Testing FEM Records on mobile devices

I'm looking to get some feedback on the performance of the mobile version of femrecords.com - which was designed and optimized for the iPhone.

If any of you have a few minutes to access the site with your mobile device it would be greatly appreciated. We're particularly interested in seeing if the site is fully functional on Android, Palm and Droid devices. The main areas that we need to test are audio and video playback as well as the photo galleries and streaming radio.

If you access the site on your mobile at www.femrecords.com you should see a large blue button at the top of the site for access to the mobile optimized version. If for some reason this does not appear on your device you can access it directly at www.femrecords.com/iphone

Please post your results here - thanks!

  On 2/1/2010 at 6:41 PM, SecondaryCell said:

I'm looking to get some feedback on the performance of the mobile version of femrecords.com - which was designed and optimized for the iPhone.

 

If any of you have a few minutes to access the site with your mobile device it would be greatly appreciated. We're particularly interested in seeing if the site is fully functional on Android, Palm and Droid devices. The main areas that we need to test are audio and video playback as well as the photo galleries and streaming radio.

 

If you access the site on your mobile at www.femrecords.com you should see a large blue button at the top of the site for access to the mobile optimized version. If for some reason this does not appear on your device you can access it directly at www.femrecords.com/iphone

 

Please post your results here - thanks!

You should look into detecting the User Agent of the device accessing your site and automagically redirect them to the mobile version.

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You should look into detecting the User Agent of the device accessing your site and automagically redirect them to the mobile version.

I thought about that, but with the iPhone it's good to have a choice because Safari handles the regular site fairly well. You do have to zoom in, and also the Flash audio players don't work... but there are other areas like the store or registration area that aren't featured on the mobile version of the site.

I'm wondering how something that works well on the iPhone will appear on the competing devices. (Believe it or not I don't know anyone that uses something other than an iPhone).

Thanks for responding, I appreciate your input.

  On 2/1/2010 at 8:39 PM, SecondaryCell said:

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You should look into detecting the User Agent of the device accessing your site and automagically redirect them to the mobile version.

 

I thought about that, but with the iPhone it's good to have a choice because Safari handles the regular site fairly well. You do have to zoom in, and also the Flash audio players don't work... but there are other areas like the store or registration area that aren't featured on the mobile version of the site.

 

I'm wondering how something that works well on the iPhone will appear on the competing devices. (Believe it or not I don't know anyone that uses something other than an iPhone).

 

Thanks for responding, I appreciate your input.

Well, from a design philosophy standpoint, if the site works well (but not fully) in Safari on the iPhone, it should be the opposite - give the mobile version the option to go "full browser", with all the elements that are featured in the full site, and keep the mobile version tuned to the essential features, with an eye kept on keeping it fast and easy to use. Forcing the user to load the full site in a browser that doesn't support all the site features (Flash, for instance), not to mention content not structured for use on a mobile device, forces users when their connection is slow to slog through the experience until they can hit the mobile URL or a link that provides them the optimized experience.

In fact, I'd set a one-time cookie that alerts the user that they are using the Mobile version of your site, and if they wish, click here for the full experience. Have the cookie remember that choice, so if the user does indeed prefer using the full version, he or she is not going to have to click that link every time as well.

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In fact, I'd set a one-time cookie that alerts the user that they are using the Mobile version of your site, and if they wish, click here for the full experience. Have the cookie remember that choice, so if the user does indeed prefer using the full version, he or she is not going to have to click that link every time as well.

I like this, that makes more sense than the other way around. I just need to figure out what to do about the store and registration areas. As it is a mobile visitor is taken back to the regular site if they want to access the store or register. Then again I could just leave those areas out of the mobile version, probably better to keep the mobile site more multi-media and information oriented away. (Also, I'm trying to justify not having to go through the nightmare of converting the store to mobile...)

  On 2/1/2010 at 10:33 PM, SecondaryCell said:

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In fact, I'd set a one-time cookie that alerts the user that they are using the Mobile version of your site, and if they wish, click here for the full experience. Have the cookie remember that choice, so if the user does indeed prefer using the full version, he or she is not going to have to click that link every time as well.

 

I like this, that makes more sense than the other way around. I just need to figure out what to do about the store and registration areas. As it is a mobile visitor is taken back to the regular site if they want to access the store or register. Then again I could just leave those areas out of the mobile version, probably better to keep the mobile site more multi-media and information oriented away. (Also, I'm trying to justify not having to go through the nightmare of converting the store to mobile...)

Yeah, the ability to buy music "on the go" is nice, but getting the site's popularity up and providing a solid mobile and desktop experience first will foster and justify any future needs of mobile purchasing features.

Also, what's powering your site? If I had to guess, I'd say it was Wordpress...

as far as i change a site for the iphone is that some (or maybe all) javascript doesn't work. onmouseover etc. if its works in safari then we cool

but then again anyone looking at an iphone is an idiot so fuck them

  On 2/1/2010 at 10:52 PM, Benedict Cumberbatch said:

as far as i change a site for the iphone is that some (or maybe all) javascript doesn't work. onmouseover etc. if its works in safari then we cool

 

but then again anyone looking at an iphone is an idiot so fuck them

You're more of an idiot to ignore the fact there are over 33.75 million sold to date, and that's 33.75 million potential customers.

I don't have a mobuke

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Also, what's powering your site? If I had to guess, I'd say it was Wordpress...

It's Joomla.

Until recently I made sites from scratch, but I'm beginning to enjoy the modular way of doing things in a cms...

  On 2/2/2010 at 1:43 AM, SecondaryCell said:

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Also, what's powering your site? If I had to guess, I'd say it was Wordpress...

 

It's Joomla.

 

Until recently I made sites from scratch, but I'm beginning to enjoy the modular way of doing things in a cms...

Ah, interesting - I considered Joomla for WATMM, but then Chaosmachine got me turned onto the wonders of Drupal, which is what I plan on using for the main site.

Also, came across this today, and thought it might interest you or be helpful:

http://pelfusion.com/know-how/how-to-create-or-convert-website-into-mobile-format/

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Also, came across this today, and thought it might interest you or be helpful:

Thanks, I will watch this.

Also, I forgot to mention the iPhoney iPhone browser simulator if anyone might be interested. It's not perfect but works fairly well to test basic layouts for the iPhone.