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Ask DN: Is a mobile site still a good option?

over 9 years ago from , Design Director @ Benchmark

Hey DN, I need your advice for a... ahem.. friend.. If your site is hundreds of pages and you don't have time to make it all responsive just yet... which would be a better option?

A) Create a separate mobile site

B) Incrementally move to a responsive site by changing major pages and navigation first

C) Is there another option?

Would love all thoughts an advice.

11 comments

  • Vladislav ArbatovVladislav Arbatov, over 9 years ago

    Option A would be your choice. B seems inconsistent and your users could get lost in page layout changes while navigating. There is no harm or shame in mobile site. As long as your users have access to key features and information — this is what matters.

    2 points
    • TJ TaylorTJ Taylor, over 9 years ago

      Good perspective, thanks!

      0 points
      • Vladislav ArbatovVladislav Arbatov, over 9 years ago

        Actually there is a simple idea behind mobile web presentation. Average user does not give a shit whether your site / app is responsive or there's a separate version or whatever as long as it loads fast, is glitch-free and provides values user needs. And this is where the business question comes — is it necessary for you to provide a mobile presentation as fast as possible and then maintain a separate mobile version for a who knows how long or to take time and make site responsive and lower costs in the future.

        1 point
  • Thomas McClureThomas McClure, over 9 years ago

    Some great advice from Brad Frost: http://bradfrostweb.com/blog/post/responsive-strategy/

    1 point
  • Account deleted over 9 years ago

    How many templates is it? How much css would have to be changed? You said it's hundreds of pages, but are those pages all significantly different?

    With option A, you're probably going to end up throwing away all of that work when you do have the time to do a full responsive website. If we assume that a site should get redesigned every two years at least, then what's the benefit of creating a separate mobile site?

    1 point
  • TJ TaylorTJ Taylor, over 9 years ago

    Thanks so much for all of the feedback! I am so impressed with this community, you guys are always there when I need you!

    0 points
  • Mikey ClarkeMikey Clarke, over 9 years ago

    I’d rule out option A. The technical costs of supporting this over time are not worth the short term gains.

    Using a separate ‘m.’ domain will require you to keep those links in tact long after you move to a fully responsive site. In addition, to provide a good user experience you’ll also want to ensure that visitors to ‘m.’ get redirected back to the desktop site if they’re on a desktop browser since people share links from mobile.

    You’ve also got the cost of maintaining two sites in your codebase, and likely using some pretty precarious sharing of resources. You’ll also have the concern of avoiding penalisation by Google et al, which can be difficult.

    The incremental option is likely to result in significantly less technical debt.

    0 points
    • Jake Lazaroff, over 9 years ago

      If the goal is to move eventually to a fully responsive site, it should be simple to redirect all 'm.' links to their subdomain-less counterparts.

      That said, having a separate mobile site is not necessarily a bad thing. If the goal is eventually to unify the two, then I would agree that starting afresh might be more trouble than it's worth.

      However, if the way the user would interact with the two sites is different enough, I would say a mobile site is a much better option. Look at Facebook and Twitter, for example. Both of them host dedicated mobile sites on separate subdomains, and I think it's pretty clear that the experience is better than if they tried to shoehorn everything into a responsive site.

      Ultimately, it all depends on your site, the content, and the way you interact with it.

      1 point
      • Mikey ClarkeMikey Clarke, over 9 years ago

        Very true, having and sticking with a dedicated mobile site is not always a bad idea.

        But I was specifically addressing using a mobile site as a stop gap to get to a single fully responsive site, as the question seemed to suggest is the intention here. In which case I’d suggest that the technical issues make a separate mobile site more trouble than it’s worth.

        I speak from a somewhat painful experience ;)

        0 points
  • Sam SolomonSam Solomon, over 9 years ago

    How often does that content change? You want to be careful creating a separate mobile site if that means having two codebases/content management systems to maintain. You don't want to create more work for your friend.

    0 points
  • Owais FarooqiOwais Farooqi, over 9 years ago

    Go for option A if you see more user coming from mobile device

    0 points