Q&A
Q. I am not familiar with HTML, and I’m worried that I will have trouble building an HTML5 application. Do I need to know HTML 4 before I learn HTML5?
A. Although knowing HTML 4 will make moving forward easier for you, learning HTML5 is a fairly straightforward process. Although this book focuses mostly on HTML5, by copying the code samples provided and looking at the source files for the companion website (www.html5in24hours.com/), you should be able to figure it out.
Q. I already have a website, and I want to make sure that mobile users can get the most out of it. How do I make sure that I am providing what mobile users need?
A. The best way to do this is to ask them. Surveys asking your customers how they access your site and what parts are most useful to them are a good indicator of what they want. But you can also look at your web statistics. If you don’t have analytics on your website, I recommend installing one such as Google Analytics or Piwik to track what people are looking at on your site. After you know what the popular pages are, you can ensure those pages are easy to access in your mobile version.
You can also use your web analytics to see what browsers (Firefox, IE, Chrome, etc.) are visiting your website and how your customers use the site (pages they click on, where they leave, and so on). With this method, even if you can’t get direct customer feedback you can see what features they are currently using and adjust your site accordingly.
Q. You mentioned using a content management system for maintaining a mobile site. Do you have any you can recommend?
A. I use WordPress with the WordPress Mobile Pack to maintain a lot of sites for mobile and non-mobile users.