I browse the web.
Extensively.
Both while I'm at work (for work purposes, of course), and when not (which means I'm researching something or reading up on what I should be working on next). In this endeavor, I employ any web capable device I can lay my paws on, be it a desktop (Linux, Windows, Mac), a laptop (MacBook Pro, Macbook Air, Ideapad Yoga, Satellite), a tablet (iPad Air, iPad 2, iPad Mini with Retina display), a smart phone (iPhone), or an e-reader (Kindle e-Ink, word!). And if I'm really, really, really desperate, through the embedded web browser on my TV.
All of which means, that I experience the web in about as many ways as one possibly can (sorry Lynx hasn't gotten any love in a long, long, long time), and often have to contend with websites not necessarily designed with every browser in mind. I'm normally quite considerate to the web-site designer, especially if I'm using a device that probably isn't very widely adopted (e.g. kindle e-ink or TV browser); it is a special situation created by my choice of non-popular device, and so the onus of consumption is on me. On the other hand, quite often, my medium of consumption is an iPad or iPhone, and I'll land on a website that is "mobile friendly", and yet is infuriatingly ill fit to be browsed on a mobile screen. These are the ones I take strong exception too.
While mobile device capabilities have increased astronomically since the days of the hand-held monochrome LCD "video" games, mobile devices still often remain constrained in their screen real-estate (some necessarily due to their functionality: I can't imagine favoring a device the size of iPad Air as my phone for any length of time over a better sized hand-held). There is a fair number of websites that are still not "mobile friendly", i.e. which were designed with the facilities of a desktop browser and desktop sized screen in mind, and consequently browsing these on a hand-held requires constant panning and zooming. I don't take exception to these.
I don't begrudge these web sites and authors because the non-mobile websites were probably created before the mobile phenomenon, and haven't been updated since (either due to passivity of the original authors, or the lack of funds etc.).
The websites of late where I do take exception, are the ones that profess to be mobile "friendly", and in their efforts to be mobile compatible, go a little too far. I'm talking about the websites that recognize the mobile browser and prevent viewport scaling. What this means is that the user is UNABLE to pinch-zoom and pan to read the material.
I find this decision by web-designers increasingly frustrating. A humble and sincere request to all web-designers and web-masters of the world: PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE, (emphasis and stress to indicate pleading and not yelling), do NOT limit the scaling, unless there is very good justification for why you need to solidly fix the web-site layout. If the text size isn't big enough, it makes for an incredibly infuriating experience for the reader.
Just as law makers cannot know all the ramifications of their regulations on the society at large. web-designers too cannot ascertain how their users would prefer to consume their material. Unnecessary and ill-designed restrictions only lead to frustration in the populace.
I understand that not all content creators might be aware their template has this restriction built in. So here's a tip on what "causes" this particular frustration, and how to resolve it.
Website scaling is typically restricted with a meta content tag as below:
meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=no"
notice the maximum-scale and user-scalable fields.
If a web site does not have a very strong functional need to stay fixed, please consider dropping the maximum-scale property and setting the user-scalable to yes (user-scalable=yes).
Your mobile users will thank you. I certainly will.
Thanks in advance.
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