Creating a mobile version of a website

I have been given the task of creating a version of an existing website optimised for use on mobile phones.

I understand the basic changes needed such as reduced load times, narrower layout width, no fancy JavaScript etc., but would like to know if anyone has any recommendations for a guide to making mobile sites that I could read, or just has any personal points they feel are worth mentioning?

 

there are various hosting companies which provide feature for this in additon to see if you use mobile google that will automatically changes your website and for manually there are various websites of free templates that provide templates for mobile .for example in drupal cms we have mobiles template separately

 

Only thing I would suggest is being careful with styles, especially specific fonts. I noticed that Blackberry's tend to ignore the font you use and just go with their default. I've also notice iPod's showing font differently.

 

I went through the whole chabang a while back for a restaurant here in town.

I found a couple good sites with some info
http://mobiforge.mobi/designing/story/comparison-css-21-css-mp-wcss-and-css-level-1?dm_switcher=true
http://www.developershome.com/wap/xhtmlmp/

See if those help.

 

Log on to well known corporate websites on both mobile device and desktop and see what they did.
You can even leave the same URL and just switch CSS with js. Search for "switch CSS styles".

 

Go for a simple and clean layout. I prefer to have 100% liquid layout as display area (width) varies in different handheld devices .
Avoid much use of JS.
Validate code with W3C mobileOK Checker=> validator.w3.org/mobile/
You can use http://mobiready.com/launch.jsp?locale=en_EN to check readiness of your mobile webpage.
You can download and install various PC/ MAC based emulator of different handheld devices for initial test purpose.
Finally, test your webpage with various handheld devices.

 

Radiant makes a good point about fluid width. Android, iPhone and Blackberry can handle all of that fine.

There is also a FF addon that allows you to view mobile based pages in your browser. XHTML Mobile Profile

 

Text only versions are good for mobile websites. Better avoid blank spaces and fancy decorations, navigation is very hard in mobile phones.