THE BASICS

• Who to Design For
  • Types of Devices
  • Types of Browsers
  • Mark-Up
• Actions
• Specs

TYPES OF DEVICES

"When designing for mobile, think about the different classes of devices. The line between devices is not well defined, making designing for mobile more challenging." ¹ There are three major types of devices to keep in mind when designing for the mobile web:

1. Feature Phones

This is the most common mobile device phone. They usually come in "candy bar, clamshell, or slider form." Most of these phones have voice messaging and data capabilities while also generally having a camera and/or mp3 player. These are the types of phones targeted to the general consumer.

2. Smart Phones

Having the same general features as a feature phone but these phones have something a little extra. Usually they have the ability to run 3rd party applications and have a larger viewing screen. "Smart phones typically use a more full featured operating system and companies market them as advanced multimedia devices." ²

3. PDAs

Today's generation of PDAs often feature voice, messaging and data capabilities. They are much like a smart phone but generally geared towards more organizational tasks rather than communications. Many of these devices have a QWERTY keyboard or stylus rather than the 12-key layout we're used to seeing on most feature phones.

^{1, 2} .mobi, "Mobile Web Developer's Guide," http://dev.mobi/.