Pocket-Sized Design

1233 Words3 Pages

Very few Web sites work on handheld devices without presenting problems to the users. However, people do browse the Web using handheld devices, so it's important that Web sites work on them. The Opera browser is designed to work on handheld devices. In Pocket-Sized Design, Elika Etemad and Jorunn D. Newth give details on creating a style sheet for handheld devices. The main constraint of a handheld device when browsing the Internet is its small screen, which may be only as wide as one hundred and twenty pixels, as well as a possible inability to scroll horizontally. Other constraints are different methods of input, limited memory, slow processors, and slow and expensive downloading. In order to meet the constraints of a small screen, coders and designers must scale down the sizes of aspects of their Web pages. To begin, for handheld devices, there should not be more than one column of text on the screen. This can be achieved by using CSS only to style one's Web site, instead of tables or frames for layout, because CSS has the potential to style the XHTML while it remains in a single column when viewed without CSS. That doesn't need to restrict design for people viewing the site on computer screens, because one can list a style sheet specifically for handheld devices, as well as other user agents, and leave the computer screen visitors with an elegant design in as many columns as are pleasing to both designer and user. Using pixels in styling for the handheld is not recommended either, because even a few pixels can take up a great deal of space on a device that is, for instance, one hundred and twenty pixels wide. Instead of pixels, one should use ems or percentages, because both scale better. One should also use smaller margi... ... middle of paper ... ...e is styling it, then it's easy to change, which leaves more room to, for example, rework the layout for a handheld device. In order to tell a browser like Opera that a style sheet is available for it to use for handheld devices, the coder must specifically mark the style sheet as for handhelds. To do so, "handheld" must be specified as the media attribute, or must be included with an @media or @import rule. In order for a Web designer or coder to create a design for handheld devices, there are many rules one must follow. Making items smaller and more flexible are the first things a coder must do. These days, since more people browse the Web on handheld devices, it's increasingly important to design for those devices, as well as for the computer screen. Works Cited Pocket-Sized Design: Taking Your Website to the Small Screen: http://alistapart.com/articles/pocket

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