Mobile Design and Development: Practical concepts and techniques for creating mobile sites and web apps

by Brian Fling

Mobile Design and Development by Brian Fling is a start to finish guide for designing and building mobile apps regardless of experience, device or platform. Brian took on the daunting challenge to write the mobile guide missing from bookshelves. As Brian describes it "this is a book that teaches people how to cook, not a collection of recipes." Since its release the book has been incredibly well received. It has being described as a "must have" by many experts in the mobile community. The 16 chapters, and 85,000 words within the book have helped thousands understand and dive into mobile.
The first half is a crash course in the mobile how to develop a strategy, address the mobile context--even how to decide which of the multiple mobile application types is best for you, and finally, how to create a user experience for it. The second half is focused on using these principles to make a mobile website or web app.
Mobile Design and Development is a comprehensive resource covering all aspects of the mobile ecosystem. The book covers a great number of topics, however each are described in practical and common sense way—making easy for anyone at any technical level to understand the inner working of the mobile medium.
If you're a web designer, web developer, information architect, product manager, usability professional, content publisher, or an entrepreneur new to the mobile, Mobile Design and Development provides you with the knowledge you need to work with this rapidly developing technology.

Genres: Design, Web, Computer Science, Textbooks

311 pages, Paperback

First published August 14, 2009

Reviews

[Darin Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good introduction to issues surrounding the mobile web, but just a starting point.

[Federico · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book which aged well. Most of the general concepts are still valid today, for example on the importance of context (such as geolocation). I've seen experienced mobile developers get bogged down in disappointing projects for missing the broader picture in ways which in hindsight are rather obvious, as covered here. A few of the chapters focused on implementation details such as the recommended pixel sizes or testing frameworks are obviously outdated, but not outrageously misleading as far as I can tell (I'm not a mobile developer). It's striking to read of a past when operators were king; now it's all about Apple and Google. The author's predictions on the importance of WebKit and on how easy it would be to focus on iOS-only apps turned out to be even too correct.

[Gabriel Chen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of it is an interesting read but clearly the “practical” portions are dated. It’s cool to read about mobile contextually and I think that information will be valuable to me as a developer. Especially the first few chapters are quite forward thinking. Much of the technical advice is basically a couple of generations behind at this point. If I were the author, I’d break out the non technical stuff, make some revisions and additions, and publish this as a history book. Cool book, can’t recommend in 2022—or even 2015 for that matter.

[Alessandro Pellizzari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I primi 4 capitoli mi hanno fatto dubitare di voler continuare a leggere. Sono praticamente solo storia e propaganda della programmazione su dispositivi mobili.
Fortunatamente dal capitolo 5, e ancora più dal 7, si entra nel vivo, con consigli utili e tecniche valide.

"Purtroppo" il libro è stato pubblicato qualche anno fa, e scritto ancora prima, quindi si dedica forse troppo a trattare anche featurephone con browser d'anteguerra, tralasciando l'approfondimento di tecniche migliori di media query o di applicazione di css3 e javascript a siti per veri smartphone.

[Íris Jacomino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great guide for who is interested in developing mobile / tablet applications. It starts from the mobile story, go thought clues for information architecture for this media and explores the mobile 2.0 experience.

And this month the wired cover says the internet is dead. I definitely recommend this book for an easy understanding of the medias today.

[Shawna · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh, it's fine for what it is. But if you already know stuff about mobile design it's not really worth getting. It seems to be an introduction for people that don't know anything about mobile design, and don't know all that much about design in general.