Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly in Two Minutes
After checking out B. Adam Howell’s excellent IYHY.com site a couple of weeks ago, I thought it might be a good idea to write a little tutorial about how to make your entire site more mobile-friendly without even touching your pages. You may think that since you write valid code and separate structure from presentation at all times, your site already works great on mobile devices. You may also think bad things don’t happen to good people. In both cases, you’d be wrong.
The fact of the matter is that the state of HTML rendering in the wireless world is all over the map right now. Some browsers, like Pocket Internet Explorer, are actually pretty good at parsing through standard web pages. Others can scarcely handle layout rules at all. And still worse are the mobile browsers that load all CSS and javascript files, attempt to use them, and screw up the experience even more in the process.
What’s really needed until HTML/CSS/JS support is improved in mobile devices is a little server-side filtering. By pulling out everything a mobile device can possibly choke on before it even gets to the mobile device, we can create a mobile version of our site which is not only viewable on more devices but is much quicker to download as well.
And you know what? The mobile version of your site is probably going to be much easier on screenreaders too.
Four easy steps
Outlined below are the four steps to get this done in a matter of minutes, provided you are in an Apache environment and can run PHP. If you’re not, these steps can easily be adaptable to other technologies.
Read more…
Of iPods, and Music Videos
I know I’m an old man already at 30, but I think the last music video I watched was something from Christina Aguilera’s Slut-Yourself-Rich period a couple of years ago. Even then, I’m pretty sure I only watched the whole thing because I thought she was going to violate the “no live sex on TV” rule in front of my very eyes. Well, she didn’t, and I haven’t watched a music video since.
… which makes me wonder about all this talk of Apple’s alleged plans to sell music videos for display on iPods.
Is this really a viable market? I don’t think it is. The amount of music videos Apple will sell is probably much less than 1% of the amount of audio tracks they will sell, so it’s clearly not the reason the company is adding video capabilities to their iPods. More likely, it is a way to ease iPods with video capabilities into circulation until Apple has more compelling content to offer.
Conventional wisdom says the real money is in movie distribution, and while I agree to a point, there are so many issues being negotiated behind the scenes that it is understandable why this hasn’t materialized yet. Working at Disney for the past five years, I can’t even begin to tell you how long the chain of rights is to negotiate with regards to theatrical releases. The single biggest achievement of the iTunes Music Store was not the interface, the distribution, or the selection of music… it was the negotiating of rights by Steve Jobs. Jobs offered each music label the exact same deal, and being the most charismatic technology figure in the world (probably ever), he convinced them all to take it. Doing the same thing in the movie world isn’t impossible, but it’s going to be much much harder.
That’s also to say nothing of DRM issues in the video world. If you’re wondering why Microsoft is the only company in the world with industrial-strength video DRM right now, it’s largely because they settled a lawsuit with InterTrust about a year ago for $440 million putting them in the clear of any DRM-related lawsuits. Many companies are afraid to infringe on InterTrust’s patents right now, and Apple may or may not be one of them. If Apple feels they can create video DRM without infringing, they will. If they don’t, they will either have to sit on the sidelines or license.
Getting back on topic, I feel like Apple’s best move right now is not in music videos but concert videos. I wrote about this back in February when I suggested a video device with which to view concerts but the idea received only a lukewarm reception in the comments. Fast forward to July now and we have news of an AOL/AEG/XM cooperative called “NetworkLive” which will not only deliver live and archived shows via audio and video streams but actually play a part in producing the concerts themselves.
Big, BIG missed opportunity for Apple here in my opinion… especially since the rumored investment in this initiative is an extremely affordable $15 million.
If I’m Apple, I’m knocking on the door of NetworkLive right now and if no one answers, I’m busting the damn thing down.
iPod Giveaway #4: I Found a Shuffle
The 4th monthly Mike Industries iPod-A-Month Creativity Competition starts today and the rules are simple: I found an iPod Shuffle. In order to claim it, you must identify it and tell me precisely how you lost it. I have a feeling there is a rich story behind this little piece of plastic, and the person who successfully reveals it in the comments will be reunited with their baby. Submissions will be accepted until midnight on July 31st.
Special thanks to Mike Roberto for coming up with the idea for this 4th contest. Mike will receive a Shuffle from me, and of course, the contest submission pool remains open until the end of the year.
Extra special thanks as well to Dennis Lloyd and iLounge (formerly iPodLounge) who are once again adding a pair of $150 Etymotic ER-6i earbuds to the prize pool.
Most Ineffective Spam Opening Line Ever
A peculiar e-mail from China landed in my inbox this evening. It began:
“We have learned from the Internet that you are interested in tents.”
iPod Giveaway #3: We Have a Winner
Competitor “joshua” was right when he questioned whether most entries in the third monthly iPod-A-Month Creativity Competition correctly followed the instructions of exploring alternative uses of iPods. Luckily, however, we applaud the breaking of rules here at Mike Industries, and that is why I’m happy to announce this month’s winner and a new honor roll of the top 30 entries… some following the rules more closely than others.
So without further ado, congratulations to Charlie D., whose crudely assembled infomercial about sending iPod Shuffles full of music into space is available for viewing here. It’s an interesting concept for sure, and one which holds special significance after seeing NASA ram a spacecraft with thousands of names on it into a comet earlier this week.
Charlie will receive an iPod Shuffle from me, and a pair of $150 Etymolic earbuds from the nice folks over at iPodLounge.com.
Below is a slideshow of the top 30 non-video entries with the first 10 being the runners-up, in order of greatness. The last 20 are in random order:
Sweet slideshow component made with SlideShowPro
Stay tuned for the next installment of the Mike Industries iPod-A-Month Creativity Competition slated to begin around the middle of this month. And as always, the submission pool remains open.
My Personal Tivo DeathWatch Ends Today
On Friday, I will be leaving the comfortable confines of my DirecTivo for the modern unknown that is the Comcast-orola-soft 6412 High Definition PVR. I fully expect a crystal-clear high-definition 16:9 viewing experience with a woefully disappointing interface. Whether or not it becomes more or less frustrating over time is the only question mark. I think I am even losing the 30-second commercial skip function. Damn!
Oh well. Sorry DirecTV and Tivo. You guys have been great, but there’s only so long I can hold out for HD.
Has anybody tried this thing out yet? Any tips?
Keep the door open for me Tivo. I may be back…
MercuryCloud is Hiring
My friends at MercuryCloud in Seattle are looking for some good print and interactive designers. As is evidenced by this photo — taken yesterday from their 4th of July party — they have some pretty sweet office space and they are not afraid to host kegs in it:
James Robinson and Will Prater are the principals of MercuryCloud. They are great guys, and if you’d like to work with them on some high-profile, high-caliber stuff, click the “Continue Reading” link for a full job description.
Read more…
Nike.com: Still Confusing After All These Years
I’ve been a critic of Nike’s online presence since the first time I tried to find out about a shoe seven years ago and was greeted instead with a confusing Flash movie having nothing to do with shoes and leading me around in circles until I had to go to Google. “Design vomit” is what I call that stuff, and most things Nike did back then reeked of it.
Over the last few years, the company seems to have gotten more web-savvy and now produces a good mix of design-driven and utilitarian interfaces depending on what the marketing goals are for any particular sub-site.
Wanting to give them another shot, and needing a pair of running shoes now that I actually have time to run, I checked out nike.com and found this really cool shoe that you can custom design for yourself online.
Great!
I spent the next 10 minutes choosing the colors of every single element of the shoe, right down to the lace eyelets, through a very slickly done Flash interface. I went to the University of Washington for my undergrad degree so the shoe I created was black, purple, and gold. The process couldn’t have been any easier… kudos to the Flash team on configurator:
Then came the breakdown.
There was no “add to cart” button anywhere. There was a “store locator” button so I assumed they wanted me to go down to Niketown or something and try it on first and then maybe order it from the store. Luckily, I have a Niketown about a 15 minute bike ride from my place so I pedaled down there and tried on a non-configured version of the shoe. Size 11, great. I asked the guy how to go about ordering the customized version and he told me to go online.
I said “You mean you actually do the ordering online?”
He said “Yep.”
I said “Ok, I’ll look again, but I didn’t see that option.”
He said “Yep, that’s how you do it.”
So I ride home and reconfigure my shoe from scratch again. I hit the “Review” button and up pops this error:
Eh? A non-specific error message? According to the message, the item is either unreleased (which I know is not true since I just saw it in person) or, whoa, they “reached their made-to-order limit for the day”???
What?
I don’t even know what that means. Why wouldn’t you just put my order in queue and manufacture it as soon as you can find the requisite child-laborers to build it?
So instead of putting my order through and shipping it to me when it’s ready, Nike instead gives me three options:
1. Try again tomorrow when they’ve “reset their capacity”?
2. Email the design to someone… presumably with the accompanying note “Hey, look at what I can’t order from Nike!”
3. Print the design out so I can hang it on my wall and be reminded of how much I want it.
I just don’t get it. I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of exactly why Nike would put such an error message up and I can really only think of one possibility: whoever designed the database and backend for this system built it so that it can literally only store X number of orders per day. This just seems ridiculous to me though as databases should theoretically hold an unlimited amount of data.
Any ideas?
The Accessibility Chronicles
Dean Kamen’s self-elevating wheelchair: not just assistive, but liberating.So everyone’s all of a sudden talking about accessibility again. Just as you thought 2005 was going to be the year of folksonomies, APIs, and Ajax, the discussion over the last two weeks seems to have centered on a “new” aspect of accessibility:
Whether we really know what we think we know.
Ever since the original movement towards web standards led by the WaSP and many others, we’ve had similar messages sent to us:
“Valid code makes for accessible websites.”
“Use proper semantics to help screenreaders interpret your pages.”
“Use lists for navigation and any other list-like content to improve accessibility.”
And so, for several years designers and coders took these rules of thumb to heart, tried in earnest to follow best practices, and went about thinking their websites were “accessible”.
Why would they think that? Not because they physically observed it, but because they were told it. And who could blame them? You’re a web worker with a million things on your plate. Which is easier to do: hire an accessibility consultant to physically test your sites with disabled people or simply believe what you’ve heard? 99% of us, including me, chose the easier route.
Read more…
On MouseOut…
In an amusing twist of irony, my nameplate (pictured above) arrived last week, 4.5 years after I first ordered it.It is with both sadness and anticipation that I announce my departure from The Walt Disney Internet Group after four and a half years of employment. It’s been a great half-decade here and I can’t thank The Walt Disney Company enough for giving me the opportunity to work on such high-profile projects with such high-caliber people. In my time here, I’ve helped lead the standards-based redesigns of ESPN.com, ABCNews.com, and many other Disney-owned properties, as well as play a hands-on role in the design and development of all-new technologies like ESPN Motion, and countless unannounced products still in the pipeline. I owe all pride from working on said projects to the incredible teams of people across the company in Seattle, North Hollywood, New York, Connecticut, Orlando, England, and Japan who continue to make it all possible.
That said, I’m moving on.
So why would someone give up a six-figure job that they love, working for a company that they love, in a city that they love?
Two words: Opportunity Cost.
There’s something big I want to build, and now is the time to build it. I’m not going to say any more because I’m leery of getting caught in the hype machine, but you can expect a launch later this year. Watch this space for details as they become available.
As for blogging on Mike Industries, it’ll be business as usual for now. The iPod contests will continue (of course!), and my posting frequency should remain steady at several posts per month. Additionally, if I’ve turned you down for an interview or speaking engagement in the past, feel free to ask again as I no longer have a PR department to deal with. Disney’s policy required me to refuse almost all such requests in the past, so it’s nice not to have that restriction anymore.
And so with that, I begin anew on something I’m very excited about. If all goes well, it’ll grow like a Vine.
MouseOver. MouseOut.