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MOBILE CONTENT WRITERS - BLOGOSHPERE |
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| Archived Blog June 6 - June 14 Text Disabilities and Clix |
 Blog Homebase (Most Recent) Blog Archive 06/14/2007 Last Comic Texting 06/12/2007 News Releases News Views 06/08/2007 Touch Technology Disabled for People with Disabilities 6/07/2007 Too Many Clix Blox Content Pix 6/06/2007 How Many Words/Lines Per Mobile Page/View? 5/31/2007 Is Winking Linking Web 2 Cells? 5/25/07 PR 2.0 Tricks Revealed 5/24/07 Lost Clues in Cell Phone 5/22/07 Twit Happens 5/21/07 Is Web Expression the Best Web Developing Software? |
June 14, 2007Last Comic TextingBy Lynn Walford Last Comic Standing is a fun show to watch and they offer text messaging
service, that appears to be quite profitable. They showed an opening to a
joke on on the screen, such as "Why did the comic send his punchline via
SMS?"(this question I made up because I can't remember their silly
questions.)In order to get the "joke," you have text a number for a 99 cent fee, plus any other text charges. A one sentence reply for 99 cents!  On the LCS website you can also subscribe to a monthly joke-a-day service
for $2.99 a month. Searching the page, I found an e-mail address which
lead me to their SMS provider, Telescope Inc., the company that did the text
voting for American Idol and many other projects which they refer to as
"participation TV."Typically the U.S. carrier gets 50% of the fee, notes an article about Telescope. Which lead me to the punchlline for the joke, "Why did the comic send his punchline via SMS?" "Profit." That one word answer would have cost you 99 cents. SMS, jokes, |
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June 12, 2007News Releases News ViewsBy Lynn WalfordI find it interesting that one news release service, where we posted our news release shows how many "views" the page has received. Unfortunately, they can't tell me how many people actually read it. :) Who knows if it was viewed by a bunch of bots trolling for data that didn't understand a word or a real human. We'll see. news, News Releases, |
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June 8, 2007Touch Technology Disabled for People with DisabilitiesI ran into Dr. David Rogers, a clinical geneticist whom I wrote about in the Los Angeles Times several years ago. Dr. Rogers was having trouble operating Mac products with touchpads because he is a quadriplegic who uses a mouth stick.Although he can operate a Palm device such as a Treo that uses a stylus with a mouth stick, he can not operate an iPod or the touchpad on the iMac. I thought touch screen specialist, Geoff Walker could help him but unfortunately since Dr. Rogers does not have the ability to move his fingers, the type of touch technology used on the aforementioned devices and iPone, can not be operated by him. Geoff Walker wrote Dr. Rogers an excellent e-mail explaining why an device other than a human finger could not operate the touch technology which he cc:ed to me. I hope that Geoff Walker brings up this issue to the touchscreen developers and publishes the information. It is interesting to note that a very high number of people with disabilities use cell phones and very likely would want the high-end functionality of the iPone. This leads me to the conclusion that mobile content writers when developing content should be aware of the needs of people with disabilities in order to write content that everyone can use. disabilities, handicapped, touchsreen, touch |
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June 7, 2007Too Many Clix Blox Content PixBy Lynn WalfordMediabistro is covering mobile media news. I found this amusing entry about a Strategy Analytics study: "Report: Good Luck Finding Mobile Content" - Among the major carriers, the number of clicks required to buy music from your phone is anywhere from 18 to 39. - To download a mobile game, it requires a minimum of 17 clicks, and that's on the carrier with the least number." They didn't mentioned that the clicks were probably happening while driving or sipping coffee with the other hand. There has to be an easier way to deliver content without virtuoso piccolo finger dexterity. |
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June 6, 2007How Many Words/Lines Per Mobile Phone Page/View?By Lynn WalfordWhen I write anything I always ask "How Many Words?" In the world of small mobile screens, the number of words and sentences per page that can be seen and absorbed at once are very low. I've just been trying to calculate word count and sentences for an average cell phone. I used an online emulator which looks like 120 x 160 pixels or it could be as large as the Motorola RAZR2 240 x 360 pixels. In the early days of web development, the rule of thumb was to design pages for the lowest common denominator monitor which was 600 pixels wide. The desired width grew to 800 pixels. Now I am seeing many websites wider. Really good designers write code to reformat the page for different viewing screen. So how in the world can we calculate how many words and sentences can be easily viewed on a cell phone screen? Here is my latest calculation on what looks good to me: 
5-6 sentences per page
About of 5-6 words per sentence. In other words, about thirty words per page which may be pushing it. I personally find it easier to read only one or two sentences at a time on the smallest of screens. In the world of journalism we could write 700-800 words, then the web cut it down to 300 words, now the mobile screen takes it down to 20 words. What kind of content can deliver is so few words? We'll see. I will be reviewing a new product that emulates mobile screens, once I get my hands and words on those screens, I may change my word calculations. |
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