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There’s a debate over which technique of creating mobile-ready websites is the best.

Google advocates creating responsive web designs, while Jakob Nielsen, a renowned usability consultant, endorses the creation of dedicated mobile sites (but he was subsequently slammed by some web designers).

A third option is also gaining in popularity, where the web server renders the appropriate HTML and CSS from the same URL depending on the device a web page on the site is being requested from (which has been referred to as responsive design + server side components).

This article will discuss each of these methods.

Real-world examples of websites using a particular method are provided under each section.

The mobile device used to test and gather data for all examples is an iPhone 4 using iOS 5.0.

Responsive Web Design (RWD)

Responsive web design (RWD) typically uses CSS3 media queries to adjust the layout of a web page based on the size of the user’s viewing area. You use the same HTML to display a different web page layout for desktops, tablets, mobile devices, TVs, etc.

Advantages of Responsive Web Design

• Content parity: Your site contains the same content and HTML markup regardless of the device being used, providing your users with a similar experience. This will grow in importance as more people rely on their smartphone as their primary means of accessing the Web.
• A single URL for web pages: This makes it easier to share and link to your content. No redirection is needed to get devices to their optimized view (compared to a dedicated mobile site).

Disadvantages of Responsive Web Design

• Content won’t be fully optimized for mobile devices: Unless you use a mobile-first approach, your web pages will contain the same information as its desktop counterpart. Compare this to a separate mobile site where you could potentially tailor the content of a web page just for mobile users.
• Slower performance: The average web page today is about 1.3 MB, according to January 2013 data from HTTP Archive. It’s possible to prevent unnecessary downloads when using RWD, but in practice, most responsive web design sites are the same or bigger in size. 86% of the sites tested by mobile performance researcher Guy Podjarny were the same or greater in size, as reported in a presentation about mobile site performance.
• It can be more difficult to navigate the site: Mobile users generally want to perform different tasks than desktop users. They may also be more accustomed to mobile-specific UI design patterns. Unless you customize the navigation structure for each device, there could be usability problems.

Examples of Responsive Web Design

Starbucks

The Starbucks website is an excellent example that shows the pros and cons of responsive web design. All of their content is accessible on mobile devices, each page uses the same URL, and there’s no redirection.

Unfortunately, their site is a heavy download (about 15 seconds on a 3G smartphone) and there’s a lot of scrolling needed in order to read an entire web page.

Performance results:

• Average load time: 14.99 seconds
• Average page size: 1,193.88 KB
• Number of HTTP requests: 142

World Wildlife Fund

The World Wildlife Fund website is a good implementation of responsive web design. Navigation is optimized for mobile tasks.

However, load time is a bit slow on a 3G smartphone (it took about 7 seconds). Also, some inner pages (e.g., their Adoption form) haven’t been optimized for mobile devices and are painful to use on my mobile device.

Performance results:

• Average load time: 6.91 seconds
• Average page size: 885.97 KB
• Number of HTTP requests: 72

The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe website is arguably one of the best RWD implementations for a large-scale website. The site uses responsive images and optimizes JavaScript so it doesn’t kill performance on mobile devices.

Performance results:

• Average load time: 5.55 seconds
• Average page size: 605.27 KB
• Number of HTTP requests: 87

Resources on Responsive Web Design

• Responsive Web Design: What It Is and How To Use It
• Creating a Mobile-first Responsive Web Design
• Determining Breakpoints for a Responsive Design
• Which Responsive Images Solution Should You Use?

Dedicated Mobile Site

Some websites optimize the experience of mobile device users by creating a separate mobile site.

The most common implementation is for the desktop website to redirect to a subdomain (e.g., mobile.examplesite.com for examplesite.com.)

Advantages of a Dedicated Mobile Site

• Easier to make separate changes to the mobile and desktop sites: Changes can be limited to the mobile version only or desktop version only.
• Faster load time: Since you’re developing only for mobile sites, you can streamline and optimize your mobile site specifically for the mobile user experience.
• Easier to navigate: The navigation structure and content is customized for the tasks performed by mobile users.

Disadvantages of a Dedicated Mobile Site

• Multiple URLs for each page: Sharing a web page on social media becomes an issue, because mobile users will share the mobile URL, but desktop users may click the link and get the mobile version. To prevent duplicate content SEO issues, you’ll need to use the rel="alternative" and rel="canonical" meta tags. Also, when a mobile user searches on Google and clicks a desktop URL in the search engine’s results, they’ll either see the desktop version or be redirected to the mobile version of the page. If the mobile version of this page doesn’t exist, they’ll get an error.
• Different content and functionality: The purpose of creating a dedicated mobile website is to tailor the site specifically for mobile users. This can mean cutting out content and functionality, resulting in a different experience.
• Content forking: You have two different sets of content, which could create a content strategy nightmare.
• Requires redirection: Mobile users will need to be redirected to the optimized view, and vice versa. Redirection adds to a page’s load time. It can also have implications on your site’s SEO.

Examples of Dedicated Mobile Websites

Walmart (mobile.walmart.com)

Walmart’s dedicated mobile site clocks in at a blazingly fast 1.35-second load time.

Performance results:

• Average load time: 1.35 seconds
• Average page size: 272.29 KB
• Number of HTTP requests: 45

Amazon (www.amazon.com/gp/aw/h.html)

Much like Walmart, Amazon’s separate mobile pages are faster than the responsive web designs I tested, (it clocked in at 2.25 seconds load time).

What’s strange, however, is that not all pages in their website have mobile-optimized versions. For example, if you do a Google search from your smartphone, many of Google’s results point to desktop pages that don’t redirect to a mobile-optimized version. Additionally, if you access the mobile page directly from your desktop, you aren’t redirected to the desktop version.

Performance results:

• Average load time: 2.25 seconds
• Average page size: 103.66 KB
• Number of HTTP requests: 16

BBC (www.bbc.co.uk/mobile)

BBC’s separate mobile pages are fast compared to the responsive web pages I tested (3.40 seconds), but nearly half of that time is spent redirecting mobile users to the mobile page (1.65 seconds).

Unlike Amazon’s separate mobile pages, if you access a mobile page from a desktop you will are automatically redirected back to the desktop version.

Performance results:

• Average load time: 3.40 seconds
• Average page size: 56.04 KB
• Number of HTTP requests: 22

Resources on Dedicated Mobile Sites

• Webinar on Mobile-izing Your Organization
• Duda Mobile Website Builder
• Mobile Detect
• WURFL
• Device Atlas

RESS: Different HTML and CSS from the Same URL

This method of creating a mobile-ready website uses server-side programming to render custom CSS and HTML for different devices. Mobile users would get one set of code, while desktop users would get a different set of code.

The primary purpose of this implementation is to improve website performance.

This method works best when combined with a responsive web design.

This implementation has been referred to as responsive web design + server side components (RESS).

When using this method, it’s important to include the Vary HTTP header (read about this on Google’s guide to building smartphone-optimized websites) so that robots will crawl both the desktop and mobile versions.

Advantages of RESS

• Easier to navigate: The navigation structure can be customized for the different tasks performed by mobile and desktop users.
• Less page bloat: Instead of relying on display: none; or visibility: hidden; to hide page elements for mobile devices, they can instead be removed from the HTML or CSS. This will reduce the amount of data downloaded and speed up load time.
• Faster load time: Unnecessary JavaScript can be removed from the HTML, which frees up CPU, memory and cache on the mobile device.

Disadvantages of RESS

• More server resources: Dynamically building the HTML will increase the load on the server.
• Requires device detection: Mobile users will need to be detected. Device detection is unreliable.

Examples of RESS

CNN

The mobile version uses HTML and CSS that’s optimized for mobile performance, while the desktop version uses significantly more HTTP requests and JavaScript.

The navigation has also been tailored for mobile-specific tasks.

Performance results:

• Average load time: 3.46 seconds
• Average page size: 163.12 KB
• Number of HTTP requests: 28

eHow

Like CNN, the HTML and CSS for eHow’s mobile version is tuned for performance. The top-level navigation is the same for both sites, with an emphasis on search and their seven content channels.

Performance results:

• Average load time: 6.15 seconds
• Average page size: 188.95 KB
• Number of HTTP requests: 31

SlideShare

SlideShare’s mobile and desktop versions are completely different. The mobile version uses a responsive web design, while the desktop version doesn’t. Each site uses completely different HTML and CSS. There’s significantly less JavaScript in the mobile version. Each site also uses a different navigation structure.

Performance results:

• Average load time: 6.15 seconds
• Average page size: 188.95 KB
• Number of HTTP requests: 31

WordPress.com

WordPress.com’s mobile and desktop versions are nearly identical, with a few differences:

• The mobile version has an http-equiv attribute, while the desktop version doesn’t (<meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="IE=10">)
• They each use a different stylesheet
• The mobile version places the novalidate attribute within the <form> tag, while the desktop version places it within a form <input>
• The mobile version has a News link in the footer, while the desktop version doesn’t have a News link anywhere in the page
• Some JavaScript was removed from the mobile version

Performance results:

• Average load time: 2.77 seconds
• Average page size: 118.40 KB
• Number of HTTP requests: 19

Resources on RESS

• Drupal users: The Mobile Detect PHP class can be used to handle user agent detection, while Drupal Theme Switch will switch to a theme optimized for mobile devices. To add the Vary HTTP header hint into the HTTP header, use the drupal_add_http_header function.
• WordPress users: The easiest solution is to go with WPTouch, but this plugin doesn’t add the Vary HTTP header. Alternatively, you could go with Any Mobile Theme Switcher to switch to a mobile-optimized theme. Learn how to modify your HTTP headers for your WordPress site.

Summary

In theory, responsive web design is the best solution. But in practice, most RWD sites aren’t implemented optimally and result in slower load times.

According to my tests, having a dedicated mobile site results in the fastest load times, but there’s significant downsides with this implementation. I’d only go with this if performance was top priority.

My personal preference is to go with a combination of a Responsive web design and different HTML from the same URL (RESS). This provides all the benefits of RWD while overcoming its two biggest downsides (more files to download and slower load time).

What method are you using for building mobile-optimized sites? Please share your thoughts on this subject in the comments.

Related Content

• The Takeover of the Mobile Web (Infographic)
• 10 Solutions for Creating Cross-Platform Mobile Apps
• Helping Your Clients Build an Effective Mobile Strategy
• Related categories: Mobile and Web Design

About the Author

Johan Johansson is a Senior Web Developer at Pixelmade in Vancouver, Canada. He has developed over 350 websites during his 17-year career. His free time is consumed by his 2-year-old son who won’t take "no" for an answer. You can follow Johan on Twitter @johansson_johan.

Finding Meaning in Math

Michele Osherow admits it: she was a math-phobe.

As a professor of English and the dramaturge for the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Osherow had managed to avoid the subject— until the Folger chose to stage the play Arcadia, which is based on the lives of mathematicians.

“I was stuck,” she said, “because I did not understand the sophistications of mathematics at all.”

Osherow turned to her UMBC colleague Manil Suri, a professor of mathematics and novelist, for help. She enjoyed their discussions so much that she invited him to talk to the actors; the actors found him so helpful that the theatre invited him to talk to the community; the community’s reaction was so positive that a video of Suri’s presentation has been viewed nearly 7,000 times.

Their joint effort might have ended there had Osherow not been leading UMBC’s Humanities Scholars program at the time, in which freshmen take a seminar that is usually team-taught by faculty in two different disciplines.  “I couldn’t help but wonder if the excitement that I felt hearing mathematics described by Manil might be extended to these freshmen,” Osherow says, acknowledging that she felt some guilt for subjecting unsuspecting humanities students to mathematical concepts.

Suri saw things differently. “I was so excited – these poor humanities students had been deprived of math, and now I was going to bring them mathematics,” he said.

That tension—Suri’s excitement for math combined with Osherow’s discomfort with the subject— created a unique experience for freshmen last fall.

“I was pretty cautious at first,” said Christine Cruz ’15, history and political science.  “As it turned out, math was so much more interesting than I gave it credit for. There is so much about it that actually applies to the humanities, and I discovered many connections between the two.”

Those points of connection were what the professors sought out in the course, starting with the assigned summer reading: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a novel with a self-proclaimed mathematician as the protagonist. If students were surprised to be reading a book that featured math, Suri was in for a surprise as well.

“Suddenly I had thirteen papers to grade. I’ve never graded a paper before; I don’t think I’ve ever even written a paper before.  It was horrifying – I spent three hours and hadn’t even graded one,” he laughed.

But the conflicts between the disciplines went deeper than questions of grading. One issue that confronted the two professors often was that of precision. Suri, as a mathematician, was accustomed to starting with a complicated problem and finding a concrete answer; in the humanities, students are taught to start with a specific source, such as a poem, and finish with a multilayered interpretation.

“Manil would say ‘mathematics is such a precise discipline,’ and I would say, ‘but so is poetry.’  The difference is that with poetry, the precision occurs in the creation of the piece,” said Osherow.

Over the semester, Osherow and Suri exchanged hundreds of e-mails, revised the syllabus and spent their weekends planning the next class.  They explored topics such as patterns in literature, the media representation of mathematicians and how math can tell a story.  Several months after the class ended, there are still topics that can prompt good-natured arguments between them, such as Osherow’s push to include King Lear because of the concept of “nothing,” which recurs throughout the play.

“If you told me a year ago that I would start off a lesson on King Lear by saying ‘King Lear was really bad at math,’ I would have said you were crazy,” Osherow said. Though Osherow included the text partially because, as a Shakespeare scholar, she felt that it was something she understood well, her own comprehension of it evolved throughout the class discussions. Although the professors set out to discuss the play as it related to the mathematical idea of “zero,” they soon discovered that the play also explored human worth and how that worth is calculated.

Exploring themes in the text that were new even to the professors teaching them was both challenging and fascinating for students. “[The King Lear unit] was something I struggled with,” said Desiree Sterling ’15, interdisciplinary studies. “Yet, it was still a connection worth considering and I was inspired by the interesting ideas exchanged during this unit.”

The course wrapped up with students creating projects that combined math and the humanities. For both the students and the professors, the course has affected their thinking in lasting ways. “I think the students figured out a way to exist in a world, and a university, where they’re going to have to approach topics of different degrees of difficulty that are both within and without their field,” said Suri.

Cruz agrees. “The course showed me I have the capacity to understand more about difficult subjects than I gave myself credit for, and it also helped me branch out and think critically in ways that I hadn’t before,” she said.

“It was absolutely a challenge, but I am very proud to have participated in this seminar,” said Osherow. “I think that a place like UMBC, which so fosters interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and research, was the ideal place to do it.”

Read a related article by Osherow and Suri in “The Chronicle of Higher Education”

Below, see a video where Osherow and Suri discuss the course:

(3/13/12)

Hardware

The first experience in using the Chromebook is that on first glance it has a lot of similarity in looks to the Mac Book Air. Instead of polished aluminum you get gray plastic; however the keyboard screen and trackpad are all of acceptable. The weight is 2.6lbs (vs 2.38 for the 11in Macbook Air). On the back is the power plug, two USB slots, and a DVI link connector. The screen resolution is 1366 x 768. 

When fully charged, the battery will last about 9 hours in regular usage of web and wifi. Bluetooth is available if you want to hook up a bluetooth mouse. I did not test out the bluetooth extensively but it is likely that bluetooth will cut down on the battery time.

Software 

My Experience

Buying Advice

A book by psychology professor Robert Provine, “Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccupping, and Beyond,” was named by the Library Journal as one of the “Best Books of 2012.” The book is filled with research conducted by undergraduate students at UMBC working in Provine’s lab.