CoolAdz.com : Mobile Marketing

The Basic Principles of Mobile Website Design

In mobile phones, the technology called the WAP is used for browsing. Because of the limitations of WAP browsers in terms of screen size and allowable download, you will need to strip down your current design.

The easiest way to build your mobile Website is to modify your existing Internet site to make it compatible for mobile handsets. For your site to work well on a mobile handset, it must follow the accessibility design guidelines for building mobile Websites which are set by the W3C.

	Your site must use CSS for the layout to ensure maximum compatibility.
	Code your site using either XML or XHTML, with your character encoding set at UTF-8.
	Remember to put all the most important information that you want mobile users to see on the top of the page. Make your mobile site design convenient for your consumers.
	Offer visitors radio buttons and links for navigation. Many phones are not equipped with back buttons, so try to provide one.
	Images on your mobile site should be in jpeg or gif format.
	The maximum page size for a mobile page is  20 kilobytes.

Before beginning any new project, especially one involving  new technology, it is best to understand the rules. Reading the Best Practices (PDF) from American Marketing Association is a good place to start.

Above is a QR Code , a two-dimensional bar code used for marketing in the mobi phone industry. Some mobi phones have QR Code scanners built in.that automatically bookmark the mobi site. If not, there are many apps you may download for free to read QR Code. Here is the page on iTunes where you may download iCandyMobile (free)..If you would like to experiment with making your own QR Code for free, just visit  QReate & Track.com.

Think of it.  You could have your QR Code load your business card, web site, YouTube video, RSS feed, coupon--you name it.  Manor, Texas promotes openness in city government and enhances their tourism trade using QR Codes.

I have seen people wearing t-shirts with a big QR code on the front.  I guess it could be useful in identifying prisoners, illegal aliens, dogs, product information and even dating.  You could put up your website and optimize it for mobile.  Then you tie the website to cell phones using QR Code. This could take wearing your heart on your sleeve to a new level.

I can see some abuses of the system.  Good looking young woman walks by wear QR Code. The code could link to a phone sex number or facebook page, you would not know until it loaded.  Get them for your children and you could embarrass them forever. I will let you explore that one.

No to worry if you do not have a phone with a QR code scanners. Most mobi sites provide an alternative way to send the mobi URL to your cell phone.

The Mobile Marketing Association’s (MMA) Short Code Working Group developed a primer to  provide an overview of the process that a brand, content provider, agency or technology provider should follow when considering launching a short-code-based marketing campaign or initiative. 

Common Short Codes (CSCs) also can be grouped into use-case categories. Although agencies, application providers and carriers may use different titles and definitions, the basic categories include:

	iTV
	iRadio
	In-venue
	Ringtones and graphics
	Contest
	Consumer packaged goods
	Movie promo
	Information & Entertainment
	Alerts
	Chat
	M-commerce
	Coupons/advertising

Creating a WML document should be easy. You only need a notepad or reliable text editor,. As a header, begin by typing:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE wml PUBLIC "-//WAPFORUM//DTD WML 1.1//EN"
"http://www.mymobilesite.com/index.xml"><wml>

This code will tell the mobile phone that it is currently reading a WML document and specifies which WML standards to use. When you build a mobile website, your pages are called cards. Your mobile site cards are what is seen on the handset screen at one time. You can add more than one card into your WML document. 

Declare them by typing

<card id="main" title="This is My Mobile Site" newcontext="true">

This makes a card with the ID "main" for linking purposes which will display a title text on top of the screen: 

It is important that you close your WML tags properly. One improperly closed tag will render the page inoperable. Each tag must be closed with a corresponding end tag.

The good news is HTML can be used to design and build your mobile Web site. Here is a step by step guide to doing this:

1. To make things easy, you will need Adobe Creative Suite 3 which has Adobe Device Central and Dreamweaver CS3.
2. Launch Dreamweaver CS3. From the Create New option, click on More..
3. Choose HTML from the Page Type button then publish out with the use of the XTHML Mobile 1.0 profile which can be found beneath Doc Type.
4. You can now begin to code your HTML-based mobile Website. It is best that you go for a simple HTML design which is more focused on great content than all the other design perks. There are a number of online sources that can help you with the fine details of HTML coding for mobile Web sites. Try searching for these on Google.
5. Once you are done with the coding, you may want to test the mobile Web site you have built. You do not test it within the browser. Choose "Preview in Browser" then click on Adobe Device Central from the resulting menu. This changes your interface from a desktop to a mobile.
6. In Adobe Device Central, try to choose a target device (look at the Available Devices panel found on the left of the screen) which through which the mobile cards will be displayed. You have the option to choose them manually, or you can build a custom device profile which contains all the possible devices that you wish to support.
7. As soon as you are finished, your code can be loaded and rendered on the devices you have chosen.

It is difficult to support all the available devices out there. The best solution to keep your mobile Web site as clean and as simple as possible is to allow it to be viewable across as many mobile platforms and portable devices.

As you can see, there is a lot to consider to design and build a mobile website. The principles of mobile design are different than those of conventional Web site design. If you do not have the time or patience to learn new coding practices, then consider hiring a firm that specializes in mobile Web site design. Many firms also offer mobile SEO and PPC services as well, in anticipation for the growing need of instantaneous information.

If you currently do not have a mobile Website, you are potentially losing out on extra business. Consider getting one today!

Updated 01/27/2011