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iPhone-specific pages are a bad idea

Fred Oliveira on August 28, 2007

Remember the old days when we were promised jetpacks, flying skateboards and the mobile web? Well we still haven’t got the Back to the Future gear but some would argue that devices like the iPhone do bring us closer to the internet, anywhere.

The iPhone gives you the best experience browsing the web on a mobile phone although contrarily to what some people seem to believe, that’s because it doesn’t need iPhone-specific pages to feel right. Apple did a terrific job at crafting a device that gives you the web (as it is today) in your hands. And that takes me to my main point: which is that designing pages exclusively for the iPhone is a dumb idea.

Dumb? But it’s the iPhone!

Here’s a hypothesis: Google launches their own mobile device, say, tomorrow - and it’s so beautiful you need to have it. In fact, it’s so amazing you’ll be throwing that iPhone out the window. Suddenly you get it, all those iPhone-crafted pages are suddenly useless, because they are built specifically with one device in mind.

The mobile web never really took up because designers tend to design for what’s closest to their hearts - and right now that’s the glassy phone with the Apple logo. As most people will tell you, being “closed” is a lousy way to get wide adoption - and this is just about as closed as you can get. Think about it, you’re designing pages specifically for a $599 device and expect huge visits? Oh, come on.

Design for the experience, not the device

A better idea is to design for an experience, not a specific device like the iPhone. Just like you design for desktop browsers by assessing constraints (like window size) and building an experience based on those constraints, why not do it for mobile devices in general? Truth is carefully crafted pages can actually display perfectly both on the desktop and the mobile web (iPhone or not).

The iPhone actually goes a very long way in making sure pages today work great. Instead of building a page specifically for the phone, why not one that gracefully scales to fit the device’s screen? It guarantees you’re not spending resources building for a specific device and effectively means you can focus on building one experience that’s maintained across all platforms. Give it a try.

PS: Have you also noticed how most of these iPhone-specific pages are trying hard to mimic Apple’s design too? Sacrificing resources and a brand just to make something blend in on one device is a lot worse than spending those resources on maintaining quality across the board.

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Comments on this post

José Brito

Hi,

can you give some examples of iPhone-specific websites?

Thanks!

Ryan Parman

On one level, I’d have to agree with you. On another level, not so much.

I’ve been a web designer/developer for 10 years, and I’ve seen everything from the Netscape-only pages, to the IE-only pages, to the Firefox-only pages, to the iPhone-only pages. Tons of development goes into these such-and-such-only websites that once that browser (or device) is no longer the only worthwhile thing out there, then these websites find themselves in trouble. If I’ve understood this post correctly, this is your major issue with iPhone-specific sites/pages.

However, there’s something else called “Progressive Enhancement” which can be applied to the iPhone. PE is where you build websites that can function on older browsers, but look and work much better on newer ones. This same concept can also be applied to UI design where you have a single app, but you can make special tweaks or modifications for certain browsers (or devices) that can handle a little more.

For example, SimpleReader Mobile is a web-based RSS/Atom feed reader geared for mobile devices. We use CSS to enhance the look and feel for CSS-aware devices, but even then we still do a *small* amount of user agent sniffing so that we can ensure that we give the identifiable devices the optimal font size, spacing, etc. (much like we all do with IE-specific CSS hacks). The base functionality is the same for Blackberry, Palm, Windows Mobile, PSP, Playstation 3, iPhone, and others, but they don’t all look the same, and the iPhone version definitely doesn’t feel the same as the Blackberry version because the devices are different, and we wanted to ensure that the app feels right for the device that it’s on.

Just something to keep in mind. :)

Hans Omli

I couldn’t agree more that “designing pages exclusively for the iPhone is a dumb idea”. However, I’m not sure iPhone fits in the category of “mobile devices in general” though.

iPhone is a display-centric device that uses touch as the interaction model. On the other hand, a Blackberry is arguably more input-centric whereas a “basic” cell phone is essentially a cordless phone with (relatively) limited display or input ability.

While impractical to design specifically for each and every device, as product designers we have responsibility to offer experiences acceptable to the different interaction models of our users. Just as a video game designer may incorporate motion deeply into a Wii version of a video game, a web designer can incorporate touch deeply into an interface that is appropriate for both the iPhone and other “touch” devices where qwerty input is less optimal (e.g. Opera on the Wii).

allan branch

Mobile business expense tracking for http://www.LessAccounting.com will be optimized for the iphone. Its just a faster to load/minimal view of the normal page. We use the same html just flip css sheets.

André

Allan, I’m sorry to disappoint you but switching css sheets aren’t going to make the experience excellent… specially since that solution will force the browser to download the markup anyways. And on handheld devices, even on wifi, that can kill the experience right from the start.

Anyway, I agree with Fred. Designing for a specific device was, is and will ever be dumb. Specially on such a diverse market as the mobile browsers. Those webapps that came out all in one week (facebook, netvibes) were indeed enchanced for the iPhone, although, they worked fairly well on other handheld devices. I tested those on my Nokia 6630 with Opera Mini and I can tell you it wasn’t as pleasant as using it on the iPhone (i guess) but it worked. So, kudos to them.

I guess this is nothing more than a fad, or a marketing move. Making an iPhone version of your website sounds cooler to the average joe than making a mobile version, doesn’t it? (to me it doesn’t, but that’s besides the point)

Make your mobile webapps work on a variety of phones. And please, please, if you _HAVE_ to go with javascript at least use it unobtrusively… mobile scripting support is very very scarce at the moment. So if you’re going to do it, do it right and don’t alienate the majority of the market.

Kenan Banks

To me, it’s no dumber than worrying about Safari compatibility. To the “pragmatic” programmer, it’s a ridiculous waste of time to spend much time at all for 2% of your users, especially when you know they may well ALSO have Firefox.

But a lot of people worry about Safari anyway. Why? Well there are two reasons

First reason is that you’re a gigantic company like Google, and you expect XX million people to hit your app, and discounting XXX hundred thousand is unacceptable.

Second reason is that you trade somewhat on your app’s “coolness”, and Safari users are disproportionately cool and vocal. Safari users are more likely to try you out and talk about you if you’re cool.

Now replace “Safari” with “iPhone”.

There’s pretty much nothing you can buy today that gets you more geek cred than the iPhone. Designing an iPhone-specific page makes you kinda cool by corollary.

Yes I have an iPhone. And I admit to visiting iphone.facebook.com fairly regularly.

kevin

Interesting points all around. Most of them however are very technical in nature and ignore whether or not it is smart marketing. In some cases an iPhone specific site could be the entirely wrong idea and a waste of resources. However, if your target audience embraces the Apple brand association, has a large enough population of iPhone users and the iPhone supports interface functionality that would improve the usability of application, then there may be a case for one. I wouldn’t dismiss the entire idea at all.

Clark

Actually I think the apps and sites specifically designed for the iPhone, like Facebook and Dig, end up being far more usable, thereby providing a far better experience than the sites or apps that spawned them. They are uncluttered by advertising, task focused, and not over-designed like so many sites today.

Kenan Banks

Just a note: Steve Jobs visited the iPhone-specific Facebook site during his speech announcing the new iPods.

That alone was probably worth the development effort…

mcdave.net » links for 2007-09-15

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Ash Haque

$399 now :-)

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