The case for/against mobile layouts from an indie web perspective

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[coolio]

I was having a thought on this- Mobile-first design is pretty much the standard in webdev (it was my philosophy, too, when I began working on my site), but I'm curious to hear anyone's rationale on why they might not do this. I'm debating how accessible to mobile I want to make some of my future, more artsy, projects, and I'd like to explain why.

In 2024, I 100% gave up Internet browsing on my smartphone, because I found it was super destructive to me. I was spending an unholy amount of time scrolling on my phone, and I don't even wanna think about how much time I wasted doing that. Without using the browser on my phone at all anymore, I was forced to more intentionally browse the web. I had to go get my laptop, or go get on my desktop. I couldn't just browse mindlessly in public anymore, or while riding in the car, etc. It has been an amazing change for me, and I have a much healthier relationship with the web in general when I can't just access it all the time.

It got me wondering, though- do I want to be part of 'the problem'? I don't know if I necessarily want to encourage people to find my work and mindlessly stare at it on their phone while out in public...I'm not sure if that makes sense, but when Internet browsing becomes a distraction from real life, like it had become for me, it doesn't feel like I'm using it healthily- it feels like an unhealthy escape from my surrounding. I'm not saying all mobile browsing is that way, but I think a lot of it is.

I don't offer an 'essential' service like banking or email, so I don't really know if I feel as obligated to make sure phone users can access it at any point with their phones.

Thoughts?

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

I'm myself not a smartphone user, so it never was much of a question for me. But I sometimes talk to people who basically don't use computers except for their smartphones. So for the "Digital Museum", I attempted to iron out the biggest hurdles that were reported to me. I don't go over great lengths, for it though - developing for devices that you don't own yourself ain't much fun.

[lina]

i also don't like browsing the web on mobile, and i think it's very restrictive. that said, on many places there is a growing financial gap between people who can afford to not only have a phone but also a computer, and people who can only afford to have a phone. (maybe it's not like that where you live? but it certainly is in many places around the world). so if you can go out of your way and be inclusive, that would be nice.

tbh i don't do so much in that regard, it's my hobby and i want to do what is fun for me, my site has optimized pages and unoptmized pages too... but if it can at least be useable in mobile i'm happy with it.