Forums.ni.com site designed for the mobile user

[RayFarmer]

Isn't it time there was a mobile site designed for the mobile device user wanting to catch up on discussions. While you can view the site on mobile devices, navigating around can be quite a chore. With the normal site there is too much information on the screen at any one time and having to zoom in and scroll about from left to right to read a message is a bit of a headache.

[Cory_K]

I agree, this would be very useful.

Other sites seem to have a www.website.com (for normal use) and m.website.com (for mobile use).

Maybe there could be a m.forums.ni.com

*Edit: website (dot) com is not a real website, I was giving an example. I apoligize if your browser tries to convert it to a hyperlink.

[LV_Pro]

Actually it is a real website. Just not one most of us are interested in while in Ni.com

[SteveChandler]

So I go to the feedback forum to write a post saying that the NI forums should be nicer for mobile users. What's the first thing I see?

The Lava site looks awesome on my Adnroid phone.

[RayFarmer]

Steve,

Just had a look at that site on my android phone and I have to agree with you, that's the sort of style this site needs when viewed on a mobile.

[Laura F.]

Hi everyone,

It's good to know that you would like to see the forums optimized for mobile use. It's very hard to tell from my side if that would be useful since we are such a technical community.  Do you see yourselves posting from your mobile device? Just browsing? Voting on ideas? I'm curious how you would like to use the forums when on the go!

Thanks,

Laura

[Cory_K]

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@Laura F. wrote:

Hi everyone,

It's good to know that you would like to see the forums optimized for mobile use. It's very hard to tell from my side if that would be useful since we are such a technical community.  Do you see yourselves posting from your mobile device? Just browsing? Voting on ideas? I'm curious how you would like to use the forums when on the go!

Thanks,

Laura

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I would (and already do ) read and post on the forums from my Droid and iPod touch.

Obviously, I can't post snippets (yet), but it would be a lot easier to at least have some better mobile read/write capability.

[altenbach]

"Mobile optimized" sites will probably soon be a thing of the past. They were made to avoid problems with ultra tiny screens and very slow connections (remember GPRS?).

A typical mobile device now runs on 3G or even 4D and the screens are sometimes 800x640 or higher.

My android G1 phone is over 2 years old, and I still typically prefer the full site. I'll probably upgrade in a few weeks and will at least double the screen resolution. I'll stick with the regular site.

(One problem is the placement of the new kudos gadgets. It is impossible to see them at the same time with the post author, thus creating significant confusion to figure out what belongs to where ... ).

[SteveChandler]

I don't know. I mean the resolution of mobile devices continues to get better but the screens are still physically small. I have a Samsung Galaxy-S and the full site is useless until I zoom in. Maybe it is my eyes.

As for how I would be using a mobile site it is just browsing and reading discussions. Maybe handing out some candy kudos here and there.

[Darin.K]

iPad is nearly fully functional for the websites outside of the annoying reliance on Flash for the Rich text box.  iPhone is mostly for browsing and quick replies.

Mobile optimized sites may become obsolete, but mobile-friendly sites are not going anywhere.  I don't think we need a new site for mobile devices, just a few tweaks that would greatly benefit the mobile user.  1) The old forums had the option to put Leaderboards, etc. on the bottom.  This gave a full column width for thread titles which was acceptable on the iPhone.  Now with the widgets stuck on the side and the white space, thread titles get less than 25% of the screen width so they are endlessly word-wrapped on the iPhone now.  2) Put the Kudos button back (heard that one before).  Now when I zoom on the message column there is no user info, so there is a lot of zigging and zagging that I did not have to do before.

If Lithium has their act together, it should be relatively easy to have a very usable mobile site.  If not, probably not worth the effort to do more than the basic tweaks to improve the existing site.