Question for Those of You Wwho Use Mobile Web Devices (iPhones, Smart Phones, etc.)

[Exian]

I think the "rate user" on the desktop version of AF has one now. But that's not the mobile version, so maybe that's a bad example.

[Jackalope]

I think the "rate user" on the desktop version of AF has one now. But that's not the mobile version, so maybe that's a bad example.

Yeah, that's not the kind of thing I was referring to - because that happens as an expected direct consequence of a user action. What I'm talking about is the kind of shit like "Hey we see you're logging in from a mobile device, tap here to download our stupid fucking app that's just a wrapper for our mobile site!" that pops up because reasons.

[Dystopia]

Smartphone. Any is ok but single column is slightly better.

[Exian]

I think the "rate user" on the desktop version of AF has one now. But that's not the mobile version, so maybe that's a bad example.

Yeah, that's not the kind of thing I was referring to - because that happens as an expected direct consequence of a user action. What I'm talking about is the kind of shit like "Hey we see you're logging in from a mobile device, tap here to download our stupid fucking app that's just a wrapper for our mobile site!" that pops up because reasons.

Oh, yeah, those are a pain in the ass, too. I wouldn't mind the pop-up fields so much, since like you said they are a direct result of user actions, but the always function oddly. Sometimes zooming in on them causes them to jump off screen like they're center justified or some such thing. I'd much rather be sent to a new page with a field set on the page.

[Jackalope]

Yeah, that's not the kind of thing I was referring to - because that happens as an expected direct consequence of a user action.  What I'm talking about is the kind of shit like "Hey we see you're logging in from a mobile device, tap here to download our stupid fucking app that's just a wrapper for our mobile site!" that pops up because reasons.

Oh, yeah, those are a pain in the ass, too. I wouldn't mind the pop-up fields so much, since like you said they are a direct result of user actions, but the always function oddly. Sometimes zooming in on them causes them to jump off screen like they're center justified or some such thing. I'd much rather be sent to a new page with a field set on the page.

Yeah, I don't mind those, when I've made a conscious choice to use the desktop skin instead of the mobile (like I do here). In a mobile version, that's unacceptable.

[Aoi Magi]

you gotta design for the device. On a smartphone, go for one-column and burger-menus, on a tablet, in portrait mode stick to one-column but you can be a bit fancy with the menu, in landscape mode use two columns and bring the navigation to the side, but make it collapsible.

[bennyboy]

I design websites and I want to optimize them for UXD (User Experience Design) but I'm getting conflicting advice from online tutorials, so I thought I'd ask people who actually use these devices what they like better.

Specifically, I'd like to know do you prefer a multi column (2 or 3) page with minimal scrolling or a single column page where you have to scroll a lot?

When responding, please indicate which device you use.

Thanks.

The short answer is never use multiple columns for mobile devices, because they have small screens anyway, and some content will be unreadable on a narrow column.

The long answer is you're the designer, so you have to design the UI based on your own instinct and your customer's priorities.  A forum with several posts each a couple hundred words each will be total shit in multi-column; if you've ever used the mobile version of AF, you'll immediately know that.  A picture (read: porn) site with all the thumbnails arranged vertically would also be total shit (in my opinion at least). Nobody wants to scroll for 5 minutes to find the image they're looking for.

So unless you want to tell us exactly what kind of website you're designing, the answer is "1 column. . . unless 2 or 3 is better." Which you knew since it's your question.

[Rhondazvous]

How do I get to AF's mobile version? I don't see a link to it. That would help me a lot if I could see shat they did.

The kind of drop-down navigation menu I'm thinking about is just a straight horizontal menu and when you click on one of the items other options drop down to be clicked but if you move your mouse away they disappear.

Rest assured I won't add any pop ups. Are you using Firefox? I remember they put ads on pages that weren't put there by the designer.

Right now I am preparing the new issue for the Spoken Word poetry journal that I put out quarterly. It's desktop version is a 3-column affair. I can put a link at the top to a single-column version. I won't have time to do that for the whole site but for the current issue and maybe the three previous issues.

[KUSA]

Why not use Tapatalk?

[bennyboy]

How do I get to AF's mobile version?

Use a mobile device to view it.

-edit-
I often thing about the best way to do mobile. Here's what I'd say-- since people are already using a mobile design, why not design your page to LOOK like a mobile homepage? You can put the traditional 3-bar "This is a mobile menu" icon on the header of your page, and a click on it can bring up a complete layover screen with a series of app-looking icons which link to whatever page you want. Then you can just use floating divs, scaled to a sensible % using media query in your CSS, to present your icons.

Just an idea.