I’ll be honest: I’m an introduction-skipper. When I sit down with a technical book, I skip right past the introduction or preface and go straight for the goods. If it doesn’t begin with the words “Chapter,” then I figure I can probably move on and not miss anything crucial. This is not, however, one of those books.

Mobile design and development is about context, so it is somewhat fitting that the introduction of a book by the same name would establish context for the pages to follow. Before you dive into the wonderful world of mobile, I want to stress the scope of the medium and therefore of this book.

People don’t seem to realize that mobile as a whole is really, really big. When someone says the word “mobile,” they could be referring to devices, networks, services, the mobile web—even native applications like iPhone apps or a dozen other parts of a vast ecosystem. It isn’t unlike saying that all the various technologies required to create a simple web page can simply be referred to as “the Web.” There is obviously a lot more to it, but at the end of the day we just want it to work.

If there is one thing I’ve learned from my adventures in the mobile industry over the last decade, it is that in order to understand mobile, in order to make it work for you and for your users, you need understand three basic principles of mobile:

You need to know the different facets of the mobile medium

There are many variables that can change the overall experience for the user, both good and bad. Understanding what they are, and how they might affect your project, at least at a basic level, can prevent serious and expensive problems later on

You need to know how to leverage mobile technologies to address context

Context is the mental model in which information is understood. It is the key concept that makes mobile such a powerful and useful medium for millions of people around the world. But addressing context takes not just an understanding of user-centered design principles, but of what roles mobile devices play in people’s lives.

You need to know how to leverage the right mobile technology for the need

Here comes the tricky part: although there are numerous technologies within the mobile ecosystem that work well to address particular problems, finding the right one for your users, your business, or your development resources can be incredibly hard. If you don’t understand the pros and cons of each, it can be difficult to make the right investment, be it time or money, at the right time.

The first half of this book will cover these first two principles; the second half will focus on the last principle. When I sat down to write this book, I knew it would be impossible to cover every technology of mobile in detail. Therefore I’ll focus a lot of this book on the mobile web as the only ubiquitous platform across all mobile devices around the world. Not only does the majority of the mobile community believe that the mobile web is the future of the mobile medium, but I’ve also found it to have the highest return on investment, be it in terms of money, user satisfaction, or development time.

I wrote this book to be a beginning—your beginning in mobile—and to give you all the information you need to know in order to start thinking of your site, application, or business in the mobile context. At the end, you should have a firm understanding of how mobile works and how to start designing and developing for it.

I wrote this book to have something for everyone interested in designing in developing for mobile devices, regardless of experience and regardless of the application. The first half is a crash course in the mobile ecosystem: how to develop a strategy, address the mobile context—even how to decide which of the multiple mobile application types is best for you, and finally, how to create a user experience for it. The second half is focused on using these principles to make a mobile website or web app.

The chapters in this book are organized as follows:

Chapter 1

In this chapter, I’ll provide a quick introduction into how mobile devices have evolved from phones to the pocket-sized computers of today and a look into where they are headed.

Chapter 2

In this chapter, I’ll give you a summary of the multiple layers of the mobile ecosystem and the role that each of them plays in getting your work into the hands and handsets of your users.

Chapter 3

This chapter explores the importance of mobile around the world. I’ll compare mobile to traditional media like print, television, and the Web, and explain some of the unique benefits of the mobile medium.

Chapter 4

Creating mobile experience starts with addressing the context of the user. In this chapter, I’ll discuss the different types of context and include some interesting examples of how mobile devices can address it.

Chapter 5

In this chapter, I’ll discuss how to create a user-centered, context-based mobile strategy. I’ll include a few rules to help you make sure that your project starts off right and has the steam to get where it needs to go.

Chapter 6

Many mobile projects fail because they aren’t designed for the right type of application context. In this chapter, I’ll explain the different types of applications, their pros and cons, and how to decide which is right for you.

Chapter 7

In this chapter, I’ll discuss how to structure the information in your product for the mobile context by using various deliverables to define your mobile experience.

Chapter 8

In this chapter, I’ll discuss how to create the best possible mobile experience and discuss the principles and techniques of how to create a design for mobile devices.

Chapter 9

In this chapter, I’ll compare mobile web applications to applications written specifically for a particular mobile platform, including many of the pros and cons.

Chapter 10

In this chapter, I’ll discuss the concept of Mobile 2.0 and the importance of the mobile web to the future of mobile, as well as some of its challenges.

Chapter 11

In this chapter, I will cover the mobile standards for various devices and provide an explanation of each of them in detail as well as how they are supported across multiple devices.

Chapter 12

In many ways, the iPhone is changing mobile for the better, leading innovation in the future of the mobile web. In this chapter, I will talk specifically about how to create iPhone web applications and how to make them work on other popular devices as well.

Chapter 13

One of the greatest challenges in mobile is adapting to multiple devices. In this chapter, I will discuss some of the common techniques and a few services that can help.

Chapter 14

Once you have your product, it is time to publish it and, in most cases, try to make money from it. In this chapter, I will discuss the options and some of the common pitfalls to avoid.

Chapter 15

In this chapter, I will discuss how to test and support multiple mobile devices, including a few tips and tricks of the trade.

Chapter 16

Finally, I will provide some of my thoughts as to the future of mobile and the next evolution of the Web.

The following typographical conventions are used in this book:

Italic

Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, and file extensions.

Constant width

Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to program elements such as variable or function names, databases, data types, environment variables, statements, and keywords.

BF: In moving the book to a wiki format, I've had to omit this formatting for inline text. Blocks of code are properly formatted as they are in the book.

Constant width bold

Shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user.

BF: In moving the book to a wiki format, I've had to omit this formatting

Constant width italic

Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values or by values determined by context.

BF: In moving the book to a wiki format, I've had to omit this formatting

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The animal on the cover of _Mobile Design and Development_ is a twelve-wired bird of paradise (Seleucidis melanoleucus). It is found largely throughout New Guinea and the adjacent Salawati Island in Indonesia. The bird’s name comes from the 12 thread-like strands that extend from the back of its plummage and bend to cover its behind. The male is black with a yellow belly and yellow feathers along its flanks. The female looks quite different from the male, with its brown plumage on its backside and its black belly. Vegetables, fruit, and anthropods, such as insects, arachnids, and crustaceans, comprise its diet.

The cover image is Cassell’s Natural History. The cover font is Adobe ITC Garamond. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont’s TheSansMonoCondensed.