[Neil Anthony]

I appreciate that this should never need to be an option - if a responsive design is done correctly then all versions of the site (ie. different viewport widths) will offer an acceptable user experience (especially if 'mobile first'), and there should be no need for the old 'view full site' button that you see on alot of mobile sites.

However, I am looking to turn a currently fixed-width site responsive, and I am worried that if I do, there will be ALOT of murmurings about how new is bad, and change is evil (this is for a large community site with a large number of users, most of whom are not the most forward-thinking).

Again, I appreciate that if a responsive site is done right the experience should be usable by all at any screen resolution. The issue is that no matter how well done it is, users will still complain simply because it is not the same on all devices. And because this is not a new site, it is an old design being adapted to now behave responsively, users are accustomed to seeing the site the same on all devices and so will likely become confused.

And so I fear I will need to add the option of viewing the full site - this is common on mobile sites, a button which just links to the main site pages, but I have yet to see this be done on a responsive site, does anyone have any good ideas as to how to do this?

I imagine it will involve javascript to apply CSS, or write in a CSS file on click to fix the necessary widths/heights/sizes etc, and some kind of cookie usage(?) to remember the users preference so that they don't go straight back to the responsive site once they click a link?

Any ideas anyone???

[Renaissance-Design]

I'd suggest using a cookie to pop up an informational modal on the user's first visit explaining that the site has now been optimized for their resolution.

[BlueDreamer]

Welcome to WDF

Giving people the option of using a "desktop" display really means that you won't have a truly responsive setup, and have to use two site versions, eg one version for desktop and possibly tablets, and another for small screens (ie how the BBC do BBC news). You could probably have one site and use a cookie to remember display preferences but that sounds a bit messy to me

[porkchops]

Out of curiosity, how do you know your users are used to seeing things the same on different devices? That's some pretty specific user feedback.

Either way, I think Chris has the best approach. A simple (non-obtrusive) popup that explains what the user will see and then switch them.

Most people will appreciate the more user-friendly design they'll get with a responsive site, even if they don't recognize it right off the bat (or at all).

This post has been edited by porkchops: 20 December 2011 - 02:28 AM

[Gopal Juneja]

Hi there,

You can go through this article for responsive design

http://csswebstandar...ive-web-design/

Thanks,

Gopal

Neil Anthony, on 19 December 2011 - 06:19 PM, said:

I appreciate that this should never need to be an option - if a responsive design is done correctly then all versions of the site (ie. different viewport widths) will offer an acceptable user experience (especially if 'mobile first'), and there should be no need for the old 'view full site' button that you see on alot of mobile sites.

However, I am looking to turn a currently fixed-width site responsive, and I am worried that if I do, there will be ALOT of murmurings about how new is bad, and change is evil (this is for a large community site with a large number of users, most of whom are not the most forward-thinking).

Again, I appreciate that if a responsive site is done right the experience should be usable by all at any screen resolution. The issue is that no matter how well done it is, users will still complain simply because it is not the same on all devices. And because this is not a new site, it is an old design being adapted to now behave responsively, users are accustomed to seeing the site the same on all devices and so will likely become confused.

And so I fear I will need to add the option of viewing the full site - this is common on mobile sites, a button which just links to the main site pages, but I have yet to see this be done on a responsive site, does anyone have any good ideas as to how to do this?

I imagine it will involve javascript to apply CSS, or write in a CSS file on click to fix the necessary widths/heights/sizes etc, and some kind of cookie usage(?) to remember the users preference so that they don't go straight back to the responsive site once they click a link?

Any ideas anyone???