Was a time when I thought of myself as an early adapter of technology. But last week it hit me full-on that 1) I probably no longer qualify for that demographic, and partly because of that, 2) I have been neglecting the needs of a large and fast-growing audience for the websites that I help create.
The reason for this epiphany: I attended a webinar about how you can use a WordPress plugin to help ensure that the websites you publish are usable on mobile devices — devices like the iPhone, iPad, Android phones, Blackberries, Windows CE phones…the list goes on. And I started wondering: how well does my own website function on one of these devices? I had no idea…
The fact is: it’s no longer just the early adapters of technology who are using these devices to access the Web — millions of people are. And, if you haven’t taken steps to make sure your website is mobile device-friendly, there’s a good chance that your site just doesn’t work very well — if at all — on those devices. It could load too slowly for anyone to want to use it. Important features could be hidden or unusable. It may require an excessive amount of zooming in and out. And mobile users usually are not looking for a ton of information — they need to get at only the most important information, and do it quickly and easily.
If you are just getting started developing a website, you have so many basic things you need to worry about: the information content, the features, the page layout, graphics, color schemes and so on. It’s a bit much to expect that you can also worrying about how mobile-friendly your site is. On the other hand, it’s not too early to start educating yourself about the topic of website mobile-readiness. There is all manner of good information and advice out there. Here’s a good article to get the thought process moving. Or just Google “making websites mobile-ready” and you’ll get a ton of results.
It’s also easy to find tools that can help you test how mobile-compatible your website is, like the W3C mobileOK checker. And WordPress themes that are mobile-friendly, like WPTouch. And WordPress plugins, like Plugin Buddy Mobile, that can display a mobile version of your site when a mobile devices accesses it.
It can all be a bit overwhelming. For now, stay focused on your primary goal of getting your website up and operational and, hopefully, well received by the members of your target audience who use the more conventional devices, like desktop and laptop computers. Once you’ve got that problem licked, you can tackle the mobile compatibility problem with gusto.
http://sixrevisions.com/tools/10-excellent-tools-for-testing-your-site-on-mobile-devices/