While we, as developers, think about best ways to serve images to different devices and resolutions or about how we can adapt the navigation to various screen sizes, many people get more and more annoyed by the mobile “experience” they have to deal with.
An URI is unique and everywhere the same, isn’t it? #
Dear websites, every time you redirect me to your “mobile” site and just cut off the path of my URL, a kitten dies.
— Thomas Fuchs (@thomasfuchs) February 6, 2012
Thomas Fuchs puts it in a nutshell, it’s just a pain in the ass if you don’t serve the content the user wants to see. This users will think twice the next time before clicking your link and of course will never ever share your link. So, if you don’t have the requested content available on your mobile site, do yourself a favour and show the user your “normal” site instead.
Don’t crop your cont… #
Just because somebody is using a smaller device to view you site, it doesn’t mean they also want to see a stripped-down version of your content. Some days ago I saw a conversation on reddit.com where somebody says, that he prefers desktop sites over “mobile” sites, because some of his favourite sites show a neutered version on his phone.
Therefore, always keep in mind that there is no excuse to serve a stripped-down version, never ever. Never!
In your App #
Another really annoying practice is showing a Pop-up where the user gets invited to “Download the brand new and super shiny App NOW”. Providing native App’s is great and it’s also understandable that you want to promote it, but please choose another way. Many users, including me, just don’t have the nerve to close these Pop-up’s.
Once again if you don’t have adapted your site for mobile, just serve us your “desktop” site. If you have good content, I may read it on a regular basis anyway and may also prefer to install your App someday, but I will never install an App just to get to see the content I want to see now.
Conclusion #
Just because “everybody” is really exited about mobile, and Responsive Design seems to be the new Web 2.0, do yourself a favour and don’t act too hastily to get your site ready for mobile. A bad mobile site is much more bothersome than serving a “desktop” site to all devices.
That said, I would never advise someone, not going responsive, but you can see at the examples above, how “easy” it is to loose potential users.