Resources
Working in the mobile space is incredibly rewarding, but also challenging and sometimes frustrating. Perhaps that's to be expected given that mobile is still very much in its infancy.
Below are a few resources which we hope will be useful to our colleagues in the mobile industry in general, and to our user experience peers in particular.
Presentations & Lectures
- Android vs. iPhone (PDF download): Provides a head-to-head comparison of Android and the iPhone. The long and short of it is that they are remarkably similar in many ways. Together, these two next-generation mobile platforms are bringing the power of smartphones to the masses. Presented at the Mobile Mondays Chicago chapter meeting, April 27, 2009.
Articles, How To's, Tips & Tricks from Hand Interactive
- Best Practices in Mobile Web Site Access: There are a few best practices for naming directories and sub-domains so that your mobile users can guess the URL for your mobile-optimized web site.
- Detecting Mobile Devices Using PHP: Use PHP, a popular server scripting language, to detect whether your web site visitors are accessing content using nearly any mobile device.
- Detecting Mobile Devices Using Java: One of our readers ported the PHP code to Java. So if you use server-side Java, here is an excellent lightweight class for detecting mobile devices!
- Detecting Mobile Devices Using ASP.NET & C#: One of our readers ported the PHP code to ASP.NET & C#. So if your server uses the Microsoft technology, here is an excellent lightweight class for detecting mobile devices! New!
- Detecting Smartphones Using JavaScript: Use JavaScript to detect whether your web site visitors are accessing content using smartphones.
- Mobile Application Development Firms: A list of mobile application development firms, focusing on those with a presence in New England.
- How to take screen captures on mobile phones: A collection of software programs and secret commands
- Setting up an unlocked phone: When you buy the phone unlocked, you're also responsible for getting it to work on the network. Here are a few tips.
Mobile UI Style Guides
Please let us know if you find any style guides targeted to UI designers for the other major mobile platforms (esp. BREW, BlackBerry).
Additional Design Resources
- W3C Mobile Web Best Practices
- Mobile Advertising Best Practices
- Getting Started with Mobile Design (Forum Nokia)
- Usability & Design Resources (Forum Nokia)