Is Responsive Design dangerous?
In my opinion, Responsive Design can be dangerous.
I design based on what I feel the user wants to see, not based on making sure I can fit it on a smaller screen.
Yes, my site works great on a smart phone, but I did not design it with a mobile first, Responsive Design mentality.
The reason it works great on smart phones is most run at a high screen resolution, and many desktop sites work well on them.
All mobile sites and apps I have seen are not as nice as using their desktop version. It seems something is always missing on the mobile view, or it just does not feel like I am getting as much information on each screen.
I find myself continually choosing “Request Desktop Site” from my browser, so I don’t have to deal with a mobile view that was loaded by default, even though I am on a very high resolution mobile device that handles all desktop sites nicely.
According to w3schools, in 2014 86% of all browsers were at least 1280 wide. This is a big change from 2006, when 83% of all browsers were 1024 width or less.
So if you design a website with that statistic in mind, I think you can safely focus on what the user wants to see, rather than on Responsive Design.
As I said in my previous post “NAR Survey Says What about Mobile?“, don’t get caught up in the false hype when you read about what percentage of users are now visiting your site on a mobile device. That is really useless data, what is most important is browser resolution stats and giving users what they want to see.
Jspeck
Posted at 20:32h, 02 JanuaryA high resolution screen has nothing to do with usability. Ever zoomed in on a site on the desktop when using a high resolution desktop screen? I do often as most sites aren’t responsive to the users needs. Most desktop websites do not work well on smaller screens as you claim. Please back up your claims with real data. They are uninformed and misleading. Regarding your website, it does not work well on mobile. I have to zoom and scroll all over the place to use it. Your also using tables for the layout on most pages which totally flies in the face of semantic HTML and especially HTML5 which you claim to work with in your bio. There is zero HTML5 in your sites code. It also destroys usability, screen readers and logical search indexing. It’s terrible code and your post is very misleading. You even have a mobile specific search page. Why would you have that if your desktop site works so well on mobile? Please, remove this post. It has zero grounds in reality and zero technological merit whatsoever. You do not know what your talking about even in the slightest manner.
Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 12:01h, 03 JanuaryYou comments back up my point.
The point is not to get so caught up in Responsive Design and making sure that you don’t have to zoom and scroll at all that you eliminate a lot of great data.
It seems your number 1 goal would be to create a site that does not need to be zoomed and scrolled.
This is a dangerous way to design, because you end up eliminating a lot of great content that does not fit perfectly.
Real Estate is a huge purchase, if you give a buyer the choice between scrolling a bit or having less information on the home, they will choose to get the most information, and if it takes them a few seconds to scroll or zoom, it is worth it to them.
They certainly don’t care about whether tables are used or HTML 5, they only care about getting as much information as possible in the best format possible. I do use HTML 5 where needed. I also use jquery, php, MySQL, Javascript, etc. However, I don’t get hung up on what technology I use. I am hung up on showing clients what they want to see, and I use what ever technology gets that done.
If you put the format of the website and code ahead of what the users want to see, that is dangerous and could prevent a great site from being developed.
Regarding my mobile site it was designed a long time ago and hardly used because people do prefer my desktop site. I have left it there for those that do prefer it and for SEO purposes as it is indexed.
Regarding your claim about data, I gave the data in my previous post, on my website most mobile users use my desktop site, they do not use the mobile site, because they get less information, even though it fits well.
The bottom line is I design based on what the user wants to see, as I said in my post.
If a little scrolling and zooming on certain screens upsets you that much, I think you are heading down the dangerous path of putting Responsive Design ahead of what the public wants to see.
Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 12:10h, 03 JanuaryRegarding removing my post you seem to have almost a religious commitment to Responsive Design.
You are saying “it is either my Religion or nothing, I don’t want to even hear your opposing view, please remove it.”
In my opinion you need to have an open mind and hear opposing views. There are pros and cons to be considered with everything, nothing is perfect.
Having an open mind allows you to continually improve your website.
Having a my way or the highway mentality shuts down that creative process of considering all options in web design.
Jspeck
Posted at 20:44h, 02 JanuaryFurther, you requesting a “Desktop Version” is not because the site is responsive. It’s because they have mobile version of the site which mean the site is NOT responsive. Responsive design is about having one site that works across all devices hence the name responsive. It does not mean that there are separate sites for mobile and desktop. You don’t even know what responsive design is yet your attacking it. Please stop.
Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 12:04h, 03 JanuaryGood point, but my point is Responsive Design can also cut out data that I like to see, and my point is I like the Desktop version formatted like a Desktop site. I don’t want a mobile site or a responsive designed site if it cuts out seeing as much data on the screen at one time or cuts out some data permanently.
Tanner
Posted at 20:23h, 22 JanuaryResponsive design DOESN’T cut out data. That’s the point of it being responsive. It responds to the browser size, and lays out the information accordingly. This isn’t an article about responsive design at all. It would be better titled “Why simplified mobile sites are dangerous”, to which the replies from anyone with a lick of design sense will be reiterations of “well duh”.
Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 20:36h, 22 JanuaryI respectfully disagree.
I have seen responsive designs that actually removes data to get things to fit when using a phone vs. a full browser, so they actually do cut out data in some cases.
I am not saying all cases, but in some cases it does cut data, and that is where it can be dangerous, in my opinion.
I know on my site some of the best screens can’t be done using responsive design, there is just not enough room on a phone to show all the data in the format my clients like, so you either cut it out, or don’t offer it in responsive design.
I choose to keep offering all the data and it not worry about the responsive design, and I believe my users appreciate that.
Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 20:41h, 22 JanuaryI also think my title is appropriate as Realtors are not going to ask for simplified mobile sites, they are more likely to ask for a responsive designed sites.
My point to them is don’t get too caught up in making it so responsive where you take away data, thereby taking away some of the value of your website, in order to make it fit that tiny phone screen.
Malcolm Lewis
Posted at 13:14h, 03 JanuaryResponsive Design is about making sure that a website is as useful and usable on a mobile device as it is on a desktop. Concepts like resolution, pinch and zoom, etc. are simply tools for attaining that goal.
Re browser resolution, bear in mind that 1280px on a 5″ smartphone screen is a lot harder to read than 1280px on a 13″ laptop screen or a 20″ desktop monitor. And that most smartphone/tablet screens are used primarily in portrait mode, whereas laptop/desktop screens are permanently oriented in landscape mode.
Also bear in mind that consumers on mobile devices are typically in “snacking mode” – ie they are looking for quick bites of information. This is different from consumers on laptops/desktops who are generally more likely to dig deep for extended periods of time. I would guess that most agents’ goal would be to hook the mobile user and give them enough reason to dig deeper when they have access to their laptop/desktop.
Of course, we could hypothesize on what users need and want forever 😉 So here’s a couple of cool tools for anyone who wants first-hand empirical feedback on what users think of their mobile site.
1) Peek (http://peek.usertesting.com) – See and hear what users think as they use your site.
2) Qualaroo (https://qualaroo.com/products/mobile) – Survey your users in real time.
Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 15:43h, 03 JanuaryGood points Malcolm.
My only concern would be if you only put out the “snacks” for those in snacking mode, they might not understand you offer a ten course meal.
They might think these snacks are pretty much like the snacks I get on every other site, so they keep moving around until they find that ten course meal, whether it ends up being on their phone or laptop just depends on what they are on at the time.
Regarding the testing, thanks for the links. I am probably going to do a separate post about user testing, as I have some strong opinions on that too.
You mentioned “as useful and usable”. This is true, but not easy to do. It is not easy to make a website as useful when in portrait mode on a phone as it is when in desktop mode. This is not just a coding issue, it is a space issue. This is why I choose to let users use my desktop version on their phone. It is the same site, so it meets the just as useful criteria. Yes, you have to scroll or zoom sometimes, but in my opinion, that still means it is usable.
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