I don’t think that I’m going out on a limb when I say that “Mobile” is the next big thing.  In fact, I can see the bandwagon coming down the road right now, it’s about time to grab my bag and hop on.

I’ve been a minimalist when it comes to mobile connectivity for the longest time.  I just got my first smart phone, and my previous cell phones have been just that … for voice communication only.  Maybe I liked my freedom, maybe I was focused on other things, I don’t know.  I sort-of knew that this day would come, and for me it was when a fully functioning device could be purchased for the mid $200 range.

Samsung Caliber on MetroPCS
I got a Samsung Caliber on the MetroPCS system a few weeks ago and I’m fairly pleased.  It allows me to make phone calls and get email; I keep and synch all of my contacts and have notes and events on here; it’s got a 3.2 megapixel camera and does pretty good video too.  Also, the GPS system is pretty robust with traffic monitoring, which has already helped me out quite a bit and I’ve actually found better routes to get to work on at least a dozen occasions, which is worth the price of admission for me.

However, it also allows me to surf the web on a full HTML 3.2″ touch screen.  Two problems with this.  1) MetroPCS is very slow – my neighbor used for work for them and said that it will get better by the end of the summer, but they’re running behind.  2) Surfing on pages that are not optimized for small screens is a major headache.  The system tries to display the entire width of a standard website (which have consistently gotten bigger and bigger over the years as home monitors have gotten bigger with better resolution).  Unless the page is optimized for a mobile device this it’s utterly unreadable and the user is forced to zoon and pan.  Not a good user experience.

A little history of web design for different screen sizes
When I started designing website full-time, back in about 2001 or so, no one had a flat panel monitor.  It was all CRTs and everyone wanted a something bigger.  The majority resolution was just coming out of 800×600 and I remember going to work for a firm in 2003 and they orderd me a 24″ CRT that came in looking like a massive waste of desk space.  I could hear the desk groan as I plopped it down.  Each and every year, LCD screens have gotten more common until around 2008 or 2009 you could not even find one for sale anymore.

Becuase of the nature of LCD screens, we’ve jumped up from 72 dots-per-inch (dpi) to about 96 dpi a few years ago and most monitors today should be able to display 120 dpi (a printed piece of paper for comparison is about 300 dpi and a good color photo is about 600 dpi).  So back then, we designed for 800×600 resolution with graphics at 72 dpi. 

Today, I plan on 1000 pixel wide for my standard design.  We used to get around all of the different screen sizes by allowing for fluid width (100% of your screen, whatever the resolution), but now the super large widescreen monitors have made this practice also unpredictable.  (I’m on a 1920×1040 display now on a 25″ TV that doubles as a monitor… fluid for me would cause me to turn my neck).

Somewhere in the middle of today and 2001 web design had a serious problem.  How do you design sites for older monitors and also for the new stuff as well?  It was a challenge that led to a lot of narrow fixed-width design (some good, some not so good) and a lot of compromise.

Mobile for GM Truck Club website
So where does this all lead?  I’ve launched a beta Mobile site for GMTruckClub.com and it solves a lof ot the problems that I face on the Caliber.  However, MANY of the regular community members cried out that the mobile platform didn’t work for their device!  Argh, we’re back to 2005 again when we’ve got to design for different sizes screens.  We’ve got large widescreen displays, laptop access, large mobile screens and smaller mobile screens to deal with all at the same time.

Well, I have a feeling that things will start to standardize over the next couple of years.  I’ll keep working on this and will try to get more feedback from visitors and members.  It’s not rocket science, but just something that designers and web marketers need to be aware of.  Things keep changing – be ready for anything.