17 Hints

Despite the restrictions imposed on the wap designer, there is still much scope for creativity. Here are some ideas to think about.

Card names.

The title attribute of the card is displayed statically on some browsers. This gives scope for different effects. On the West Derby Soccer site, a decision was made for continuity to keep the same title on all cards. Each site is different, so do experiment with the title attribute.

Image text.

The alt or alternative text can often cause confusion on entering a site whilst logos load. Looking again at the West Derby site, each image has an alt text of (picture). No confusion here, but the images add only to the aesthetics of the site and are not critical for titles or navigation. experiment with alt text until finding what works on your site. In all cases it is recomended to use brackets around all alt text.

Card length.

As decks are split into cards, it is tempting to split large blocks of text across several cards, requiring links between them. This can become tedious for the user. In many cases the text may be easily fitted on one card. Once you become accustomed to using the wap system scrolling down large chunks of text becomes natural and speedy, and preferable to link after link. Of course if there are different subjects in each section, links are probably best.

Combining decks.

When clicking a link, we have no idea if it takes us to a new card or a new deck or even a different server. Don't be afraid of using a new deck instead of a new card. Linking between is smooth, and the user need never know and would not care.

Horizontal Rules.

There are no Horizontal Rules in wml. In their place create a centered paragraph comprising only a line of full stops, dashes or underscores just wide enough for one line on the smallest browser display. Use a break tag at the end of the line, followed by a None Breaking Space symbol to create some vertical space around the line.

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