Mobile web is the next thing

I have started to work on a mobile version of the gallery. It’s a project I’ve always wanted to do and I finaly take the step. Recoding an existing website to make it mobile friendly isn’t such a challenge as I though few month ago.

We’re not talking here about crapy wap 1.0 browser but full xHtml and CSS rendering engine that work kind of like their big browser but on a smaller screen. Of course there are a few things you also need to take into consideration but nothing should scare you.

And no it’s not just for iPhone. The apple phone was a precursor yes but tons of other mobile devices that don’t have the screen size of the iPhone or the G1 like my tiny Nokia 6500 Classic for example.

I see two different ways to make your website mobile friendly: build a new site from scratch optimised for mobile devices. In this case don’t forget the doctype:

Or use a special CSS and keep the same xhtml. Something like this should do:

The second option should only be used if you have a “simple” website, without to much xhtml, none or few images, small pages, etc… If that’s not the case build it from the ground up, it’s easier to maintain I think.