Yesterday I wrote about the WordPress Mobile Edition template. While the latest version is not perfect, it does allow readers to exit and go to the blog’s normal template so that they can subscribe to RSS feeds and view other parts of the blog.
Imagine you are cruising from one blog to the next, following links, and possibly subscribing to their feed if you like what you see. The rough persona is something like this:
Fred is a blogger who likes reading other people’s blogs. He’s interested in fast cars and high-end gaming PCs, so this is what he often reads about.
One of his favorite blogs has a link to a story about HP’s new range of really expensive gaming PCs. Fred clicks through to the story, reads a couple of others on the blog, and adds it to his RSS feeds.
Anyone not do this?
How does this work for mobile readers? A little background: the usability of blog templates in mobile readers varies quite a bit. Some multi-column templates insist on displaying the left column first. This is OK, except when that left column is totally full of widgets - the reader then has to scroll all the way past them to get to the content. Let’s imagine that Fred is reading his feeds using Opera Mini on a Nokia smartphone, and encounters a blog that uses the latest WordPress Mobile Edition template.
One of Fred’s favorite blogs has a link to a story about HP’s new range of really expensive gaming PCs. He clicks through to the story, reads a couple of others on the blog, and then has to click on the “exit template” link. He then has to wait for the widgets to load before he can click on the RSS feed link. The RSS feed loads, and he can now subscribe to the feed.
Sounds a little complicated? You bet 
Now imagine that Fred comes across a blog that uses a not-so-mobile friendly template:
One of Fred’s favorite blogs has a link to a story about HP’s new range of really expensive gaming PCs. He clicks through to the story, but is dismayed to find that he has to wait for the widgets to load, scroll to the bottom of the page, then click “Next” before he gets to read the story he is interested in. If he clicks on any other link (including previous post/next post), he has to wait for the page of widgets to be loaded prior to scrolling to the bottom of the page, clicking “Next” and waiting to read the content.
Sucks, right?
Rather than say “if they are using an odd browser they must expect weird things” or “my mobile readers aren’t that important to me”, please rest assured that there is a safe and easy alternative. It’s called K2. It works - and it is what I use on all of my blogs. Sure, all K2 blogs look more or less the same out of the box - they all do. The trick is that you can fool around with CSS and differentiate your blog without compromising its usability for mobile readers.
Let me know if you want photographic proof of what I’m talking about above - it was not my intention to target specific template creators so I’ll try and show you what I mean without naming and shaming them.
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