Re^2: RFC: Browsing PerlMonks on the iPhone

[kimmel]

Why are you targeting phones for your first test cases of a PM redesign?
What data and/or member feedback indicates a desire for a PM mobile redesign?
Are you intending on presenting desktop solutions for Firefox/Chrome?

When I first posted PerlMonks site design I listed my intent in a few clear points (emphasis added)

1. Tableless layout
2. Responsive on cellphones and other small screen devices.
3. Less visual clutter

I am not changing the color scheme or the layout so it looks the same as it does now.

So to answer you questions the desktop version of the site looks just like it does now and the mobile experience gets a face lift. Mobile is the fastest growing segment of the browsing market and they already sell more smart phones than desktop pcs. According to some reports the percentage of worldwide traffice done on mobile devices current sits at 10%. Now looking at the feedback I have received so far and doing some background searching of PM the most common thing I hear is "I do not use PM on a mobile device, therefore a mobile site is not needed" which is just anecdotal evidence and wrong. Ignoring the importance of the growing mobile market and its users is like saying "This Internet thing is just a fad" back in the 1990s. If the potential for 1 out of 10 users is on a mobile device then why shouldn't we support a new mobile experience?

Assuming a positive response to your redesign, what is the roadmap to implementation?
Is there going to be any HTML/CSS with these designs you are presenting or will it be left up to others in PMDev to translate the images to markup?

As I finish parts of the design I am updating my PerlMonks redesign github repo. I already have HTML, CSS, Javascript and screenshots uploaded. I have not asked or implied that the pmdevs or the gods build this design for me. If they are willing I will do all the code editing myself.

I'm still not sure attacking this redesign on phones is going to be very fruitful. Even if this /was/ something monks were strongly in favor of, you may want to show a few more phone resolutions for the Android.

To address the need of phone users I will just point out the reoccurring talk about Perlmonks SmartPhone App and perlmonks iphone app as well as others that can be found via super search. This is a responsive, mobile first design. Meaning it looks the same on mobile devices under 600px wide resolutions.

[bitingduck]

I use my iPhone a lot for browsing, nav, various apps, plus the usual email and things, and occasionally make phone calls with it. I don't read PM on it. The main reason for that is that it doesn't run Perl, and Apple won't let you make apps that run code. I mostly read PM when I'm in front of a regular computer with a real display and keyboard.

I will admit to reading technical docs on it reasonably often, and even learned how to make Wordpress widgets while sitting in a club in LA waiting for a band to come on. It's good for reading static docs like that, but PM tends to depend more on the ability to do some coding on the fly while reading it (which is possible, though inconvenient, using a terminal app). The iPad (just got one, as I got pulled into ebook publishing) is sort of more convenient for reading docs, but it suffers the same walled garden problem-- it's basically just a big iPhone that doesn't make phone calls and won't run arbitrary code.

If it exists though, I'll probably end up using it. It would be useful if it's flexible enough to display reasonably on an e-reader. I can imagine wanting to read something on PM and using a kindle for it, just to have the extra screen real estate.