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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-11T18:27:33+00:00

So I am planning to make an existing website mobile friendly. The good part

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So I am planning to make an existing website mobile friendly. The good part is that it is entirely text based with a few images which can likely be omitted from the mobile version of the site.

The bad part is that it is a VERY complex site with a ton of pages (and each page can vary based on the data and the user accessing the site) A lot of it is also legacy code (as in, old html which does NOT validate)

So I would like to know what should be the best strategy to make the mobile friendly site? Creating a parallel version is out of the question because that would be a huge task

A separate CSS is obvious. But what about the best practices/guidelines to design for mobile devices to ensure that the site is usable and looks decent?

For reference, the backend is in PHP + MySql and Front end in htmls + CSS and bits of JS (the JS is degradable)

Edit: To be more clear, I would like advice on the design aspect. What are the good practices in designing for mobile devices?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    A few quick tips for designing for mobile:

    • Vertical scrolling only, not horizontal.
    • Make links large enough to easily press with a finger (If it’s a touchscreen device).
    • Keep pages small (under 20KB is best) – including any image or css files
    • Accept that some devices will render some element differently
    • Make sure you’re XHTML is valid
    • Choose colour schemes that work even in bright daylight
    • Only include what is relevant – make the most of limited screen real estate
    • Try and avoid complex navigation
    • Don’t use absolute sizing in CSS
    • Use minimal CSS and Javascript – test thoroughly when you do use
    • Take advantage of features that are part of the phone (click to call, etc.)
    • Mobilize, don’t just minimize
    • Avoid user input where possible (selecting from drop down is preferable to entering text – when possible)
    • Test, Test, Test! (emulators first, then borrow your friends and colleagues phones to enable testing on a wide variety)
    • Design for short periods of user interaction – make it quick and easy for the person to complete a task.
    • Be consistent – follow design guidelines and defacto standards
    • Use accesskeys for links

    Hope these help.

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