ROI from modifying sites for PDAs(and other devices)

[sitepointRefugee]

I was just reading some interview with Jakob Nielsen, and he was saying how horrible websites are made for devices like PDAs. He was specifically talking about how websites are not designed to be adjusted to these devices. I'm wondering, generally speaking, is it worth taking time to modify your site to devices like PDAs(if it's not done already)? What's the ROI from making such changes? Is it really worth it?

[Mike]

Do many people use PDA's to browse the web?

[chromate]

Obviously Jakob Nielsen, being the voice of "accessibility", has to keep spouting on about stuff like this to maintain his e-celebrity status :) Seriously though, I do listed to most of what he says and occasionally read his blog. Sometimes I feel he goes OTT though.

In the grand scale of things, no, I don't think it's worth spending loads of time making your site suitable for PDAs and other mobile devices - unless your site is likely to be read "on the move."

However, more and more people are browsing the web whilst mobile - so it's something to keep in mind for the future.

[incka]

I might even block traffic from PDAs as they can't see popups and banners, etc.

[megamanXplosion]

If you build a CSS-based design (ie: no tables, nice and clean code with all formatting moved to CSS) it would be easy to enable the viewing of your site in PDAs. Serve the CSS file for the media "screen, projection" so that normal browsers get it and PDA viewers will simply see an unstyled page. It's as simple as that. Is it worth the time to make them work in PDAs? Yes, it doesn't take any effort at all once you know what you're doing.