Question

I’m trying to make a version of my website optimize to Blackberry devices, however I lack of information regarding this devices and google seems not to be helping.

Have anyone create website optimize for blackberry before? or know any kind of post or information that could help?

I don’t know if media queries could help since those devices seems to open screen standard resolutions.

Answer 1

From Optimizing A Web Site For BlackBerry Devices:

If you thought targeting Web sites to
work with several different browsers
was difficult enough, try throwing
BlackBerry support in the mix.
Designing a Web site to work with
BlackBerry handheld devices can be
frustrating because the BlackBerry Web
browser has fewer capabilities than a
standard Web browser. This lack of
features greatly affects design
strategy because slower download
speeds and limited screen size must
now be factored in.

The first thing you should do when
optimizing a site to support
BlackBerry devices is download and
install the official BlackBerry
Device Simulator and BlackBerry
Email and MDS Services Simulator
Package. The device simulator and
simulator package emulate the
functionality of actual BlackBerry
products and allow you to access and
test a Web site in a virtual
environment.

When you first open a site in
emulation, you’ll probably notice the
BlackBerry’s CSS support is limited
and your site may not look so great.
Since most front-end developers are
trained to be reactive, your initial
solution maybe to attach another
stylesheet, target the handheld medium
and adjust the classes and ids in that
stylesheet accordingly. Unfortunately,
the BlackBerry disregards both screen
and handheld media style declarations.
In fact, many of the useful style
declarations that could create a
loophole for the lack of media
support—including display:none and
visiblility:hidden—won’t work on a
BlackBerry. For a complete list of
supported CSS declarations, refer to
the BlackBerry Content Developer
Guide.

So what’s the solution? The real trick
to optimizing a Web site for
BlackBerry devices (without any hacks
or work-arounds) is using well-formed
XHTML in conjunction with CSS and
omitting unnecessary layout elements
using the screen medium. This focus on
semantically correct XHTML to drive
your layout may not look pretty on the
BlackBerry, but it’s advantageous for
several reasons. For starters, since
you’re dealing with a limited amount
of screen space and relying on what
equates to dial-up connection speeds
you want to keep the majority of your
display content for the BlackBerry as
text-based. Secondly, the well-formed
code will result in better overall
search engine optimization because
you’re using code standards that are
friendlier to the search engine
indexing process. Finally, the focus
on semantics will make the site
scalable and rid you of any worries
associated with the consequences of
adding text, modifying links or
changing the appearance of an element
in your stylesheet.

With full-featured browsers integrated
into the latest generation of
handhelds (Safari on the iPhone, IE in
Windows Mobile devices) aesthetics
support on mobile devices is vastly
improving. Either way, good coding
standards promote graceful degradation
and a provide a certain level of
future proofing that ensures users can
view a Web site no matter how outdated
or cutting-edge their device is.