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2.1 Why make your site mobile-accessible? |
People want to access web sites from where they are, using the devices they are using.
- Typically, this is in a mobile environment using a mobile device e.g. smartphone (a cell phone with a web browser), PDA, or cell phone.
- Most web sites are not built to be accessed by mobile devices
- Plug-ins like movies, flash, and PDF files can not be accessed or read through most mobile devices.
- Graphic artists like to design web sites so that all aspects of the layout are tightly controlled. The position of each word is pre-determined. This is called absolute positioning. Absolutely positioned pages work well for printed brochures but don't work well for environments where the users have different screen/display sizes. Because the positioning and screen size have been specified by the graphic artist ahead of time, the browser cannot display the page in a way that is optimal for the end-user's screen size. Content may require horizontal scrolling to read a sentence, or may simply be illegible because of positioning and font size.
- Many forms are built with tools that only work on specific browsers. Mobile devices use older or simple browsers making these forms unusable.