If you want to provide the best experience to your web site visitors on cell phones and computer monitors, you’ll probably need to create two versions of your web site. One for computers, optimized for monitors with a resolution along the lines of 1024 by 768. And another, designed to look good on the 1.5 to 2 inch screens found on many cell phones.
I recommend two page designs to anyone who cares about how their site looks to the growing mobile audience, not only because of the screen size differences, but to accommodate things like the need for larger links that can easily be followed in a touch screen.
Some designers find that using a special style sheet is enough. Many people use three, one for printing, one for computer display, and now a third for mobile. You can make sites look better by simple removing a few images and resizing and positioning elements using CSS, but most mobile versions of web sites don’t just remove a few things for a small screen, they’re redesigned to highlight the most important parts of the web site for mobile users
Economist magazine, for example, doesn’t just alter the design a little, it features only the most popular stories and breaking news with a single, perfectly-sized image, and a simple to use set of links to get to more content if you need it.
Although you can register a .mobi domain name today, a growing number of web sites seem to be opting for a subdomain instead. For example, if you’re looking for the Economist on your cell phone, you can find it at m.economist.com Of course the main site designed for computer screens is at www.economist.com. Comparing the two sites will give you a good idea of the kinds of changes that make information-focused sites work better on mobile displays. The Economist has done a great job.
Other sites are using subdomains that look more like this: www.craigslist.com/mobile, but I like the m.domain.com model because it offers the least number of characters and we all no it’s harder to type a URL on a cell phone.
Of course you might as well register the .mobi version of your domain to protect it (it’s cheap enough at sites like Godaddy). You can even forward the .mobi domain to your m.domain.com site for good measure.
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