IT Business – Canadian Web Developers Review W3C Mobile Site Guidelines

Talk about an enigma, wrapped in a mystery, wrapped in bacon. I was interviewed for the article, Canadian Web Developers Review W3C Mobile Site Guidelines, which was featured in IT Business on July 5th, 2006. It’s great to see the W3C offer up some mobile site guidelines, but at the current pace of varied networks, so many different devices, too many non inter-operable carriers and the blunt reality that receiving data is still like stuffing an elephant through a straw, and it starts getting clearer why we need standards… and why they will never be respected.
First off, how many agencies developing websites are following the W3C website guidelines?
The problems are glaring.
Here’s some insight for how companies feel about a mobile-friendly environment:
“Unless a business is pursuing the youth market, web browsing using mobile devices is a non-issue,” Keith Thirgood said. “It’s a technologist-driven red herring.”
I don’t agree with Thirgood.
The earlier we start introducing our clients to the mobile world, the sooner we can get everyone looking beyond the computer screen. It may currently be a youth-driven, SMS world, but the older crowd has its fair share of power users. It’s our duty to start getting strategic with what tools and apps are complimentary to the mobile space and add value to the brand. Just porting web junk to mobile junk… well, that’s still junk.
You can read the full article here: Canadian Web Developers Review W3C Mobile Site Guidelines – IT Business.
You can find the mobile standards document here: W3C Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0.