Build an Ecommerce Website for Mobile Devices
A great deal of ecommerce websites go live on the internet before they have the chance to create a style for their ecommerce website specifically formulated for handheld devices. If your ecommerce website falls into this category – it is OK, but you might need to create a separate style-sheet that accommodates much smaller screen resolutions. Take a look at your ecommerce website on a few different mobile devices and take notes. Ask yourself questions like:
1. If I was a potential customer would I be able to easily navigate this ecommerce website to find what I set out to look for?
2. How long does a web page design take to load?
3. Do images take up too much room when viewing the ecommerce website?
4. Does the ecommerce website page layout make sense?
If you are satisfied with the answers you address in relation to these questions then creating a specialized stylesheet to accommodate hand-held devices is not a major priority. However, if you are pleased with how your ecommerce website looks, how long it takes to load, or the organization of content then you will need to style it differently, than the default style.
Before you go ahead and create a separate CSS style-sheet for your ecommerce website for when it is displayed on a handheld device it is important to understand the styling opportunities and constraints of styling for mobile devices. A great place to check guidelines is the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) specifications for CSS and mobile devices which is located W3.org/TR/css-mobile/ . Be sure to look at online tutorials (as there are many available) to teach you how to optimize your ecommerce website for mobile devices.
An important aspect to remember when developing an ecommerce website for mobile devices is to be sure to promote simplicity. Using a great deal of graphics will undoubtedly slow down the process of rendering your web design page. Also using percentage scaling is paramount in hand-held design as screen resolutions or screen sizes vary, so try and stay away from sizing elements using pixels.
Make sure to insert the code below in between the opening
and closing tags of your ecommerce website to activate the hand-held style-sheet when a customer views your ecommerce website from their mobile device. November 17, 2010


