What a slick way to do it. Does anyone else think it odd that when you hit the site with a WM device, that it shows you the Mac products first?
|
| |
|
|
|
04-20-2005, 05:20 PM
|
|
Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,041
|
|
Well, yes. This issue of separating content from format is described in a book I bought on HTML/XHTML & CSS I bought about 2 years ago. I wondered by websites were creating a site for regular computers and another for mobile devices. You can do the whole thing on one site with CSS.
|
| |
|
|
|
04-20-2005, 05:40 PM
|
|
Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 17
|
|
Tim Berners-Lee spoke out against .mobi because he thought that this was possible through existing standards. But when most websites struggle to display properly in two desktop browsers there's little hope for mobile devices.
|
| |
|
|
|
04-20-2005, 05:51 PM
|
|
Neophyte
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 2
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by rlobrecht
Does anyone else think it odd that when you hit the site with a WM device, that it shows you the Mac products first?
|
When I went there from my desktop pc, I also got the mac product listed first, so don't think there is anything strange going on there.
|
| |
|
|
|
04-20-2005, 06:11 PM
|
|
Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 333
|
|
Maybe I should have used the word ironic instead of odd.
|
| |
|
|
|
04-20-2005, 06:52 PM
|
|
Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 486
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by rlobrecht
This is so cool. What a slick way to do it. Does anyone else think it odd that when you hit the site with a WM device, that it shows you the Mac products first?
|
One of the things one may notice on the desktop is that you can set a permanent user preference for All Products, Mac, or Win only. I'm looking at making the default choice based on the OS the user is coming in instead of showing both by default. But yes, its a bit ironic
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Linear Mode
