iPhone optimised site vs mobile optimised site

After an intensive product development session on the iPhone, I came away with an appreciation of just how different developing a mobi site optimized for iPhone can be. This means that for site owners, even having a mobile site is not sufficient if you want to target iPhone users. You really need to relook at your site to see if they have been properly optimised.

Here are some of the main points you should look out for:

Site layout
On the iPhone, web pages need wide spaces for your fingers to navigate. Not longer can you afford to place links close to one another because the probability of hitting the wrong link is very high. Compare this with a traditional mobile site, which has tons of links closely arrange to one another for ease of seeing and navigating. This difference alone means many sites are currently under optimised for iPhone.

Action specific links
iPhone is an tightly integrated mobile device. You should optimise the links so that they take advantage of this fact. For example, video links should point to videos that are viewable in the Youtube iPhone app. Simiarly, song links should point to songs that can be bought on iTunes. Traditional mobile sites doesn't have such considerations.

Make navigation fun
Traditional navigation method for a mobile device is through the control panel. It is basically a click and scroll model. Add to that the tiny screens and you can understand why many mobile sites are build for efficiencies in navigation. iPhone however has an unique element: fun! Using the touch screen, a user can scroll, swipe, poke, expand/contract etc. All these are new elements that can make navigation fun. Why not create a site that users enjoy navigating using different actions?


For all the readers out there who have experiences developing for the iPhone, what are some of your main takeovers in terms of lessons learned?

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