1. I disabled Javascript in my Opera Browser. That way I would get a stripped down version of a page, although Javascript has absolutely nothing to do with page display.
Actually I’m used to not-working hover effects and other eyecandy on many sites because they are implemented using Javascript, but I’m really disappointed to read suggestions which basically have the same effect on a site like Stopdesign.

Rather start recommending tablebased design, font tags, frames, anything, but please no Javascript-based browser switch…

2. This is the main reason, which was already covered before by Arve.

> “I√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢m not suggesting we enable browsers to continue to slack on handheld support. Rather, I√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢m saying that we don√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢t want to wait another two years for Microsoft and other vendors to respond.”
If we don’t fix that behaviour with a number of hacks, then Microsoft will maybe fix the bug in the next two years. But as soon as the majority is going to implement browser switches and other hacks to circumvent that bug, Microsoft and also other vendors won’t fix that bug in two years, five or ten.

Look at the desktop version of the IE: When is Microsoft going to fix the numerous CSS Bugs? Maybe when they release a complete a new version and have to rewrite the rendering engine anyway. But until then they won’t put a single developer at work on those bugs. And that’s absolutely reasonable, I mean the IE runs fine on every webpage, everything’s rendered correctly.

Now imagine a perfect web without hacks, filters, etc: How many _days_ would it need until Microsofts released a fix for all the rendering bugs? Certainly not many, since no customer could visit a single XHTML page.
Ok that’s a dream, there are millions of IE installations and websites and one couldn’t change them all at once.

But the webbrowsing on PDAs, smartphones and so on is new. There aren’t many people using it yet, nor are there many websites with stylesheets especially for handhelds. I really really hope we don’t make the same mistake as in the desktop world again and end up with the same situation, where webdevelopers fix the bugs of the browser vendors.

You don’t have to be a prophet, to predict that with a Javascript-based browser switch for handheld devices, Opera will stay the only browser that supports “media=handheld” correctly.

It’s a good point. Ideally, one would serve handheld devices a different subset of the content. Granted, CSS wouldn’t be able to do this by itself. You’d need a CMS to do this.

I also wanted to comment on Mike’s way at the beginning:

To a large extent, what mobile users need from a site is very similar to what disabled users need: simpler navigation and only the main content of the site. They don’t need promo boxes shoved all over the place beckoning them to click through to other places on the site and they certainly don’t need all the code associated with traditional ad-serving.

For the record, no one really needs that…outside of the site’s marketing department. ;o)

In many ways, designing for a mobile device forces one to focus on simple navigation and short, concise to-the-point content. Not a bad thing for any site visitor. ;o)

Even as times progress and PDA’s get better technology there seems no point to put much effort into “designing for the PDA device.”

The difference would be like trying to compare a gameboy versus an x-box. although their technology is different, who surfs on the web with their cellphone just for kicks?

One thing we should consider when talking about developing for mobile devices is the question, whether we really want to display all the content of the web page on the page for mobile devices.

In my opinion it’s not only important to adapt the visual presentation but the amount of content, too.

What do you think?

on a 1280 * 960 the webstandardsawards website uses less than a third of the screen size. what a waste. really unfuctional either, you spend all your time scrolling. and of course, if you increase the font size for whatever reason (users hard of sight etc) the problem gets worse (even on a small resolution).

this website is ok using about 70%. but that’s really less, because the navbar space is wasted lower down (should use position: fixed). alistapart.com is also worse.

i really don’t get this “fashion” for fixed width websites. they don’t work on small screens, and they look ridiculous on large screens. please, as mr w3 says, use relative units. so if you must waste space either side (which is fine if you have less than a screen’s content), it’s never going to be too ridiculous.

Just something to think about if you want to do server-side sniffing.

If I place it at the top, then users will need to scroll down on each page, which might come out as annoyance. But then again, if I only put it at the bottom, then users might get confused and not find the navigation.

What do you suggest?

I totally support web browsing for smaller screens.

I even plan to make my website in a text only version that is much simplier so one can access the site easily to read and click links.

talk about coincidences…

real good info :) great read

I like developing for user agents that do that.