W3C, the organisation that defines web standards, has come up with a useful ‘mobile OK checker’ that reveals whether a site is mobile friendly. It is pretty easy to use; one has to enter the URL and just hit the check button. And the checker then generates its evaluation of the page. You don’t have to be much of techie to find out if the page has been optimally designed for the mobile world.

“To understand why checking a Web document for mobile-friendliness really matters, it is probably worth emphasizing a few points about the so-called mobile world. Compared to a regular desktop computer, a mobile device may be regarded as limited at first glance: smaller screen size, smaller processing powers, smaller amount of memory, no mouse, and so on. Compared to fixed data connections, mobile networks can be slow and often have a higher latency. Compared to a user sitting in front of his computer, the user on the go has limited time and is easily distracted. On top of these constraints, the mobile world is highly fragmented: many different devices, each of them defining a unique set of supported features,” the W3C explained.

I had in an earlier post outlined the mobile best design practices which largely forms the basis for the evaluation of sites by the checker. The W3C has done a good job in summarizing these on downloadable flipcards.

However, the W3C has come up with a new specification for the checker - mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0.

There are various things that the checker does; it checks if the page complies with specified parameters and either comes up with a warning or ‘failed’ message.

For example, if the page exceeds a certain size, it fails the test. So too, if it containts nested tables.

All this doesn’t mean that the page design has to be restrictive; as the W3C explains, the capabilities of many devices exceed those covered by the checker. So, “the Best Practices, and hence the tests, are not promoted as guidance for achieving the optimal user experience.” “It will often be possible, and generally desirable, to provide an experience designed to take advantage of the extra capabilities.”