yep, plenty of division ;-) ...but while Sheldon is correct that responsive design can cater quite well to the most popular mobile devices, there are still a heap out there that don't recognise media queries or any of the other building blocks of responsive design. In some parts of the world these more basic handests dominate internet traffic. If you're targeting the affluent, western middle class, then you'll probably do alright, but there are plenty of countries where more basic handsets still reign.
Your specific question, however, was about Accessibility and Standards. While Standards can be perfectly catered for by a responsive design, I'm not so sure about Accessibility. Certainly, the technical aspects of Accessibility can, but there's a wooly area of Accessibility regarding perceivability that sites can run foul of if the text and interactions aren't built specifically for mobile. The most common problem is simply too much text, but there are also issues around context and mobility that can be better catered for by a specifically designed mobile site. Probably the best example of this is a bank or an airline - it's well worth creating a specific site in their case, because a 'mobile' user quite likely has different needs and priorities to the desktop user. It's been said before, but it's more relevant than ever: Know your audience. It's definitely not for everyone, but if your audience is large, and your content complex, I think it's worth taking a tiered approach - a small, dedicated mobile site for the top handful of suitable interactions; responsive design for the vast majority of adaptable content; alternative fallback versions for 'difficult' content. In fact, there's a tier above the dedicated site - the stand alone app - but that's another argument altogether :-) And while I've been rabbiting on writing this email Enid has come back and made a similar point far more economically than I. -- Andrew Harris and...@woowoowoo.com http://www.woowoowoo.com ~~~ <*))))>< ~~~ On 16 May 2012 13:12, Doc2626 <dcamp2...@hotmail.com> wrote: > Grant, I think it's likely that you'll find a lot of division on this > question. But I'll go ahead and offer my own opinion. > > I think it's an unnecessary expense and expenditure of energy to build a > redundant site simply to suit mobile devices. There is a very workable > solution using HTML5+CSS3, where a single site design can display quite > satisfactorily on anything down to a 320px iPhone. Accessibility and > usability needn't suffer in the process. If properly implemented, the user > experience can maintain quality across all platforms. > > Additionally, if you're not enthusiastic about HTML5+CSS3, you can > accomplish the same thing using XHTML+RDFa. In fact, since RDFa presently > enjoys a bit more adoption than HTML5, the SEO benefits can be even greater. > > If you're interested, I recently posted a very brief explanation of the > HTML5+CSS3 technique and will soon be posting a similar item on the RDFa > option. > > Sheldon Campbell > > From: grant_malcolm_bai...@westnet.com.au > Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 7:43 PM > To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org > Subject: [WSG] Mobile sites > > Hello, > > I was wondering whether having a dedicated mobile site represents an > improvement with regard to accessibility and standards, or whether it is > acceptable to have a single site that is adaptable to different screen > widths (e.g. by means of CSS media queries). Of course, setting up a > separate mobile site requires additional work and therefore expense. > > I would be grateful for comments. > > Thank you and regards, > > Grant Bailey > ******************************************************************* > List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm > Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm > Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org > ******************************************************************* > > ******************************************************************* > List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm > Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm > Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org > ******************************************************************* ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org *******************************************************************
