Will You Change Your Web Site For the iPhone?

An anonymous reader calls to our attention a blog post about the way the iPhone's multi-touch UI will strain the interface conventions of Web 2.0. This looming clash comes clearer as Apple releases more details of the iPhone's UI. Much has been made about the iPhone including Safari to provide a full web browsing experience. But this reader is wondering how compatible certain sites will be with the iPhone's input. From the post: "[Web 2.0-style interaction] makes somewhat heavy use of 'onmouse' events and cursor changes... along with CSS a:hover styles. The iPhone challenges those particular Web 2.0 conventions, though, because it is a device that not only adds support for another pointer, but at the same time eliminates them as interface objects... [T]he user doesn't get to express their attention with the iPhone... They only get to express their immediate action." This reader asks, "What other pitfalls lurk in the multi-touch web? Do any Slashdot readers plan to adjust their sites to ensure they work with the iPhone, and can you think of any similar issues that will crop up with such a different browsing experience?"

Comments

Yeah, right

[rueger]

Most people here won't go out of their way to make a site work with Internet Explorer, and IE has 70% of the market... and you want to know of they'll accommodate the quirks of a cel phone?

Segway

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure I remember a quote from Dean Kamen claiming cities will be rebuild to accomodate the Segway. Yeah, they're almost done I think.

Re:Segway

[The One and Only]

Embarrassingly enough, I think it was actually Steve Jobs that said that.

Re:Segway

[Anonymous Coward]

It's great to read about the interaction between Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and Dean Kamen

"'There are design firms out there that could come up with things we've never thought of,' Jobs continued, 'things that would make you shit in your pants.'"

source: Steve Kemper, Code Name Ginger.

Re:Nah...

[Tumbleweed]

Good point. Anyone know what the user agent string is for iPhone/Safari? That way we can detect these morons and do unpleasant things to their "user experience." :)

Re:I write to standards

[Zhe Mappel]

You won't do backflips for a luxury cell phone that will be owned by 1% of users?!?

What are ya, son, a Communist? ;-)

Re:Won't be a big deal

[Joebert]

Who submits their forms when an arbitrary item loses mouse focus?

Porn sites.
Everything on thoose sites seems to submit a form, they're worse than the DMV.

Re:You're a Fucking DWEEB dawson

[Divebus]

When is your execution scheduled?

Re:You're a Fucking DWEEB dawson

[Prysorra]

At the iPhone release :-(

My personal website will be redesigned...

[Travoltus]

[html]
[!-- some CGI crap: if browser == iphone then [size=6]HANG THAT MOTHER FSCKER THE FSCK UP AND DRIVE!!!!![/size] -->
[/html]

Re:Conjecture about the iPhone?

[Haeleth]

T-mobile offers unlimited data on their Sidekick plans for only $20 a month (this includes internet, email, aim, and text).

Is this "unlimited" as in "unlimited", or the more usual "unlimited" as in "the limit is secret, and if you exceed it we'll tell the press you were stealing movies"?

Re:Hype, hype, hype

[Quiet_Desperation]

Can someone please tell me how Apple pulls this off?

Magic runes, chutzpah and Steve Jobs' third testicle.

Re:Conjecture about the iPhone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this "unlimited" as in "unlimited", or the more usual "unlimited" as in "the limit is secret, and if you exceed it we'll tell the press you were stealing movies"? If you are stealing movies on an EDGE network without any 3G support, you are a very patient person indeed.

Re:Conjecture about the iPhone?

[Divebus]

I'll second [million] that. About one-third of the people in my company have already asked if they'll be able to access our CRM system from the iPhone. My choice is to make sure it works or face an angry mob with torches and pitchforks.

Re:Whoever modded me down

[cjjjer]

Whoever modded me down

Wow, a slashdotter who posts and does not like how his/her comments are modded. I can't believe that I found someone who actually takes this moderation seriously. I only wish I had mod points, I would have modded you down too just to make you cry.

Re:Conjecture about the iPhone?

[Lars T.]

He didn't say take the hover out of websites. Just make it non-essential. For instance, if you have a menu, have them respond to both hover AND click.

If I target desktop devices, and hover is perfectly intuitive and usable for my target public, I'll use it as much as I want.

Just because there's some new fancy device which can't perform rollover and 0.5% of my visitors will use it, doesn't matter I should wreck the desktop users experience. Does your site support 14" monitors, or do you require the new fancy 17" devices?

Re:Conjecture about the iPhone?

[that this is not und]

I mean, my friend's folks, yeah, that's the ticket...

Are you afraid your mom will see what you type on slashdot?