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Did you know that less than 10% of 55 million French subscribers to a mobile operator surf the Web via their mobile phones [source: Journal du Net - France: Mobile Internet (21/11/2008) ]?

Before the packages "mobile web" unlimited does make their appearances (Origami in Orange , Illimythics in SFR , 3G + / EDGE at Bouygues Telecom ), the first explanation given to this situation was the cost of consultation. This obviously did not grow because the website owners (and their service providers ...) to make a detailed analysis of needs and uses of mobile Internet users. The consequences on websites to date are as follows:

1. Web sites are rarely tested on mobile phones,
2. Web site owners who want mobile access also fund the creation (and maintenance) of a second website called "adapted" to mobile phones.

Two sites today, tomorrow what with the proliferation of Web media consulting (computers, phones, digital television, interactive terminal ...) and the expected increase in mobile internet because of the unlimited plans?

Make a website available on all media consulting

This does not of course deny the specifics of the mobile web and to assert that simply implementing the recommendations of the international W3C for a searchable website of all media: yes, the website reads will be "technically accessible" on all media but will not necessarily be suitable for all substrates and specificities of uses.

Therefore, to respond to this non-dogmatic question of how the mobile web site (and thus build an analysis methodology adaptable to other objects existing consultation and future), then you simply start by looking at access and navigation on a website via a mobile phone (the analysis becomes more relevant if different mobile phones are used because of their differences).

Here below some comments on the use of Web telephone company's 3G iPhone Apple :

• search engine: enter the letters slow research because of the small size of the keyboard. Being well referenced and be listed in the top results becomes more important than ever because the user will be tired to search too long (to refine, for example) as it does on a computer.
• access time: in use WiFi or 3G, the download speed of the site is acceptable but becomes problematic when standard GSM access the Web page is too heavy (filesize). The consequence is the disruption of access to the site by the user.
• Accessed on the iPhone, the display of pages is designed to not exceed the width of the screen, which results in significant reduction of the size information and the need to navigate vertically into the web page. Zoom is then systematically required to view a portion of the page. So there is loss of the overview and the playing time by the user information is actually increased.
• navigation: the absence of mouse creates a real shortage for users accustomed to the computer mouse. The touchscreen of the iPhone sensitive to finger movement does not fully compensate for the absence.
• , Word , pdf …) ne sont pas systématiquement lisibles sur tous les téléphones portables (par exemple, l'iPhone n'accepte pas à ce jour le plugin Flash sur son navigateur Safari). technological compatibility: the information into proprietary technologies (Flash, Silverlight, Word, pdf ...) are not always readable on all mobile phones (eg, the iPhone does not agree to date the Flash plug on its Safari browser ).
• Reading outdoors: the brightness of a sunny example can significantly interfere with the reading of a web page with low color contrast.
• consulting time: memory and information processing battery life is weaker on mobile phones than on computers, this has an impact on consultation time information. The user needs a targeted information unpretentious display (which consumes computing time on his cell phone).

These observations of practice called the mobile web development solutions from the design of the website. Here are some suggestions:

• : titre de paragraphe, puis de sous-paragraphe permettant de générer automatiquement une table des matières). search engine: getting easily especially through explicit titles of your web pages (and different on every page) and structuring of your information by heading level (as in the structuring titles of your electronic documents such as Word or Open Office: as paragraph and sub-paragraph to automatically generate a table of contents).
• access time: reduce the size of your web pages (file size) by putting your information in formatting style sheets, optimizing the selection of your images (presence necessary? Avoid such texts in images sometimes present in the navigation menus; diminuables dimensions?), by not imposing the automatic triggering of multimedia objects (eg a video).
• Consultation: Do not block the display of your information to allow its adaptation to the screen of your mobile phone (preferred style sheets for formatting tables, does not block text size); identify technically and editorially your areas of information (by divs and titles for example).
• Navigation: Provide quick access links to the essential elements of your web page as the menu navigation, the search engine, information content and bottom of the page put a link back to the top.
• technological compatibility: choose the format (x) html on your web pages to proprietary formats, give an alternative to proprietary formats when used as a text transcript for a video.
• Reading outdoors: optimize color contrasts, particularly on essential information and Web links, to allow consultation Web external environment (luminosity greater than inside).
• consulting time: you have targeted information quickly and treatable by the mobile device, which invites to streamline unnecessary effects requiring additional computing time (eg a multimedia navigation created for fun but useless for the user by compared to conventional navigation).

Apply previous proposals returned to design your website in accordance with international recommendations following the W3C :

• the accessibility guidelines for Web content: WCAG 2.0
• recommendations for the portability of websites to mobile: Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0

From the moment your website complies with these two recommendations (number of identical rules: Read the document Relationship Between MWBP and WCAG ), your website is "technically accessible" on the supports fixed and mobile web consultation (it is interoperable ). This is a first step which now seems essential for all websites saw the expected increase in consulting the Web via mobile phones.

Improve the relevance of a website consultation according to the media advisory

It remains to ask the question of relevance for the user to access all information from your website via such a smaller screen, no mouse and in a context of mobility.

The answer depends primarily on the nature of the content of your website. However, even in cases where indeed some contents are not relevant to a mobile phone, you must avoid giving an answer technical development of a second website. The phone with its iPhone applications offers a solution to the need to display some content to a website and shows that it is possible to select areas of information from the same website. Also, if your website is displayed through style sheets, you can even change its display to suit your mobile phone.

By doing this if your choice is to offer users mobile access to your specific website, you do not develop a second site: you adapt to support consultation through a limited development effort. This ensures the existence of a single source of information and preparing your web site to web developments consultation that will multiply in the future. But remember: develop your website in accordance with international recommendations of the W3C .

Note: If you want to simulate the behavior of your website on a mobile phone, you can use the online application dotMobi: dotMobi Emulator .

Example Mobile Web Consulting: the blind and voice

As for navigating a Web site from a computer, blind people use a software called "screen reader" on their mobile phones. This software vocalizes the navigation menu of the phone and the content displayed and allows the blind person to control his consultation with various features.

To date, there are two screen reader to vocalize some mobile phones on the market:

• ( liste des téléphones portables compatibles ). Mobile Speak from Code Factory Company ( list of compatible cell phones ).
• Talks of the company Nuance .

( Smartphones , Pocket PC ) et BlackBerry (nom du lecteur d'écran : Orator ). Note: Mobile Speak screen reader can be used on most operating systems that equip mobile phones: Symbian, Windows Mobile (Smartphone, Pocket PC) and BlackBerry (name of the screen reader: Orator). et que vous pouvez tester en ligne à Acapela Text-to-Speech Interactive Demo . He enjoys the synthetic voice text-to-speech created by Acapela Group and you can test online Acapela Text-to-Speech Interactive Demo .

The demonstration of using a screen reader on a website shows so clearly the importance of developing your website in accordance with international recommendations of the W3C . If you needed another reason to do so ...

Innovation: navigate differently on the Web with your mobile

If screen readers can render voice to a website via a mobile phone, other speech recognition applications allow you to control your web browsing.

Here below a video in English on the Google Mobile for the iPhone. When you are told it is time to get interested in the developments of the mobile web ...