Unless you live in a cave you have probably noticed the explosive growth in the use of Smartphones and other mobile devices that can be used to browse the web. If you missed our post on Smartphone growth you can see some statistics here http://saturnoblog.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/law-firms-need-to-go-mobile/
Most law firms are far from ready to serve their website visitors who are using Smartphones. Most law firms have ignored and continue to ignore this large and growing audience. If you work for one of these firms, and you find that you are behind the curve, there are a few things you might try.
1)Test it First, Tweak it a Little
Get out your Blackberry, borrow your co-worker's iPhone, and steal your teenager's MyTouch. Start browsing your website using whatever devices you can get your hands on. I'm guessing just about everyone you know has a newer mobile phone. Grab them and start testing. You may find that your website works relatively well on most Smartphones already.
New Smartphones try to navigate all websites as best they can and there is a good chance your website is already fairly usable on these new Smartphones. However, unless you have already built a mobile-friendly version of the website (specifically optimized for mobile devices), you will probably find some minor annoyances when trying to navigate your website on a Smartphone. These issues often include main navigation functionality, drop-down navigation menus, popup windows, or forms like Contact or Search.
There are some relatively simple and low cost ways to tweak websites and alleviate some of these problems. Talk to your developer and describe the issues. Ask them what minor modifications they can pursue to make these parts of the website easier to use on a mobile device. Small changes can make a big difference for the mobile phone user.
2) Go Text Only
Text-only websites are exactly what they sound like โ websites without images. These sites are not snazzy or exciting, but are definitely usable on mobile devices.
Text-only sites are offered in addition to your main law firm website (not instead of.) They are a good option if you find that your current website is completely unusable on mobile phones and you don't have the resources to make radical changes.
Adding a text-only version of your website is fairly simple as long as your website is database-driven, as most law firm websites are. Building a text only website involves either making changes to your global website style sheets (files that control design and formatting), or creating alternate sets of templates that would be used only to serve mobile devices.
A text only version is not the best presentation for today's Smartphones, but definitely offers a reasonable presentation for the Smartphone user. It's a good option when budgets are tight.
3) Use External Tools
If you find your website is not usable on mobile phones, and you don't have the resources to change it, you may look to Google to help you. Google offers a mobile web page view that strips out much of the HTML and design elements on a website and formats pages to display reasonably well on most mobile phone browsers. There is also an option to remove all images during browsing. There is nothing to install or upgrade, and only one small thing you need to add to your website.
With a small bit of extra code on your website you can re-direct mobile phone visitors to the Google mobile version of your site. It's not pretty, but it works and is free. To view the Saturno website using Google's mobile viewer with all images stripped out, go here http://www.google.com/gwt/x?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsaturnodesign.com&noimg=1&btnGo=Go&source=wax&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
You Can't Hide Forever
While these tools and suggestions may get you by in the near term, in the long term they are not the best solutions. Smartphones are quickly becoming an everyday part of life. Many companies understand this fact and are making great progress in offering excellent website design, interface, and Smartphone-optimized websites to serve this huge and ever-growing segment of the population. These phone users are expecting more from the web all the time โ better, easier, more usable websites.
It takes planning and care to make a website that is truly usable and optimized for Smartphones and other mobile devices. Plan for it.
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