Agreed. The time for arguing against this evolution is over. This will become *very* evident with the upcoming Mobile-First Index [webmasterworld.com] which should change General Search Engine Marketing significantly.

The big screen gives way to the small screen, and the way to get there is responsive. Hollowood (sic) figured that out decades ago when they created their tv production units.

The web is doing the same thing ... and if you want to play, you have to change.

I hope the irony is not lost on those who have been apart of WebmasterWorld for 10-15 years or more. Back then, discussion revolved around the screen width of 800px and how to get as much information above the fold. Then it moved on to discussing filling ever widening screens: 1,500, 2,000 or more pixels in width. Now it is back to making it work on a smaller screen far smaller than 800px. Nothing like going full circle.

Been talking about the full circle thing for a while. :)

When I started 320x200 was the screen and 110 baud was the delivery.

I retained a 640x480 (scaled res) well into 1024x768 general use and did not go full screen until shortly after.

It's not about screen sizes. If you limit yourself to that level of thinking, you'll never really understand why the world has gone mobile.

Mobile has little to do with computers, but that is always what the curmudgeons will compare mobile to.

Mobile is about independance and choice. Making your voice count when giving a restaurant 4 or 5 stars. Impressing your friends by posting a photo of where you were today. Getting driving directions step by step as you venture across town. Having access to the world no matter where you are.

And a responsive layout gets your site on that wonderful device that keeps toping the sales charts.

keyply, it is all about res, landscape, and what can be displayed. Too many threads on ww feature that struggle by the webmaster. Mobile is nothing special, other than it is in the hand while walking into traffic, walls, or ponds, and in use by those who have no need for a computer these days (and never wanted one).

We are seeing a seismic shift in end user experience as the "phone" has supplanted the AT ONE TIME REQUIRED desktop to play on the web. That's the shift, that's the change, and it is a change that is a downscale presentation from desktop. Responsive is just how we do it these days.

The mantra "it's not about screen sizes" is disingenuous and misleading at best. It is the small screen.

And where the ads are placed. :)

Tangor - on your *smart* phone what is the screen size and resolution?

So maybe we can determine just what you're seeing.

What you can read, or what you can read after zooming it?

Nothing is etched in stone, other than making sure the product can be displayed.

And what smart phone operates at 4k resolutions?

Let's keep this real. The AVERAGE phone screen is smaller than the average desktop (1980, usually) and those that can achieve that resolution have a screen less than 5", so only the eagle eyed can view them unless they change their zoom settings. One has to take into consideration the USER and what they can actually see.

Do I own one? No. Do I have 10zillion friends who have them and show me their stuff? Yup. This thread is about responsive layout and screen size/real estate is part of that.
A retreat to earlier concepts, and perhaps a refresh on presentation. Like Marshall I find this "full circle" amusing, not a problem.

Besides, just a query, how many folks use their smart phones in landscape v portrait? Makes a difference in presentation. :)

For more fun, see this page on resolutions, using FF Web Devlioper responsive view. See if you can view it without having to scroll forever, or change zoom...

[en.m.wikipedia.org...]

My mistake... I thought you had a smart phone.

There is an old adage that "less is more." Making a site responsive is not an issue. What I find is when a site tries to cram too much in a small space while trying to keep as much as possible above the fold. Personally, I gave up my cell phone 6 years ago. I work from home and have a land line. But I do have some I use via internet connection to test my designs. Bottom line, the trick is not making a site responsive, that is easy, it is making it sensible responsive. The KISS principle still applies. Just my opinion.

@Marshall
I'm with you, no smartphone, work from home.

keep as much as possible above the fold

The concept of fold doesn't exist in the mobile world. The user will often start scrolling a page before the ATF content has finished loading (specially ads).

a site tries to cram too much in a small space

With the mobile first index coming, taking the KISS approach (I interpret this as a stripped down view) may not be best approach. I think content presentation is one the most important aspects of mobile page design. The key is to present the content such that it is all there, but that it is not crammed and that it is easily scrollable/accessible.

Unfortunately, using tabs and other UI tricks to improve human readability is sub-optimal from Google's perspective. As tabbed and hidden content is devalued by Google's algo. I understand their logic for doing this, but I strongly disagree. For example, on my pages I use a lot of graphs. Users want to see the graphs, they don't immediately care about the underlying numbers. After some time reviewing the graph they may want the added detail of the numbers. So I tab the content top tab, graph, hidden tab table with numbers. Google now crawls the pages, sees the graph's but does nothing with them (as they are <svg>) and then devalues the hidden content, the numbers, which are in fact a means of describing the graph and should allow Google to interpret the content. The alternative is to simply present the all the content in a flat structure, but then you end with a page that scrolls and scrolls and scrolls.

I use via internet connection to test my designs

I simply use the emulator built into Chrome/Firefox. It is not like you can have a phone for each screen size. I do rely on friends and family, to double check for browser compatibilities.