When I designed www.AgingSafely.com I took into consideration web standards and different browsers. One thing I didn't consider was people viewing the pages from the business card sized screens of today's smart phones. Recently I was able to test some of these. I didn't consider them as even usable 18 months ago.
I track the users of this site using Google Analytics and noticed a few access via devices with a 320 x 240 screens. A few viewed several pages, so they must have been able to actually use the site. This prompted me to borrow a couple devices and see how well they worked.
Apples iPhone was the first one I tested and the best. It worked the first time and didn't require any browser setup. It supported JavaScript, CSS, and Ajax's XML Http requests that our Listed Home pages relies on. The pages rendered as well on the iPhone as they to in Firefox, just a lot smaller.
The Amazon Kindle was my second device. This black and white only device is sold as a book reader not a web browser, but it does come with Sprint's high-speed wireless broadband, a 5" x 7" screen, and a web browser. When I tried www.AgingSafely.com with the Kindle it almost worked. I had to figure out how to enable JavaScript and CSS, and then the device was able to view most pages. The scroll wheel acting as a mouse took some getting used to but worked. The Kindle didn't support the XML Http requests, so that the Listed Homes page and others that required Ajax were unusable. It rendered the images on the page ok, but wouldn't render the web site's menu. The menu that appears at the top of the each page actually lives at the bottom of the page as a simple list and is forced to appear at the top via CSS's absolute positioning. The rendering as tab images is also done via CSS. On the Kindle the menu was at the bottom and in text. However, it did work.
The last device I tested was a Blackberry Curve on an AT&T data plan. It didn't support XML Http requests, and only partially supported CSS. It was the slowest at rendering the pages and getting data. However, it was usable except for those pages that used Ajax.
It appears that Smart Phones are moving into the arena where they may be usable as web browsers. However, web sites are taking advantage of features such as CSS and Ajax faster then the phones are incorporating these features. iPhone seems to be the exception. However, the small screens of the phones still make them unusable as web browsers except for the most simple of tasks.
If you have a smart phone and would care to check out how well the smart phone works with this web site, please try the site (including searching on the Listed Homes page) and leave a comment with the results.