Dev Roundup

– Ein interessantes Interview mit Luca Passani dem Entwickler hinter wurfl, der freien Endgeräte Datenbank:
auf mobileopen.org

– Dev Tips zu mobilen Widgets oder generell mobilen Websites von Opara:

GENERAL

– Keep the user interface simple

– Keep the technical solution simple

NETWORK

– Optimize client/server network communication

– Minimize amount of data transferred
– prefer JSON over XML

– Batch requests to the server, use HTTP pipelining

– Let the server return HTTP 304 when data has not been updated on
server

DOM AND DATASTRUCTURES

– Keep your DOM short, simple and shallow

– Store data in Javascript variables and create DOM elements only for
the current view.

– Avoid hiding large number of elements with CSS display: none;
instead remove the elements from the DOM and store data in
Javascript variables

PAGE LAYOUT

– Avoid reflows. Examples of things that may cause reflows:

– Change of class names

– Change of element dimensions and positions

– Insertions of elements into the DOM; insert completed
document fragments; don’t add element by element

USEABILITY

– Follow the steps of user centered design:

– Understand the needs of your users

– Understand the environment where the widget will be used
– device characteristics
– context where the widget will be used, e.g. mobility, light,
attention

– Create scenarios and use-cases

– Wireframes, prototype and test

– Inputing data on mobile devices is generally difficult, let the user
make selections instead of typing

– Desktop services to be presented as mobile widgets must be
redesigned to work

– Use CSS style sheets to adapt the visual presentation of the widget
for devices with different characteristics