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Hand Held Devices viewing online websites

Started by blazingbob,

35 posts in this topic

blazingbob

blazingbob

Posted
Posted

Ok, looking ahead a few years.

 

Since I have experienced some of you browsing my website using hand helds where do you think the trend is going?

 

I have browsed my website on the Iphone and similar hand helds. Clearly the concern is when you are browsing the online catalog and return a large query the site overloads the device. Scans can be browsed online. Being fat fingered I can see that the home page isn't exactly easy to surf.

 

As far as the IPad goes I found my website pretty easy to navigate on. I'm not so sure I see how people use them like a laptop since I don't find them particularly easy to type on. I found the screen to be high res and reflected scans of my books pretty well.

 

My web developer has suggested a more hand held type look but I'm not so sure that's worth paying for except for query returns.

 

As always thanks for the feedback

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sckao

sckao

Posted
Posted

 

Personally, I'd just talk to George at GPA. He made the CGC App and GPA app and you'd just need something similar. It doesn't show the entire site... just a subset of popular locations.

 

Now what you COULD use this for is at conventions. That's when I personally use GPA to look things up (or at comic stores). That would be an opportunity to advertise your new arrivals/collections, your inventory at the convention, any sales, or your booth location.

 

You could also advertise that people can Paypal you from their mobile phone... another method of payment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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dupont2005

dupont2005

Posted
Posted

I only browse one website from my iPod, and only because it's a site I have to check several times a day because I'm selling on there full time and have to constantly answer questions. Other than that, I have a Paypal app, an E-mail app, a Craigslist app, an eBay app, and so on. Yeah, apps are probably the best idea.

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Batty Scrooge

Batty Scrooge

Posted
Posted
Ok, looking ahead a few years.

 

Since I have experienced some of you browsing my website using hand helds where do you think the trend is going?

 

I have browsed my website on the Iphone and similar hand helds. Clearly the concern is when you are browsing the online catalog and return a large query the site overloads the device. Scans can be browsed online. Being fat fingered I can see that the home page isn't exactly easy to surf.

 

As far as the IPad goes I found my website pretty easy to navigate on. I'm not so sure I see how people use them like a laptop since I don't find them particularly easy to type on. I found the screen to be high res and reflected scans of my books pretty well.

 

My web developer has suggested a more hand held type look but I'm not so sure that's worth paying for except for query returns.

 

As always thanks for the feedback

 

I wouldn't waste a dime redesigning the website, by the time the redesign is complete, the devices that were choking on the old layout will be outdated and the newer devices won't have a problem. I just did a search for Batman on your site with my DroidX and didn't have any problems, loaded up nice and fast. Clicked on your #14, looked at the scan, looked nice and full on my screen, and hit the back button to go back to the query listing. Honestly, it feels like your site is already designed for mobile surfing. As for the GPA apps and their mobile site, I find the regular site to be much more useful on my phone, and feel bad if they spent a ton of money on the apps to cover Apples design flaws.

 

Your web developer just suggested you give him money because he is trying to take advantage of you. It seems to me the solution to your concern would be just to have page breaks every 10 items, which would take your developer less than 5 min to implement.

 

The apple devices crash because they only have 256MB of ram and crash on just about any website thats not a mobile site. The iPhone 4 and newer devices will all have 512MB of ram, like my DroidX and shouldn't have that problem of crashing on a large query.

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sckao

sckao

Posted
Posted

 

You don't redesign your main site for mobile devices... You design a mobile site. Your main website detects what the user is on, and if it's a mobile device, the site presents a set of alternate pages.

 

It's not that big a project actually. :gossip:

 

 

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Batty Scrooge

Batty Scrooge

Posted
Posted

You don't redesign your main site for mobile devices... You design a mobile site. Your main website detects what the user is on, and if it's a mobile device, the site presents a set of alternate pages.

 

It's not that big a project actually. :gossip:

 

 

I know how mobile sites work, and I also know a redesign to work on all platforms is cheaper than a new site from the ground up, especially when the problem is query hits.

 

Mobile sites were great 3 years ago when the only smartphone was an iPhone, now they are just a headache to anyone with an advanced smartphone when we have to deal with extra clicks to get off the mobile site so we can actually enjoy surfing the web. I have a PC, laptop and iPad, but do most of my surfing laying back on the couch with my DroidX. I very rarely find a website that would cause me to get off my butt to use the PC over my phone. Before this phone, yeah I was in the "give me an app because this mobile web browser is junk" camp, but things are evolving and would hate to see the op spend money to support outdated hardware that will mostly like replaced with an upgrade before the mobile site is complete.

 

BTW: Side note, just realized the Batman #14 I looked at on the site was the same one I was checking out at NYCC. Both times I had the same reaction, "Damn, a PGX, I'd pay an extra $40 if he resub'd it to CGC and got the same grade back" lol

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JazzMan

JazzMan

Posted
Posted

We are beta testing the Samsung Galaxy Tab right now and it is looking pretty nice. It's a little smaller than an iPad and larger than an iPod. It's a little more portable than the iPad (in my opinion, since I have one) and it's 3G/WiFi enabled. Comics look good as well as GPA.

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sckao

sckao

Posted
Posted

If you're just viewing a web page on a small mobile device and the content is in COLUMNS, then it's pretty easy to read if you double-tap to make that column fill the screen. Bob's website was actually designed with that in mind.

 

The part that is difficult for me personally is clicking on active links that are spaced too close together or are part of a navigation scheme that is designed for larger screens.

 

That's where a website designed for mobile apps can make a drastic difference.

 

The thing you have to think about is when someone clicks over to your site. In my mind, a major incentive point is when they receive an email from your business on their mobile. If something in that email is of interest to them, they'll be inclined to follow links within that email immediately and not wait until they're at a desktop since someone else might buy that comic book in the meantime.

 

That's where you can make immediate sales...

 

 

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sl4ppy

sl4ppy

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Posted

Personally, I'd just talk to George at GPA. He made the CGC App and GPA app and you'd just need something similar. It doesn't show the entire site... just a subset of popular locations.

 

GPA and CGC apps? for iPhone?

 

I've searched the app store and cant find these, but would love to have them! Are they still in existence?

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gpanalysis

gpanalysis

Posted
Posted
Ok, looking ahead a few years.

 

Since I have experienced some of you browsing my website using hand helds where do you think the trend is going?

 

I have browsed my website on the Iphone and similar hand helds. Clearly the concern is when you are browsing the online catalog and return a large query the site overloads the device. Scans can be browsed online. Being fat fingered I can see that the home page isn't exactly easy to surf.

 

As far as the IPad goes I found my website pretty easy to navigate on. I'm not so sure I see how people use them like a laptop since I don't find them particularly easy to type on. I found the screen to be high res and reflected scans of my books pretty well.

 

My web developer has suggested a more hand held type look but I'm not so sure that's worth paying for except for query returns.

 

As always thanks for the feedback

 

Bob, let me know if you need me to call you - I'm happy to pass on any advice/experience with respects to developing/designing for mobile devices.

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Batty Scrooge

Batty Scrooge

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Posted
You should have asked me to resubmit it.

 

The only reason it's a PGX is because the Diamond run owner refuses to have CGC grade any more of the Diamond runs.

 

I'll send it in and see what they grade it.

 

bob

 

I didn't really know if it would have been rude or not to slam the PGX at the show, but being the CGC forums, it feels OK here. I've always had problems figuring out how to compare PGX books to GPA prices since they aren't really standard, so I've stayed away from them out of fear they would be lower graded in CGC.

 

As a side note: I do have a couple of PGXs, would I have to crack them open myself to submit them to CGC, or could I just send in the slabs?

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ComicConnoisseur

ComicConnoisseur

Posted
Posted
Ok, looking ahead a few years.

 

Since I have experienced some of you browsing my website using hand helds where do you think the trend is going?

 

I have browsed my website on the Iphone and similar hand helds. Clearly the concern is when you are browsing the online catalog and return a large query the site overloads the device. Scans can be browsed online. Being fat fingered I can see that the home page isn't exactly easy to surf.

 

As far as the IPad goes I found my website pretty easy to navigate on. I'm not so sure I see how people use them like a laptop since I don't find them particularly easy to type on. I found the screen to be high res and reflected scans of my books pretty well.

 

My web developer has suggested a more hand held type look but I'm not so sure that's worth paying for except for query returns.

 

As always thanks for the feedback

Bob I friendly suggest you take the web developers advice and do it, it`s not a trend but the future. Better to do it now and get it out of the way as you will probally have to do it later. ;)

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