The Design of Sites: Pattern Group M — The Mobile Web
Pattern Group M of The Design of Sites — the book’s final and shortest pattern group, three patterns (M1-M3) covering the then-emerging problem of designing for mobile devices: small screens, limited input, and location awareness.
License: © 2006 Pearson Education / New Riders — all rights reserved, no open license; one of the book’s co-authors is a FuguUX founder, which is the basis for citing it here.
Key points
- Mobile Screen Sizing (M1) — the decision framework for how much to adapt a site for small screens (do nothing, adapt presentation, redesign content, or build a dedicated app), and minimizing scrolling by prioritizing what’s above the fold.
- Mobile Input Design (M2) — reducing interaction cost on a device with limited, imprecise input: fewer interactive elements, consistent element positions, and minimizing required text entry via persistent sessions, Predictive Input, and reused prior answers.
- Location-Based Services (M3) — personalizing content by a customer’s real-time physical location: navigation guides, location-tagged content, social coordination, location-aware games, and fleet tracking, with privacy designed in from the start rather than retrofitted.