November 30, 2008

A few months back I was lucky enough to pick up a new iPhone 3G. Besides being a cool little gadget for checking mail, watching movies on the train and figuring out where I'm going using maps - it has profoundly changed the way I think about the Internet, building websites and how people are getting their information these days.

I have been making stuff for the web for 10 years and not much has changed during that time as far as how people interact with the Internet. You sat at a desk and used a mouse to click around a web page on a screen the size of a small TV that loads data through a phone or cable line. Now you have a miniature computer in your pocket that pulls data out of the sky and you use your fingers to manipulate objects on the screen. Pretty cool.

These days I find myself using my phone browser almost as much as my desktop one and I am learning more about the differences between the two, both good and bad. Of course one of the first things that came to mind was "Hey, let's make a version of Happenstand optimized for small displays and touch screens."

Since the site is already fairly minimal in design, it holds up pretty well as is in mobile browsers, but I decided to accept the challenge and take it as an opportunity to learn something new. After a few days of tinkering, I am happy to share with you the results that can be found here: m.happenstand.com

As usual, it's an experiment and a work in progress. This is definitely not intended for devices other than those with full browsers like the iPhone, iPod touch and Android-powered systems. You can't do everything here you can on the full site, but I included the things that I thought made sense in an "on-the-go" experience. I'm sure I will be tweaking things as I discover what I like, what I don't like, what I miss and what I don't need by using it more myself. Hopefully in an upcoming version of mobile Safari a web page can access the phone's location data - then we'll really have some exciting stuff to play with.

Tip: Don't forget, on the iPhone when viewing a page in Safari, you can hit the "+" button at the bottom of the screen and select "Add to Home Screen" to create a shortcut to the site directly from your phone's home screen.

If you have any thoughts or something's not working for you, shoot me a note using the contact form. Giddy up.

Posted by Lucas at 11:00am