I am currently building my website from scratch. I have never done that before and I am wondering if I should optimize my website for the phone.
I want to build a late 90's inspired website (they were not optimized for the phone back then) but since so many people got smartphones these days (with some people only browsing the web on the phone and not on a PC at all), I am concerned if I would be missing out a great deal of visitors for my site if I choose not to optimize it for the phone.
Should I optimize (and in the process, my website will lose its late 90's charm) or not optimize? Do you think all websites should be optimized for the phone?
Top comments (7)
Interesting discussion, I think especially in light of what you're attempting to do with creating a website that has that late 90's aesthetic (possibly a bit of that brutalist design)... it would be cool to be able to provide that kinda design but marry it with modern conveniences like being responsive to different screen sizes (i.e. phones!).
I don't really have an answer for ya. I do think it's ideal to "meet the users where they are" — so if they're using a device, you're website can be consumed by them. But, I also don't wanna tell you to compromise on your plan because I think it's awesome!
I wonder if there'd be a way to do both. Like how some folks websites allow people to toggle light/dark. Maybe you could have a 90's toggle that reorganizes the page to that aesthetic. 🤔 Perhaps on phone, opening the page defaults to the normal aesthetic, whereas opening on a computer defaults to 90's. This might be more trouble than it's worth, but it would be a good best-of-both-worlds scenario.
I believe so. The phone is the most convenient device for browsing the internet. I usually access websites on my phone, and if a website isn't mobile-friendly, I tend not to revisit it.
Since you mentioned aiming for a nostalgic 90s charm, shouldn't that also apply to mobile devices?
It depends on your goal. Want to go really all-in with the 90ies experience? Ignore phones (or even provide a WML version - granted that would be more of an early 2000s thing). But if you still want to reach mobile phone users you might have to find some middle ground.
Goal and middle ground, got it. Thank you for your comment!
It depends on a site purpose. E.g. if you aim to create something like dashboard with all those pie charts and tables with tens of columns - then I would not even give a try to optimize anything for mobile (except for iPad pro, may be).
But if we talk about a site like this one - which is for articles and pictures - then I definitely would start from a mobile perspective at priority.
You got some excellent points there, thank you! 🙂