I was analyzing my site stats when I noticed there was one visit from a person using a Playstation Portable. My first thought was, “That’s so cool!” PSPs are so clunky to use for browsing the web because there’s no keyboard. You have to type keypad-style. I felt honored because they had chosen to visit my site, and they even stayed for three minutes.

My next thought was, I wonder what it looked like? Because portable screens are so tiny, most users see only a tiny square of the site, unless it was especially designed for mobile users. The bulkier the header, the more a user has to scroll to see any content. In the mobile world, it’s not about the design, it’s about the content. Therefore, emphasis should be placed on making it easier to access this content, and not on how spiffy and dynamic the effects are.

I’m going to fire up my own PSP and see for myself what my website looks like through it. Designing for mobile devices is fairly different from designing for the general population. Because of the limitations in screen size, rendering technology and input devices, it’s usually best to create a separate site dedicated to mobile browsing. Is it worth it for me to do this? Well, considering so far it’s been one whole user, maybe not. But it would definitely be a good exercise in UI design for me.