http://www.simonwinnall.com/iphone.html

It may have been primarily for e-mail, but I thought to myself it would be nice to have my site be visible by those waiting in airports, subways or just to get my contact info while out of the office.

I believe, like many have expressed, it’s a long shot that I’d get hired by an art buyer or PE by simply viewing my site on an i-phone. As Rob pointed out, Most of us are now using google as a phone book so at lease my contact info might not be a bad thing!

BH

The reason I created it is because I noticed that a lot of click-throughs from my email campaigns came from iPhones. If I’m not at the office, I’m getting all my e-mail on my phone, and I know they are too. Who knows how many people just deleted the e-mail because they assumed it would lead to an inaccessible flash site? At the time, it would have been rerouted to an HTML version, which is what Livebooks, etc. are all doing.

I didn’t think that was too user-friendly, because there was no uniformity of style, and that led to a lot of zooming in and searching on the page for the relevant links.

My iPhone version is designed to work like your iPod (which everyone’s familiar with), using CSS and XHTML. The links are much more obvious, so if you just need a number, it’s very easy to find. Of course, because it’s photography, it works better on wi-fi, but that comes with the territory. I’ve intentionally kept the number of images low, to encourage them to visit the main Flash-based site.

You can only see it by typing in my regular site address on your iPhone. It’s certainly not perfect, but it’s gotten a pretty good response because it’s simple and shows the images, and contact info, cleanly. It sounds stupid, but the fact that people can navigate it with only one hand on the phone, instead of the hold/zoom thing is important too.

So, you are ahead of the curve if you have an iPhone-friendly site, but it’s not going to kill you not to. Livebooks sites are fine–your stuff still shows up and you are a presence in that space. That’s the bar at this point–just to be visible.

Over time I’m sure this will evolve, but for now, I would just make sure that there is something there that these devices can access at least, but do not panic and redesign if it doesn’t look completely smurfy.

Best–
Leslie

However like most things, it is the most common therefore most used… that doesn’t mean its good.

I’m with livebooks and have asked when they will abandon flash with no real answer. At least they now have the “html” option which is better than nothing.

Jeff

But I know one thing, I’ll opt for the simple approach every time, any barrier just isn’t worth it: and if the ipod helps bury pure flash sites, or at least helps to offer plain old html as an alternate experience, then I’m all for it.

I’m working on redesigning my own site, and plan to use a combination of Flash (in the form of a slideshow on the home page) and XHTML/CSS that will be used for the templates handled by my content management system.

Right now, my XHTML/CSS templates are validating (with the XHTML checking in at XHTML 1.0 Transitional). Can anyone tell me if I’ll need to validate at XHTML Strict to be viewable on an iPhone? And will I need to write a separate style sheet for mobile devices like the iPhone?

Reason for the question: One of my beta-testers is an iPhone fanatic, and I’d like for him to see my site.

Alvarez Photography
mobile site:
http://www.alvarezphoto.mobi

by:
Ward Binns
Airtight Design
404.944.2944
ward@airtightdesigns.com

Add it to your list of things to flip through at a mtg…

I’d rather take my time to focus on a select group of clients, try to woo and keep them, rather than trying to broadly appeal to a majority of people.

This feels like much ado about nothing.

Running a flash-rich site but still want to appeal to those like APE using handhelds, easy, redirect them when you see the predefined headers and give them the option of viewing the site using their mobile browser.

This isn’t a large amount of work, but would make the experience all the better for mobile users.

But regarding the comment about David Lynch, it’s taken out of context. He was referring to the experience of a big screen cinema film being viewed on a iphone. He wasn’t referring to iphones in general or viewing photography on iphones.

it’s just another tool, so why not be ready for it?

we’ve all been in a crunch and needed some odd morsel of info, but if you are in a position to hire photographers, like a photographer, that number should already be handy in your phone. or, since you have that phone in your hand already, call your assistant, they can look it up some older fashion way like google.

In larger more technologically advanced societies they are dumping laptops all together and using hand held devices on the road with lower cost desk tops in their offices/homes.

Many sites offer an html or flash choice as they first pop up to solve this design vs. function dilemma.

Of course, you can always write Steve Jobs and let him know what you want in your iphone’s capabilities….add a video camera to the list if you do take the time to write, for me.

http://daringfireball.net/2008/02/flimflash

Anyone developing a web site for themselves, whether they build it themselves or get someone else to do it, has to at least consider the underlying technology behind the site. And Flash, while it can look very pretty, is a technology that is owned by a large company that has competitors that don’t necessarily want to deal with it. XHTML and CSS are free and work pretty damn well with almost all browsers.

Has it reached this new low? A new paranoia that now you’ll miss that new Microsoft campaign because your site is not viewable on an iphone?

The only redeeming value out of this conversation is what Rob refers to — the ability to simply retrieve your phone number from an iphone, when someone is totally in the crunch. How hard could that be — for the browser to know it was being viewed from an Iphone browser, and then it automatically does a redirect to a simple HTML page with 96-point type with a phone number, and/or email address?

Beyond that, please stop. What’s next? Paranoia about your client being able to view your website thru your shitty PhaseOne LCD, while you’re shooting a job for them?

How low can we stoop here? This site makes me have hives. Every day, a new thing to feel shitty about. Enough.

Right now people that own the phone often just want to try out different sites and if that means they browse my site then cool but Im not expecting a job out of it.

It seems that Livebooks could care less about an iphone site and that sux.

My site http://www.peterkoval.com is iphone ready. It offers the ability to reformat sites where flash isn’t available.

They do this free of charge. I think it’s a great deal.