h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I apologise if this has been raised before, but I can't find a previous conversation.

Something that needs to be fixed is the /pda/ skin. I saw it for the first time on a mobile phone today, and it was dreadful.

Firstly, it didn't pick up that a mobile was browsing, which meant that it defaulted to Brunel. The only easy way of changing the skin to /pda/ was to go in and alter the URL. Nobody except a seasoned h2g2 user is going to do that, ruling out 99% of casual users.

Secondly, once you got there, it didn't format the page so that you could read it from a mobile. The BBC website does this very well; h2g2 does it very poorly. If you have a chance, just have a look how they differ.

This conversation came about because I was looking to write a new EG entry on a pub I visited last night. It's the sort of thing you want to look at on the hoof, so I thought I'd have a look on a mobile to see what it would look like.

I'm sure that the BBC would alter this, as it would bring h2g2 into line with the rest of their stuff, but I thought it needed mentioning. As part of the original concept of h2g2, being able to search and read on mobiles easily should be at forefront of any new skin design, especially as more and more people are using their mobiles for this.

Thanks!

Vip

Seconded, The mobile internet market certainly in the UK has hottened up a lot recently and even I went for an unlimited braodband internet on my mobile for what works out about the cost of a pint and a half of beer a month
And I find H2G2, a site otherwise I'd use a lot on my mobile, is almost utterly unusible; First, most importantly as far as I'm concerned, I've never been able to log myself into H2G2 from my mobile, because the sign in button just isn't picked up as a link by my software, which well I guess that is a bit of an accessibility flaw in how it's displayed...

The PDA version is a tad pants. Unless things have changed recently all you can do is read the Edited Guide: not particularly the interactive mobile experience originally envisaged.

Opera Mini allows normal access to the whole site but h2g2 doesn't suit the 'Mobile View' particularly well. Trying to find your 'My Space' is a nightmare!

Thanks for these comments. Very useful.