I'd prefer to NOT have a smartphone variant

I find the "mobile" variant a lot of extra work and a problem-causer. Would it perhaps be better to make a web narrow enough to work well on the phone in landscape mode (rotated)? Then it would just be a narrow layout on a desktop, laptop, or tablet. What do you experts do?

Perhaps I just don't know the program well enough, as I only use it once or twice a year. If you think I just need to use F1 more, let me know. However, I saw a friend using his watch to search the web last week! I can't imagine accommodating every device that comes along,

Just my opinion, if I am looking at a website on my iPhone, I don't want to have to rotate the phone, and I want to view in portrait orientation with text that is easy to read and buttons that are large enough I don't have to hit and miss my way to the desired page.

Depending on the website you are designing and the audience for your site, what you are suggesting might be OK. But given most people who visit a site are impatient and want to get directly to the content, if you make this hard for them, they are off to find another source.

Take the time, and do it right.

Google and others now have a mobile-first philosophy. They say you should prioritize the mobile version and derive the desktop and tablet versions from it.

I find it very difficult and unnatural. The artistic side of website development is at its fullest in the desktop version.

Nevertheless, I recommend you have a mobile variant. Google will punish you in its rankings if you don’t. Smartphone users will abandon the site if it's desktop, because it is so difficult to maneuver on the small screen.

The idea of making a landscape mobile variant to serve all devices is also questionable. On large desktops, the text will be enormous, and the images will look like the were painted by Monet.

Why not make your desktop variant, let the software create the preliminary mobile variant, and then do as little as you can get away with to get it arranged properly? You’ll be helping your website’s success a lot.

Good luck.

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Originally Posted by Windjamer

I find the "mobile" variant a lot of extra work and a problem-causer.

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Most people, particularly those below a certain age, browse the web on their phones. Even when they get home they pull out a phone to look something up.

Should making a website be about what makes an easy life for the developer, or should it be about what works for the website visitor?

If you want to do a "proper job" you'll have a mobile variant that works in portrait mode.

Here's a tip: you don't have to squash in everything you might have in a desktop site into a mobile version. Simplify. No tiny text to cram it all in. No tiny buttons.

Do the right thing - it's about the site visitor not the site developer's convenience.

then there are those like me who resist wherever possible using mobile in landscape - i have it turned off - my phone is in a case that protects it well, but makes holding it in landscape awkward and tireing... only when using camera occasionally and youtube etc if necessary...

I guess I expected this response, but being old I'm naturally crabby some days. Like gcellison I dislike working in the small, vertical format. A lot of design freedom has to be tossed out the window.

I could say that much of my user base is older and less addicted to smartphones, but that's changing, even for me. The damn things are just so useful and versatile.

I have been blindsided a couple of times when changes made to elements of the "mobile" version have caused problems with the master. Perhaps I need to read the manual more closely to see what is linked and what is not.

Thanks, people, for your input and advice.