Mobile Responsive Website

[TravG]

With mobile being so popular I am curious how many webmasters have made their website(s) mobile responsive. Personally the only website I have done so with is a mobile specific website I own. My other websites I have not taken the time to make mobile responsive. While they look "ok" viewing with a mobile device, but the text is small and a lot could be done to make it better for mobile users.

[RacingJim]

I have a custom Wordpress template I designed to be mobile responsive and use that for most my sites barring one which I've had a few years and would be hard to make mobile responsive so just leaving that one for now.

[sportsfreak]

Mostly going with the themes from flytonic as basis and good news is they all are responsive by nature, highly recommended actually.

[philgun]

I use Zurb foundation which is a responsive frame work for my new sites. Once you get your head around how it works you can get it to work and flow the content how you want for different screen sizes.

[TheGooner]

Creating a responsive website is not too hard ... creating a version of the website for small screens that still conveys the same information is much harder.

I saw the FIFA created a responsive website for the World Cup ... as did ESPN FC ... both were awful.
Trite things with poor navigation and low informational value ...

It's certainly more of a design challenge than a technical challenge.

[DanHorvat]

I think mobile-friendly site is a must, otherwise you get bad rep when a user happens to visit your site on his mobile device. It might be his favorite site actually but if he sees you don't have a mobile version you'll just look as if you're living in the 2000s. Example: For years now I'm using livescore.com to check the scores, but on mobile it looks lousy, doesn't load properly, doesn't refresh properly, and asks me to download the app. So I just use an alternative site which loads properly on mobile without any fuss.

I wouldn't want to be stuck with a great site which isn't mobile friendly, because then there are only two solutions - create a new design for the mobile site (100% work), or redesign the whole website and get a mobile version automatically created (100% work). Any solution in between would be just a temporary fix and would create more problems down the line. Don't do what livescore.com did.

My main sites are mobile friendly, as they're fresh designs created not so long ago. OddsNavigator isn't mobile friendly but it's in pre-alpha testing stage and it will be an easy fix as I'll just remove the left & right columns, keeping the central one.

I'm against apps as a solution. You can have an app but it shouldn't be the only way to access your site properly on mobile. Many people, myself included, don't like to have too many apps on their phone. Perhaps they just want to visit the site and won't necessarily go as far as making a long term committment by downloading the app.

If anyone needs more detailed advice about their site, just PM me.

[Christiaan]

Some of my websites are mobile responsive. But not all of them. It is extra work and I only do that if it is a big/important website.

[thebay]

I think the industry has now moved away from the pure mobile sites. The screens of smartphones are big enough now so the way to go is the responsive themes. Most of the new wordpress themes are responsive so not much work needed there. Also, responsive sites are great for brand reasons as the site looks consistent from every device.

Cheers,

thebay

[TheGooner]

I think mobile-friendly site is a must, otherwise you get bad rep when a user happens to visit your site on his mobile device. It might be his favorite site actually but if he sees you don't have a mobile version you'll just look as if you're living in the 2000s. Example: For years now I'm using livescore.com to check the scores, but on mobile it looks lousy, doesn't load properly, doesn't refresh properly, and asks me to download the app. So I just use an alternative site which loads properly on mobile without any fuss.

Interesting that you want sites to embrace mobile - but reject the current end game of mobile - the dedicated mobile app. I've got the Livescore app on my tablet and phone and like it.

[p.arena]

I found myself hitting the 'view desktop version' of sites more frequently because of missing information in the mobile versions.

For example NBA box scores often have just the points/rebounds/assists and don't show any other stats that the full site includes (e.g. Yahoo Sports).

Found there was a quick fix in Chrome where you can just click Settings > Request Desktop Version and it automatically shows it each time.

I think it's important to have a quick link to view the desktop version on mobile devices, some sites don't and it can be annoying to a user that is accustomed to the full site.

The WBX site is optimised for mobile and tablet, and when a user first views the site they have the option to choose which interface they prefer, you can see the option page here: http://www.wbx.com/sitepref/

[TheGooner]

Found there was a quick fix in Chrome where you can just click Settings > Request Desktop Version and it automatically shows it each time.

Super useful! Thanks!

[sweetbet]

Some of my sites are mobile responsive. The rest are on my TO DO list.

[p.arena]

Super useful! Thanks!

you're welcome, glad it helps

[DanHorvat]

Interesting that you want sites to embrace mobile - but reject the current end game of mobile - the dedicated mobile app. I've got the Livescore app on my tablet and phone and like it.

I think they're two different things. Some people browse app stores, some people search on Google. The latter aren't as likely to download the app, that's more work than signing up for a newsletter. And it's the website they wanted in the first place, obviously.

Peter brings up an interesting point, some users will want the full desktop version if the mobile one isn't fully functional.

[ocreditor]

All my sites are responsive this is the future

[grem]

some responsive sites are horrible to navigate. Good tip on the chrome settings, didn't know

[robertmedl]

Chrome Mobile Emulation is a great tool.

"Chrome has received a number of improved mobile emulation tools which can be accessed by enabling the Emulation panel through the Settings panel."

[harrisrando]

Is a lot easier this days to make your site mobile friendly, especially if you use Wordpress. I recommend WPtouch Mobile Plugin - they provide enough customization for a free plugin

[baldidiot]

Most of my newer sites are responsive, but not all - for example on a site that reviews and offers flash games I wouldn't make it responsive as the user couldn't play them anyway and I'd rather they come back on a desktop. In this case I may have a banner or alert for a more suitable site for mobiles (eg: a mobile casino games site).

All of my older sites aren't responsive at all though, but most look 'ok' on a mobile (or are at least readable). As gooner said, it's quite tricky to make info-heavy sites responsive especially if you use a lot of large tables.

[TravG]

Some of my websites are mobile responsive. But not all of them. It is extra work and I only do that if it is a big/important website.

I do the same thing. If the website is receiving decent traffic and some from mobile devices I have taken the time to make the site mobile responsive. The problem as others have pointed out here is that is it easy to do with wordpress as you can use a theme that is mobile responsive. The problem lies in getting your content to look right on the mobile. If you are just writing and putting text up it is not a big deal but when you start to add images and some custom looking tables etc, you have to make sure they look right when it goes to mobile. That is the time consumer.

Anyone know of a tool out there that will let you look at the site through different devices? I use to use gomobile to make my mobile sites and you could preview how it looked on different devices, iPhone, Galaxy, Blackberry etc. It was great but I havent found anything out there that allows you to do that if not using gomobile.