Now that Weaver II’s Mobil View has been in use for some time, I thought it might be useful to summarize just what the Mobile View design philosophy is.

When a site with Weaver II is viewed from a mobile device,  the design is to present the mobile  view by default – which is really designed to be easily readable and navigated on the smaller screen. Weaver II’s mobile device model includes smart phones, small tablets (such as a Kindle Fire), and large tablets (such as an iPad).

For the phone view, the standard mobile view includes these specific design elements:

1. A slightly modified header – the default image will be displayed, but there is a modified Site Title that comes at the top, and also leaves room for the toggle to full screen.
2. No sidebars – instead there is an alternate widget area displayed at the bottom.
3. There is an alternative menu which only drops down on demand, and shows all menu entries displayed vertically. This has proven much more readable and easier to use than the initial Weaver II menu version which had the standard drop down menus offset to fit the screen.
4. The blog page will show excerpts for entries.
5. All links are displayed with an underline – it can be more difficult to recognize links on a touch screen.
6. The horizontal view will automatically adjust on most devices to show more content.
7. There is a fairly easy to spot button to switch to full screen view.

The small tablet treats the vertical and horizontal views differently. The vertical view is much like the phone view with the exception that the standard drop-down menu is used. The horizontal small tablet view will automatically (sometimes requires a manual page refresh depending on the browser being used) display the standard sidebars and hide the mobile sidebar.

The large tablet view is essentially exactly the same as the standard browser view with the exception that links are underlined, and elements may be a bit narrower on the vertical view. There are no icons to switch views.

I really believe this corresponds to the best presentation of a site on mobile devices. As an older user myself, I now find it close to intolerable when I open a site on a mobile phone size device, and get a full page view of a site with nothing big enough to read. My older eyes just can’t seen that small type. I actually now find it almost insulting that a site has not taken the trouble to present a readable site for my phone.