Adapting Content to Mobile Devices

Adapting content for mobile devices is a subcategory of adapting content for on-screen display. Developing content for on-screen display is a relatively new area of rhetorical study and theory. Most of the current studies and theories focus on adapting content to computer screens. But as handheld devices become more advanced and readily available, their use warrants its own subsection of displaying content.

Handheld devices share some of the considerations of displaying on-screen content in general. In his article, The Shape of Text to Come, Bernhardt suggests nine attributes that distinguish on-screen texts from printed ones. Current research suggests that some of these concepts, like being situationally embedded; functionally mapped; modular and hierarchically structured; and navigable, apply to hand-held devices as well as less portable ones (e.g., computers).

Although handheld devices display content on-screen like any computer, they present unique challenges to technical communicators. Handheld devices are smaller and have less room to present information. They require a clear organization of information and clear navigation between related information. They are used as supplementary sources of information rather than primary ones. Increasingly, however, users of handheld devices are demonstrating a need for more complex types of information retrieval, and designers must adapt content accordingly. It is important to make handheld content clear and functional to accommodate new, more sophisticated user tasks.