I would like to hear your ideas to make this starter theme better. Here you are some of the changes I did to make it better for smaller screens:

- non zoomable ui
The ui is fixed, so you can't enlarge or shrink it. It also means it gets displayed 1:1 (so not like normal sites in mobile browsers with extremely small fonts and elements).

- bundled title
The site name and the page title can be found on the very top bar. It uses 1 row estate on the screen instead of 2. And it's always on the top.

- centered forms
Form elements are centered.

- larger links
Links are bold are larger than normal text.

- no floating
All the blocks displayed in a single vertical row. With this configuration the region layout is something like: header -> left -> content -> right -> footer

- tab bar is right after the header row
It makes sense to have tabs in the 2nd row rather than after a buch of other elements.

- removable breadcrumb
Option is on the theme settings page.

Some stuffs I'm not sure yet:
- I think that block titles are not necessary. Menu link names should be talkative. Shall I create a theme settings to remove block titles?
- Multiple level menus: I think on a small screen (without multiple column layout) it's not a good practice to have submenu items with content. I would use empty content area if the user has to select a sub-menu item. It would make navigation and user experience easier.
- Using jQuery Mobile? http://jquerymobile.com/ What would be its advantages?

What are your ideas?

Comments

Justin Burns’s picture

Justin Burns CreditAttribution: Justin Burns commented

Re: zoom - capturing the zoom gesture and using it to modify the font size via css might be useful. Otherwise, having a small link in the top corner to set font size (ala iBooks, Kindle, etc) would be a good alternative. Never know whether the person accessing the site is using an HP Veer (tiny screen) or a 4"+ android monster.

jQuery Mobile gives some useful widgets for working with the vertically-oriented tiles that typify mobile sites. I've heard good things about Sencha Touch as well, which is similar in scope. I haven't really dug into either yet (but plan to do so very soon).