Better browsing on mobiles

By Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 05 August 2008 01:48

Technology

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has issued a new set of standards to guide developers of content to be accessed from mobile phones so as to make it easier for people to browse the Web on mobile devices.

The new standard, Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 , published as a W3C Recommendation, "condenses the experience of many mobile Web stakeholders into practical advice on creating mobile-friendly content," according to W3C.

According to W3C, "People who want to use the Web while 'on the go' face several challenges, including hardware and software diversity, device constraints, and bandwidth limitations. Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 helps content authors face those challenges and develop content that works on a wide array of mobile devices. Authors and other content producers will find practical advice for managing user experience challenges such as data input and page scrolling."

"Mobile Web content developers now have stable guidelines and maturing tools to help them create a better mobile Web experience," said Dominique Hazaël-Massieux, W3C's mobile web activity lead. "In support of the W3C mission of building One Web, we want to support the developer community by providing tools to enable a great mobile Web user experience."

W3C has also published XHTML Basic 1.1 Recommendation , the preferred format specification of Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 and the first draft of a next generation of guidelines, Mobile Web Application Best Practices ,  aimed at mobile application developers.

With publication of the XHTNL recommendation it says "there is now a full convergence in mobile markup languages, including those developed by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA)...[previously] content developers faced an additional challenge: a variety of mobile markup languages to choose from."

And, W3C says, "While the 'original' best practices document focused on traditional Web browsing, the new guidelines will focus on the use of Web applications and widgets for user interaction opportunities on mobile devices. For example, mobile content providers might use Web applications together with geolocation information to provide users with richer location-based services and interfaces."

W3C is also developing resources to help authors understand how to create content that is both mobile-friendly and accessible to people with disabilities.  A draft of the Relationship between Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)  has been published jointly by the Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group and WAI's Education & Outreach Working Group (EOWG).