Responsive Design vs Mobile Site

[Landman]

Hey all,

I'm new around these forums. Just want to get everyone elses opinion on something.

I run a social network and looking to convert the site to a responsive design. But I'm not sure if I should make the site responsive or specifically make a mobile version of the site?

What is your opinion on Responsive design vs a mobile site?

Thanks,
Landman

[tracknut]

It's a good question. I've been leaning toward responsive design, because "mobile site" has been getting more and more vague over time. It used to mean "smart phone size" of something like 320px by 480px, but now we have tablets in the mix, and if you wanted to really do a mobile site you'd have to have about 5 different sites to cover all the options. Responsive design via media queries handles all that very easily.

Dave

[Landman]

Thanks Dave! Appreciate the feedback.

[StevenHu]

A responsive web design is the way to go, I think. I just finished an app using RWD techniques and I am really happy with it. I'm using Zurb Foundation for it. So, holding the tablet device sideways, you'll see a list of categories on the left and their detail pages on the right. But if you rotate the device (or view it in a smartphone), the list disappears and the detail fills the page. The list of items becomes a drop-down at top.

The trick for you will be to show and hide items at smaller and larger sizes. For instance, a smartphone user won't need all those tiny icons showing all over the place, nor column after column of data, but all that can be comfortably viewed on a tablet device on its side.