I've found an interesting short article about web site miniaturisation on last month's Netguide, a New Zealand-based magazine. It was just a paragraph, but enough info to make me contact the designer and try finding more about his work.

Dominic Westall has created a web site where he shows some of his ideas in this area. He is very excited about the possibilities of using rich content for this kind of media distribution. With the availability of more powerful smartphones, he thinks that Macromedia Flash can be one right tool for the job.

Macromedia launched Flash for small devices, including mobile phones like the Motorola A920, a Symbian OS based smartphone available for 3G networks, and the NTT DoCoMo 505i series of i-mode mobile phones. Since this technology is also readily available for Windows, Mac OS, Palm OS and Windows Mobile platform, it is no surprise this could a be a cross-platform development for websites.

We've reported before on a miniature site based on Flash, created for a Pizza service in New Zealand.

Dominic shows more interest in the mobile phone area. He says:

"My demo is a simulated use of an imaginary search engine. Why I haven't made a real search engine is a) how can I ? and b) I am showing off a design technology. The latter is about showing visual phenomena.

As many may sense, my demo site is loosely based on a famous search engine. I built it in 2 days, after spending a week storyboarding the site. The thinking behind the design itself is a result of my own research and development into miniaturising web sites, one year worth.

I began researching miniaturisation around the time WAP 2 was announced. I, as a designer, was excited about WAP 2 as I could finally work with existing Web Design Technologies (tables, style sheets, HTML 4.01, JavaScript, etc.) When Macromedia announced their Flash Lite player, I got even more excited - I could work with the design ideas I discovered and I am keen to become a proficient Flash designer and programmer.

I became involved in the Web Design industry because I enjoy visual interactive designing and I enjoy the tougher challenge of working with a small screen. In my opinion, the money for Web designers is in designing for mobile devices. At the Macromedia Launch held on the 7th October, Macromedia preached this message. I couldn’t be placing myself better! (but am I in the right country?)

I’m aware that until there is growing adoption of mobile phones supporting WAP 2 and which can use the Flash Lite browser, there won’t be much demand for mobile web site designers in New Zealand. Nonetheless, I am looking to become known to companies that, for now, are just interested in making contact with people like myself."

This is an interesting introduction. For the next paragraph you might want to visit his web site to have a better idea of his comments:

"I’ll talk about one of the practices I devised. You’ll notice that the light grey button on the first view moves to the left at the start, revealing two buttons. It then returns to where it started. The purpose of this animation is to notify the user of additional content. This practice, as simple as it is, was the solution to making content known and accessible without it getting in the way of the other content or just having to fit in a very confined space. It has revealed to be very effective and greatly facilitated the miniaturisation task.

When researching I found that by using special animations I could pack a fair amount of content into a small area, with various ways of access but in what shape and form the animation took depended entirely on the content - and, I imagine, what the investor wanted or was willing to settle on. Depending on the design of the PC site, in some cases, I had to redesign content or remove it. All of these design challenges were guided by a thinking practice that I am keeping to myself. Certainly, the mobile site looked different to the PC one.

A 1.5-inch screen is very small. I am interested in PDA sized displays up to postcard size (6 by 4 inch) as there is more room to work with and non technical users (Joe and Jane Bloggs), I think, are far more interested in having their Mobile Internet experience on such screen sizes. The bigger the screen, the better the usability. Some years ago (1995) a Japanese company announced a prototype SVGA colour, touch sensitive plastic computer screen of 5.5 inches by 3.5 (postcard size). I can just imagine what it will end up in!

I am looking to miniaturise web sites that are attractive to use on a mobile, and I would like suggestions of what Web activities users of Web enabled mobile phones would be interested in. As for myself, I am interested in reading activities, like following a blog or forum. Their content changes a lot and so to me, being able to access such a site anywhere has appeal, given that a change can happen as I move around town and I may need to stay constantly in touch with the site, given the possible nature of the thread.

I’d like to say that I am not alone in my interest and efforts. I have been following the thinking and work of Mike Krisher, in the U.S.

The one big difference in designing for a mobile phone screen is the missing luxury of a 14-inch screen: lots of room. Usability is the main design challenge with mobile phones. When I got my friends to test the search engine like site I made, they all said the “smallness” is awkward but not disabling. They said the site wasn’t impossible to use but they had to adapt to it. The mobile phone I had in mind when making the search engine like site is the Nokia 6600, which has a mini joystick.

I chose to work with an existing web site because a web site is an investment that may be returning results. Content can be tied to revenue and customer relations. Businesses require image consistency, so their mobile web site needs to be as close a match in appearance to their PC site as possible.

In light of the usage environment, I believe that a mobile web site ought to have content from the PC site and content specifically made for the mobile environment."

Asked if this is the whole content of his ideas, he replied "For a suited partner, I have information on my design practice and research."

I think this is a good introduction for Dominic and his work. It's interesting to see design, media, content distribution and information technology converging in this way. Perhaps we'll see some of this in production some time soon?

More information: http://www.geocities.com/dominicwestall...