Designing for Mobile

Recently I was tasked to transform a full website into a stripped down mobile version for those visiting on their i-whatsits. Having never designed for mobile before, i set out to find the easiest way which would cater for all devices.

In the office people around me had an HTC Desire (Android), iPhone 4, iPhone 3, iPod Touch, Blackberry and my trusty LG Renoir. Between us we had most of the bases covered.

Chris Coyer posted this post about redirecting mobiles to specific page using this code:

<script language=javascript>
<!--
if ((navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone/i)) || (navigator.userAgent.match(/iPod/i))) {
	location.replace("http://url-to-send-them/iphone.html");
}
-->
</script>

However in my tests it would redirect the LG and the Apple products but not the Blackberry

I then found this code (which needs to go at the very top of each page):

<?php
$useragent = $\_SERVER\['HTTP\_USER\_AGENT'\];
if(preg\_match('/android|avantgo|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)\\/|plucker|pocket|psp|symbian|treo|up\\.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows (ce|phone)|xda|xiino/i',$useragent)||preg\_match('/1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50\[1-6\]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s\\-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|\\-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw\\-(n|u)|c55\\/|capi|ccwa|cdm\\-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd\\-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc\\-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|\\-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez(\[4-7\]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(\\-|\_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf\\-5|g\\-mo|go(\\.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd\\-(m|p|t)|hei\\-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs\\-c|ht(c(\\-| |\_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i\\-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |\\-|\\/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |\\/)|klon|kpt |kwc\\-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|\\/(k|l|u)|50|54|e\\-|e\\/|\\-\[a-w\])|libw|lynx|m1\\-w|m3ga|m50\\/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m\\-cr|me(di|rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(\\-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10\[0-2\]|n20\[2-3\]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)\\-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|\\-(\[1-8\]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn\\-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt\\-g|qa\\-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|\\-\[2-7\]|i\\-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55\\/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h\\-|oo|p\\-)|sdk\\/|se(c(\\-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh\\-|shar|sie(\\-|m)|sk\\-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h\\-|v\\-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl\\-|tdg\\-|tel(i|m)|tim\\-|t\\-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m\\-|m3|m5)|tx\\-9|up(\\.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5\[0-3\]|\\-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(\\-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|xda(\\-|2|g)|yas\\-|your|zeto|zte\\-/i',substr($useragent,0,4)))
	header('Location: YOUR PAGE');

This seemed to do the trick and redirected everyone's mobiles in the office - when 'YOUR PAGE' is replaced with the URL of your mobile site. Once I had the redirect working I set about designing the mobile site.