Microsoft’s App Hub has released a whitepaper which gives guidelines on how to design websites for mobile phones like Windows Phone 7, iPhone and Blackberry.  These guidelines are provided to assist developers in optimizing Web content for mobile browsers, particularly for Internet Explorer Mobile.

With the dramatic increase in mobile Web traffic and consumer expectations of available high-quality content, developers are presented with a new set of opportunities and challenges. This paper also describes how to target Internet Explorer Mobile, where characteristics such as screen size and orientation come into play.

This paper is divided into four sections.

• Considering Mobile Browsers: This section shares best practices for being considerate of the mobile browsing experience without dependencies on specific browsers or devices.
• Detecting Mobile Browsers: Whether you are reusing content and adapting existing Web pages or creating new content targeted for the phone browser, the techniques described in this section may be relevant and useful.
• Adapting for Mobile Browsers: This section explains how something as simple as adding a single HTML tag to an existing Web page can enhance the mobile browsing experience. Also, by customizing the browsing experience with CSS and JavaScript, developers can deliver the same content with progressive enhancements to both desktop and mobile browsers.
• Targeting Mobile Browsers: This approach may involve repurposing or retailoring Web pages, but focuses more on how to create new content specifically for viewing in mobile browsers such as Internet Explorer Mobile.

Download Whitepaper: MSDN App Hub.