

Responsive: A Task for the Developer or the Device? - cal5k
http://myplanetdigital.com/article/responsive-task-developer-or-device

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quarterto
Semantics schemantics. You can't possibly expect a device to competently
translate your design into a layout that makes sense for both the content
_and_ the screen size.

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hello-yoshi
Howdy, original author here.

@quarterto, agreed you can't expect a device to completely decipher all forms
of content but you can ask it to do much better. You also can't expect a
developer to deliver for all form factors.

@rnassar, agreed on the alternative forms of consumption. We can probably move
more of that into the devices natively.

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quarterto
Form factors, no. Screen sizes is reasonable.

p.s. didn't notice this until just now because it wasn't a reply to my comment
and so didn't show up on <http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=quarterto>

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hello-yoshi
My bad on the reply (or lack thereof). I agree to date responsive gives a
generally better experience for most sites. I don't think however it's the
best solution for mobile design.

It compromises usability through a changing of the interface, there is no
reduced markup size and it's a very costly endeavour.

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jordanmoore_
Bad responsive design compromises usability - good responsive design applies
itself to the context and enhances usability.

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rnassar
Should also consider completely alternative means to consume web information
on mobile devices. Evernote and Instapaper are two tools that have completely
changed how to actually read articles and content. While they don't let you
browse sites in the same way, once you've come to the actual story or article
you are looking to read, tools like this provide a great alternative over a
mobile web browser. Offline reading, article saving and remembering where you
left off are all possible with these tools, but not in a browser.

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marua
@yoshi Agreed, just looking at collective overhead to design across the
prominent form factors now, I fear the day when we have 20 different forms
that need attention.

And I think your suggestion could speed innovation as we evolve new form
factors... rather than convincing the masses to build for your device, a
manufacturer can work from existing conventions to adapt the content to their
particular need.

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madoublet
I would argue that the beauty of web is experience and not semantics.
Semantics are just a means to an end. Responsive design in its current form
gives the designer/developer complete control over the experience. If you take
that away, and allow the browser to define the experience than I think we are
losing something important.

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hello-yoshi
I think there's a place for both. The type of content that is just meant to be
consumed and the design that needs to be experienced.

I agree we shouldn't loose site of the experience, but let's make the
consumption part easier.

