Now I'm still someone who reckons that the average web page is best viewed at a minimum of 1024×768 resolution … which isn't an unreasonable expectation for someone with even a modest desktop or laptop nowadays. But my recent adoption of a PDA has rattled the bars of my cage a little. Suddenly design elements which seemed so 'essential' from my desktop/laptop centric view of the world are in danger of being downgraded to 'desirable' or maybe even the lower category 'nice'. In my recent post Filling up experiences at the online filling station I said that “most Web resources at the moment conveniently ignore the format of ultra portable devices, but, as the user base grows, that's going to become a big issue. For example, I hadn't been aware of how badly Auricle displays on a PDA, so that's something I'm going to have to fix.” So I've had a go, and it's been quite an eye opener.
So using Auricle as a handy subject for experimentation, I reworked it to try and make it more usable when accessed from a PDA like the Dell Axim X50v. Prior to the rework, users got the desktop view and that was it. The format was, to say the least, PDA hostile.
There was quite a lot of work involved mainly because the method I had used to detect and switch style sheets was javascript dependent and so that was the first to go. I've introduced a new stylesheet detection and switching system which now works with the Dell PDA. I've also created a new PDA stylesheet to supplement the other, more desktop/laptop oriented, options.
Creating this required me to think more about what the primary entities in Auricle are for a PDA user, i.e. the newest postings. And so, in the new PDA style these are given priority with all other entities either pushed to the bottom of the display (or hidden). Also, the PDA stylesheet should allow text to flow and wrap according to the screen size of the device and so I've removed any constraints on the width of the content area. Such constraints made aesthetic sense for a desktop/laptop, but became a problem in a PDA.
I've also created a much smaller Auricle graphic for the PDA style since the previous version took up much too much real estate in a small device.
I've eschewed trying to autodetect what type of device is connecting to Auricle (non geeks should hide their eyes for a second 🙂 …. using say HTTP_USER_AGENT to identify say a 'Windows CE' device … ok, you can open your eyes now. There are just so many different type of PDA and other mobile devices out there that I thought I would keep my world simple for the moment. If all mobile devices would identify themselves with, say, a 'small device' identity then that might help. Even if that was the case this solution is far from perfect because one device may be like the Dell Axim X50 and have a 640×480 VGA resolution (which was the standard on desktop machines not so long ago) and another may have a 1 inch postage stamp of a display. So for now, switching style sheets is a manual process based on what the users see when they first enter Auricle. To help switching to an appropriate style sheet I've put style switch links at the top of Auricle so that PDA users can at least have a fighting chance of viewing something useful.
I'm also experimenting with hiding Auricle entities when a user chooses the PDA style. At the moment only the 'Syndicated Sites' drop down menus and display pane have been given this treatment, i.e users choosing the PDA style don't even see them.
I know there's a lot more I can do to improve things, but this is new territory for us and it will take us some time to get up to speed. So our humble adjustments to Auricle are a start, not an end point.
One thing is for sure, we are just seeing the start of a portable device revolution which is going to have a major impact on what is possible and how institutions respond. For example have a look at the new PalmOne Lifedrive which like the Dell Axim has a relatively large display for a PDA, but also has a 4GB hard drive (a la iPod).
Like many HEI's my own instiution is now facing the, sometimes uncomfortable, reality that personal and sometimes highly mobile devices are with us. We have many thousands of such users on a typical campus, but, yet, most policies are still geared to fixed computing assets which the institution provides. But this comfortable certainty is destined for the technological dustbin. Small personal internet connectable devices now mean that more people will own or carry one just because its so easy and what's more they'll expect to use their device when they get to wherever they are going.
So what's the instiutional policies to be when users from different countries and cultures turn up with a variety of wireless capable devices of varying sizes, varying operating systems, in varying languages? How do you support say a device with, say, a Chinese or Russian variant of an operating system?
Ban them? Ignore them? Allow them, but only support a subset of them?
On a related matter is the experience of my colleague Brian Kelly from UKOLN who has just returned from WWW2005 in Japan where the W3C's Mobile Web Initiative was announced. Although a WiFi network was available at the conference and there was free broadband access in his hotel, delegates were expected to bring their own networked device - there were no PCs provided at the conference. As he suggests: “Perhaps an indication of a changing environment.”
Could we be looking to a medium term future where, apart from very specialist needs, that universities concentrate on providing a secure, but usable and widespread networking infrastucture, but begin to move away from providing banks of standard institutional desktop PCs in library and learning centres (or their equivalent)? Could the money so saved could then be redirected to support?
Wannabe small display device gods will also find a useful overview of the issues and some really helpful information at the css-discuss Wiki Handheld Stylesheets site. Alternatively, pop over to the End All Guide to Small Screen Web Dev.
