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

[kzuich]

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.

[kzuich]

I'm not sure what the situation is like where I live (data plans here can be $$$$$ if it's your primary device and you aren't on wifi), but that's a good point for sure!

[candycanearter07]

I personally try to at least offer an alternate layout for mobile, using css grid as my primary layout makes it really easy to move around to look better on mobile phones. As a hot tip, you can set your browser into mobile view using the developer console to make it way easier to figure out a good layout!

[dream]

The average American spends about 4.5 hours per day on their phone. That's over 1 day of each week! Gen Z is actually higher at over 6 hours per day In comparison, Computers is 3.5 hours per day and TV is about 3 hours per day.

With that said, I actually don't see mobile layouts / responsive web design as being part of the problem because I define this problem not by device type but by how tech is used, people's values, norms, culture, and like things.

For some people, it's hard to find time to sit down at a computer. For example, single mothers or fathers, caretakers of elderly. Some, as @lina pointed out, may not have access to a computer, such as younger folks or people with tighter budgets. Then, some folks simply feel more comfortable using smartphones (e.g they grew up with one and without a computer). Some of these people might be studious about limiting their screen time each day but just prefer or need to spend that online time with a phone.

I think tailoring the website to suit your visitors is what makes sense. Mobile is about half of web traffic, so making your website pleasurable to experience on mobile is positive.

One idea is to consider including things on your website encouraging tech health, life balance, etc. It's not just a message for mobile users, but for any user. Better to inspire and motivate than deny or reduce user experience, in my opinion.

[candycanearter07]

I think tailoring the website to suit your visitors is what makes sense. Mobile is about half of web traffic, so making your website pleasurable to experience on mobile is positive.

I went to check my goatcounter stats, and amazingly, its almost exactly 50/50 mobile to computer stats recorded (give or take about 50 people). Personally, I like having a mobile layout for myself, so I can double check something without getting out my laptop.

[cozy]

I think it's a good idea to make an effort towards mobile compatibility or a separate mobile theme, even if it's not perfect. As was said previously, many people have only access to a mobile device and not a PC or laptop.

Personally, I try to keep those people in mind. I may not have it perfect yet but I'm working on it. I don't really browse on a phone or tablet, but if other people do, I still want to welcome them!

I've seen some people make a notice that their website is not mobile-friendly, and I think if you're going to avoid mobile compatibility, then it's a good idea to at least include that kind of disclaimer

[bingus_baby]

As a result of how my site is coded, it's pretty tolerable on mobile. Everything squashes down based on monitor size, but looks best on desktop. It looks decent on other devices I would say. But I also don't think too much about it, since tbh I don't care. The only thing that scales badly is the margins, but if I fixed that I would look bad on desktop, so mobile users... JUST ROTATE THE PHONE :sob: I hate when mobile users complain about that. It's a tall screen, just rotate it.

[cairo]

With that said, I actually don't see mobile layouts / responsive web design as being part of the problem because I define this problem not by device type but by how tech is used, people's values, norms, culture, and like things.

I feel like this sentence sums it up beautifully. 'Device etiquette' is tangled across so many other topics/conversations.

OP mentioned their personal journey with wanting to regulate their mobile screen time- stories like that get me excited because I just know that same bug will bite so many people in the coming decade!!

To answer the question though, my site was originally going to be desktop-only, but near the 90% mark I realized which parts might actually look really cool on a phone and decided to include mobile support. Im in the camp that page elements should be optimized for mobile OR hidden entirely. (Deeper than 'display: none'. I found some lightweight JS to not even call an element on mobile.)

Lastly, and this extends to somebody visiting from a phone or a computer- I always want to be ultra-considerate of people's time and attention. The worst part of Web 2.0 is how blatantly disrespectful sites are to our attention. I think the fact you're even thinking about 'not wanting to be part of the problem' as a developer is evidence that you almost certainly won't be 

[Skykristal]

With that said, I actually don't see mobile layouts / responsive web design as being part of the problem because I define this problem not by device type but by how tech is used, people's values, norms, culture, and like things.

This I agree with as well! Well said.


Personally, I find responsive web design very important to have. Not only because I myself am a phone user and search the internet via phone due to the fact that a desktop isn't always easily accessible / or a phone is quicker at the moment I need information etc, but also because I know many other people who use a phone to visite my/websites, in general, appreciate being able to view its content and navigate.

The internet is being used in one way or another. So I don't think it really matters in terms of consuming/healthy habits. I mean yeah, depends on the individual how they decide to use and not use something, but in a general sense, it's not making much difference. What it does is people will simply go to another website that is accessible to them instead. The downside is you have fewer visitors and your content is read/viewed less (by all the mobile users at least). At least in my experience, when I browse via phone and the website is a big mess, I don't spend time exploring that site and move on. And by the time I'm on a desktop, I've already forgotten about it or don't remember the url/name nor do I care enough to bookmark.

[larvapuppy]

My feelings about this topic are conflicted, but in short I don't think anyone should feel negative pressure to code for mobile. I think it's a great thing to do if you want your site to be accessible to more people, especially those who might not be able to afford a computer or those with disabilities that make using a laptop/desktop difficult. It's also not very difficult to learn how to do it, especially if you're already handcoding your own html and css. But, I acknowledge that it does take some amount of time and effort, which is why my own site isn't 100% responsive. It also somewhat limits your options for artistic expression because you're worried about how things will look on different types of screens. My strategy so far has been to code primarily for desktop and then edit that code to make it more responsive later on as I have time. I encourage others to do the same if you're able, but I also won't judge anyone if they choose not to. The only people I judge are those who are overly hostile to mobile users with passive-aggressive warnings on their sites, or those who call owners of non-responsive sites evil lazy ableists. It's really not that deep guys.

[wygolvillage]

My take on indie web design is that it should exist purely for the webmaster and the experience they want to have/create. I try to make it so all my text is at least readable on mobile but I make little effort to try and conform my site's design to an environment it wasn't made for. My site is made for a computer, and that computer is my computer specifically, because it is mine.

I sort of feel the same way about this that I do about people criticizing a movie for not being "audience-friendly". Like, maybe art doesn't entirely exist for the audience, actually.

[PurpleHello98]

I only ever use my smartphone's Internet browser for quickly e-searching information I need, so I don't really think about my site's mobile accessibility at all. But I just checked it out on my iPhone, and it seems to display just fine, aside from the font size being a bit different in the sidebar compared to the main frame. So I don't feel much of a need to adjust anything until I change my layout entirely. I prioritize compatibility with older computers moreso, given that that's what I like to use (hello from Windows XP!), but I don't go out of my way to make it inaccessible from smartphones, and I think doing one can help the other, as I'm often prioritizing for smaller screen sizes, etc. (There's a surprising amount of Web revival sites that need a screen resolution of 1080p or above to display!)

[musicobsessed107]

My website is optimized for PC users like myself. I even have a neat little stamp on the homepage of my website that says clearly that it's optimized for personal computer (aka desktop or laptop) users.

Part of it is laziness and not caring at all to try and insert a completely separate lines of code just to make it more "mobile friendly" since it looks and works just fine on a computer screen, and that's all I feel really matters anyways (even more so given the focus of my website), plus another part of it is me not wanting to feed into that ever growing problem and further encourage mobile device addiction as someone who knows what it's like to be nearly tethered to such a device at all times before realizing how unhealthy this is starting in July 2021 and then starting to wean myself cold turkey in May 2022 and still feeling like owning a smartphone at such a precocious age (ages 11 - 16 1/2) has caused some harm to me and stolen the remainder of my childhood and early teen years that could've been spent doing better things with my spare time instead of staring at a tiny slab of glass rectangle mindlessly all day almost everywhere I went. For those reasons, it would simply just be better for me to continue focusing on the experience that people visiting my website on a personal computer like how people did in the good old days of the internet/technology did instead.