Reflections on Software Development

Followings are the steps to take screenshots of your Windows Mobile emulator:

1. Start > All Programs > Visual Studio 2008 > Remote Tools > Remote Zoom In

2. In the “Remote Zoom In” tool, choose the appropriate emulator:

If this menu is not opened as default, go to Target > Connect in “Remote Zoom In” tool.

3. Click on the Refresh (F5) button to take a new screenshot.

I have been enjoying my HTC S620 for the last couple of months, but there has been a small problem with my audible alerts when I set an appointment in my mobile calendar. The reminder has been just vibrating, not playing a sound even though I have set the right things for my “Normal” profile to get an audible alert. After a short googling, it turned out to be a bug in Windows Mobile 6.0 (maybe for 5.0 as well).

Thanks to Karl Gechlik that this small but important bug has a fix in this link. He simply explains a workaround about altering the XML file of the profile in order to solve the problem. It seems to be working for me at this time.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I did have a chance to develop a very simple ASP.NET application for my mobile browser about a week ago. It was actually just an experiment for me to play around, and dealing with these topics is a new hobby of mine nowadays. Here is the design related list of elements that I have figured out.

• Simplicity is the key for the best user experience.

Complex designs utilizing nice navigations and high quality graphics are fine with the regular websites, but not with the mobile ones. Complicated components on the UI generally makes the mobile websites difficult to read. I would concentrate on the functionality first, and then try to add some design figures as modest as I can by keeping in mind that the screen size is limited.

• Alternate texts can be a redeemer.

There is an option to choose not to load the images, and there may be some users selecting this option. Therefore, it would be a good practice to put expressive alternate texts to the images.

• AJAX is good friend of mobile IE.

Fortunately AJAX is supported by the mobile version of IE in Windows Mobile 6.0. Using asynchronous JavaScript and XML would be a neat choice in some scenarios.

• Ads should be well-balanced with the real estate of UI.

I would avoid using large ad graphics which may need some amount of time to be downloaded. They may also conflict with the usability of the pages.

Some Useful Readings

• Internet Explorer Mobile HTML Elements
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb415489.aspx

• Internet Explorer Mobile CSS Support
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb415434.aspx

• Support for the WIDTH Attribute on Tables
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb415484.aspx

I had been planning to spend some time with my new cell phone, HTC S620 that I purchased about a month ago, in order to push its borders for the best online user experience. Well, I finally had the time today and it is really good to have something that runs Windows Mobile 6.0.

Firstly…

I have added some new URLs to my Favorites folder and organized them for my small browser. Here is my list of best mobile websites:

• Yahoo Mail Mobile – http://m.yahoo.com/mail
• Gmail Mobile – http://m.gmail.com
  (Gmail’s Java applet is significantly slow for me, therefore I prefer to use the regular mobile site.)
• Google Reader – http://www.google.com/reader (It automatically formats itself for the mobile IE.)
• Weather Underground Mobile – http://mobile.wunderground.com
• Wapedia – http://wapedia.mobi (It is the mobile version of Wikipedia.)
• CNN Mobile – http://m.cnn.com
• MSN Mobile – http://m.msn.com
• Amazon Mobile – http://m.amazon.com
• Engadget Mobile – http://m.engadget.com
• Flight Stats – http://mobile.flightstats.com (It is an actual time saver when traveling.)

I guess “.mobi” extension was created for the mobile world, but almost every mobile site that I have faced with continue to use the “.com” extension with the transition of “www” to “m” or “mobile” which saved the site owners some amount of domain registration fees.

And Then…

I also spent couple of hours to write a simple ASP.NET application to be consumed by the mobile browser in order to explore the capacity. The application returns the area code information (city, state, etc.) if you provide a correct format  of 3-digit area code. I will try to post more about it and my experiences.