Comments on: iPhone-specific pages are a bad idea

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Mon, 01 Oct 2007 10:03:11 +0000

[...] Webreakstuff » iPhone-specific pages are a bad idea [...]

By: Ash Haque

Ash Haque — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 23:46:36 +0000

$399 now :-)

By: mcdave.net » links for 2007-09-15

mcdave.net » links for 2007-09-15 — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 06:26:47 +0000

[...] Webreakstuff Ã‚Â» iPhone-specific pages are a bad idea Design for the experience, not the device (tags: iphone design web) [...]

By: Kenan Banks

Kenan Banks — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 19:27:50 +0000

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…

By: Clark

Clark — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:50:46 +0000

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.

By: kevin

kevin — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 19:19:54 +0000

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.

By: Kenan Banks

Kenan Banks — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:11:00 +0000

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.

By: AndrÃƒÂ©

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.

By: allan branch

allan branch — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 13:52:27 +0000

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.

By: Hans Omli

Hans Omli — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:48:26 +0000

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).