Advice please for my site!

[Reece]

WARNING: Page is ~30kb in size for those on mobiles.

I'd appreciate some opinions on what you think of having a barebones design like my www.antioxidants.mobi (http://www.antioxidants.mobi) site currently is, or something a bit funkier, like this: www.antioxidants.mobi/demo.html (http://www.antioxidants.mobi/demo.html), something which I did in PS a few days back. It's not completed, optimally, you'd be able to click on any of the words to go to those particular pages and it would have a default 1024x768 size for PC's and redirect cell phones to a 320x480 version of the same design. Haven't gotten around to that yet, but would like some opinions on what people thought.

Your advice is greatly appreciated :)

[Work In Progress]

Hi Reece...
I think the new version is really nice. I think that as long as the load time is reasonable, a site that is "easy on the eyes" will be frequented more than a **-hum looking site.
Thumbs up to the new one from ME! :D

[texasgamer]

I like the newer version better and think it looks a whole lot better the old site! Forgive me for saying this - but it does look kind of blah.
I also like your idea of a site for the pc and the other for mobile viewing. Don't you just love dot mobi? We are going to get em on the pc and get on the go! :)

[Reece]

I like the newer version better and think it looks a whole lot better the old site! Forgive me for saying this - but it does look kind of blah.
I also like your idea of a site for the pc and the other for mobile viewing. Don't you just love dot mobi? We are going to get em on the pc and get on the go! :)

Thanks guys! I agree, the old site looks blah :o I wanted to make a site that scored well on mtld's tests and get some words and traffic to it asap. But as you've both said, it certainly is more pleasant to view a site like Arnie's www.tropical.mobi (http://www.tropical.mobi), than a bland Wikipedia-like site. So Arnie, thank you for inspiring me :)

And yes, I love .mobi :) The ability to redirect between a PC and a mobile user will let our visitors know that our sites can be accessed anywhere from any internet-enabled device. That to me, is .mobi's biggest selling point.

[Scandiman]

Reece, the new version is very new-age feeling, seems appropriate. My concern on a phone is navigation. Only testing will show if a cheesy phone like mine is up to the task.

[Reece]

Reece, the new version is very new-age feeling, seems appropriate. My concern on a phone is navigation. Only testing will show if a cheesy phone like mine is up to the task.

Thanks Scandi :) I spent my night working on it (I'm horrible at Photoshop, so I employ a "save multiple copies and just try stuff" regimen).

Currently looks like this now: http://www.antioxidants.mobi/demo2.html

I like that design and feel it would go well on desktops (91kb!!). I'll have to look into compressing it big time, or using my previous file: http://www.antioxidants.mobi/demo.html for mobile phones.

I wonder if it's possible to "browser-detect" for the capabilities of a certain phone (i.e. color capability, internet speed, processor capability, internet browser limitations,...) and redirect those of low end phones much how you would redirect mobile users from a desktop designed site. Definitely something I'm going to look into :)

[fathomjh]

I think the new one is "hip" and up-to-date yet simple. As long as it loads on a mobile device in a timely manner, I say YAY!

[Reece]

I think the new one is "hip" and up-to-date yet simple. As long as it loads on a mobile device in a timely manner, I say YAY!

Thanks! :) I've been working on it endlessly lately. Here's what I believe will be the final product: http://www.antioxidants.mobi/demo4.html

The website is entirely image mapped, so people on PCs or cell phones which support image mapping could navigate the site in such a fashion, whereas people running lower end phones could click where it says "mobile version" to go to the barebones design I was previously using. I still need to redo all my content for the image mapped site - it currently redirects to the barebones site.

[coast]

I have only seen the barebones version on a Mac, but I like the colors. I think a photo of some citrus would jazz it up. istockphoto.com has some good ones for $2 royalty-free, even less if you buy credits in bulk.

Also, I would add some text besides just the links. It would only take a sentence to explain what the user should expect to find there. Your information one the individual topics is excellent.

That said, I got a 404 on the demo site so I haven't seen it yet.

I salute you for getting the thing on the server in the first place. Keep up the good work.

[Mobineer]

I'm sure you will get it right - it's a good start -

I prefer "less is best" on the mobile screens -- so, I'm biased towards the "barebones" - but that's me ---