Mobile Web Design and Development Resources

Vero over at the Taptu Blog has put together a collection of 20 great resources for designers and developers interested in the Mobile Web. The resources are split into Designing, Developing, Testing and Promoting so every angle has been covered and there are some very useful links on there.

I’ve covered Mobile Web Testing pretty comprehensively in the past so I thought I’d throw a few Design and Developing resources of my own into the mix. These are just random links I’ve bookmarked in the past while researching various browser issues most of which should be useful to developers who are both new to mobile Web development and those who are already old-hands at it (though I imagine the latter will already have these pages bookmarked).

Nokia Web Browser Design Guide - A series of 5 articles on Forum Nokia about the OSS Browser that is available on millions of S60 devices worldwide. A great way to get an introduction to how to cater for one of the most popular mobile browsers out there.

Mobile Web Development on MSDN - A library of Documentation, Webcasts and Technical Articles related to developing Mobile Web Services for Windows Mobile devices hosted at the Microsoft Developer Network website.

Blackberry Browser: Content Developer Guide - A guide to optimising your Mobile Web service for use on Blackberry devices. The Blackberry Browser is notoriously fussy, especially when it comes to CSS, so this is an essential starting point of you want to target Blackberries. (Warning: PDF Link)

Safari Web Content Guide for iPhone - An introduction to creating Mobile Web Content for the Apple iPhone (and in turn the iPod Touch). Follow up with the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines for Web Applications document to ensure you’re providing the best user-experience to iPhone and iPod Touch users.

Little Springs Design Resources - A collection of resources compiled by the folks at Little Springs Design. These include Design Guides, Books and Articles. The Little Springs Design Blog is always an interesting read as well so add it to your RSS Reader.

Designing For Mobile: Bringing Design Down To Size - Written by Brian Fling of Blue Flavor, this is one of the first independent guides to Mobile Web Design that I read. It’s a bit US-Centric and perhaps a little out of date now but a lot of the content is still relevant and is a good first step into the world of Mobile Web Design.

The above is by no means a “best of” list and there is far more out there for Mobile Web developers. Hopefully this will at least give you a good start. You may also want to join some of the Mobile Web mailing groups that are out there once you’ve started a project or if you just have a keen interest. The WML Programming Group (Don’t worry it has almost nothing to do with WML) is primarily for WURFL users but the discussion is very diverse and covers all things related to Mobile Web Development. The Mobile Design Community Group is also a great place to discuss all things related to Mobile Web. Hope to catch you on their mailing lists.