HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
14.2. Device Considerations
When designing content for mobile devices, the developer needs to keep
many design constraints in mind. If the developer neglects any one of
them, the resulting web pages will be difficult if not impossible to use
on the mobile web. We suggest that the successful mobile web designer
always keep browser, input, network, and display constraints in mind to
keep from getting in a bind.
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The astute reader will note that "browser, input, network, and display" from the clever and helpful ac-
ronym BIND.
14.2.1. Browser Constraints
Browser variations present the biggest challenge to the mobile web con-
tent designer. Limited by the host device, mobile browsers cannot sup-
port the full range of tags available in a conventional desktop browser.
For those tags that are supported, implementation is not consistent
across a range of mobile devices. As a result, designers need to carefully
consider which tags they will use in their content and often have to sacri-
fice more complicated page designs in favor of simpler pages that display
correctly on a larger number of devices.
Beyond tag availability, mobile browsers may or may not support script-
ing, stylesheets, frames, embedded objects, layers, cookies, and other
support structures within the page content. Even widely supported
<meta>
tags, such as
refresh
tags, may not be supported. In general, cautious
designers will avoid any of these elements in their content. While the res-
ulting content will certainly be simpler, it is guaranteed to be viewable
on many devices. Unlike desktop browsers that try to muddle through
when presented with unsupported tags, many mobile browsers just give
up when confronted with complex content. More than anything else, mo-
bile web designers do not want attempts to access their content to result
in a "page not viewable" error within the browser.
Even when the content sticks to the "safe" tags, as described later in this
chapter, the results are unpredictable among different browsers. There
