Mobile Website Design Mini-Course Volume V: Responsive Resources

Have we said all we can say about mobile website design? hardly. There are thousands of great resources out there for an aspiring mobile designer to sink their teeth into. Here are some of the best.

Broader Concepts
Start here for the ‘big picture’ of responsive web design. If you’re not sure why you’re looking into responsive design, or what it can do for you, why it’s a better website for SEO, or you just need a refresher on the basics, this is where to start.

• Future Friendly
• Mobile First
• One Web

The Dao of Web Design

• Content First
• Axes of responsive design
• COPE: Create Once, Publish Everywhere
• Mobile-First Responsive Web Design
• RWD: Missing the Point

Frameworks, Platforms, and Guides
These are the shortcuts that you need to jump in with both feet — the scaffolding on which you can build your responsively-designed mobile websites.

• W3C Best Practices
• Global Authoring Practices for the Mobile Web
• PhoneGap- Create Applications with HTML and Javascript
• MoFuse Mobile Platform
• Mobify Hosted Platform
• Wapple Hosted Platform
• iWebKit for iPhone and iPod Touch
• Bluetrain Mobile – Hosted mobile website platform
• jQTouch – jQuery for mobile WebKit
• Yahoo! Blueprint Mobile Platform
• mobiSiteGalore – free website builder
• Mobi10 Hosted Platform

Validation, Emulators, and Testing

Once you’ve used the frameworks and platforms above to get a prototype going, you can use these tools to test your work and make sure your page will do what you intended it to.

• Nokia N70 / Sony K750 Emulator
• BrowserStack – desktop and mobile emulators
• Mobile Grader – See how your website performs on mobile devices
• Opera Mini
• Device Anywhere – supports 1,500+ devices
• mobiletest.me – several device emulators in one place
• ready.mobi page/site check
• W3C mobileOK Checker
• Mowser – View the mobile version of any site

Of course, there are thousands more resources — and a vast quantity of expertise that you’ll never attain just by going through lists of resources. Only time and experience makes a great responsive website designer. But this list is a great place to start.