RE: Best Practices : Some Background

Dear Marcus and all,
 
I am not sure that "pared down" content is appropriate to mobile
devices.  As a frequent user of mobile email I do not want to see a
shortened version of my PC based email on my mobile device.  And if
someone sends me a URL in an email I want to read the full text, not an
abbreviated version.  Yes there are many circumstances where it is
appropriate to cut down, and yes graphics are difficult on a mobile.
However developers should not attempt to second-guess use cases and we
should try to make the technology deliver what the user wants and be
flexible, rather than a "most people use x" approach which does not
apply to all users and all cases and anyway the usage patterns are very
likely to change over time.
 
Regards,
 
Kevin
 
-----Original Message-----
From: public-bpwg-request@w3.org [mailto:public-bpwg-request@w3.org] On
Behalf Of marcus saw
Sent: 23 July 2005 06:59
To: public-bpwg@w3.org
Subject: RE: Best Practices : Some Background



	Hi,
	 
	I am new to this mailing list so if I repeat anything that has
already been said please forgive me.  
	 
	I have been quite interested by the whole discussion of mobile
content creation as I currently work for a company in Japan that builds
systems for mobile sites.  
	 
	What I have found during my time in Japan, which I admit does
have slightly differing phone usage culture patterns to the west, is
that there is a distinct difference between the way mobile content and
PC based content are used.  This is something important to consider
because, as you are aware Japan is a market leader in terms of number of
accesses to content-based services on the mobile phone ( thanks to
DoCoMo's i-mode ) and so might be taken as indicative as to how the
market will progress in the west.
	 
	When delivering to the mobile phone content has to be trimmed
down not only in terms of images and other decorative paraphernalia but
also in terms of the length and depth of sentences used to convey its
messages.  Mobile sites are used, in the whole, for short term,
quick-fix surfing whilst on the go, the other main usages are for
downloading multimedia content to the phone ( mp3, ring tones and
wallpapers ) and access to 'utility sites' such as timetables and
directory services. Again the length and depth of these types of content
has to be cut down from the normal output to a browser for the site to
be a success on the mobile phone. 
	 
	This is due to the natural, physical limitation imposed by the
size of the screen, the keypad and the by the mobile, 'access from
anywhere, anytime' usage philosophy of phone browsing - you do not want
to be wading through reams of text when you are only on-line for two
minutes whilst waiting for a train.
	 
	Other considerations such as image sizes, and by this I mean
file size in KB, and pixel resolution of images have to be considered as
well.  It is no good providing the same rich content that you would
display on your website for the current generation of phones available.
Images still take time to download, time which mobile users are not
prepared to wait for, and large, high resolution graphics, especially
when containing text, become hard to read when rendered on the small
screen.
	 
	My point is this: whilst there is a great case for need of a
standard in the markup languages that are used on the Internet and the
mobile Internet ( and this is something that the Japanese would be good
to take note of with 4 separate versions of markup currently in use:
J-HTML, XHTML, CHTML5, HDML3 ), there is a definite need for separate
content for both mediums.
	 
	The market for mobile content is highly likely to increase
phenomenally in the west in the coming three years and so these
considerations will become highly relevant to any one wanting to create
good content.  
	 
	Thanks for reading this far, and if I may be so bold I would
like to ask a general question. 
	 
	Can this two-site philosophy be aided in anyway by markup
standards? For instance can there be a 'content for PC' tag in a page
with an 'ALT' tag, similar to images now, which gives the alternative,
Mobile content? Also, how much strength does the w3c have to suggest
changes in markup standards with the networks like DoCoMo and Vodafone?
	 
	I would be very happy to hear your opinions to what I have
written.
	 
	 
	Marcus Saw
	http://cellsuite.blogspot.com
	

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