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> No reason you couldn’t build a basic bitches version of the site that works on old devices, then route traffic these based on user agent. Why isn’t this just

> No reason you couldn’t build a basic bitches version of the site that works on old devices, then route traffic these based on user agent. Why isn’t this just the site? I love Spartan, ugly, functional sites. That’s what the government should build, always. They should have style guidelines that are basically “no style”. You’re not competing with anyone, there’s no need to look good. Function, function, function.

secfirstmd 6y ago
There can be a medium. US Gov sites generally look awful. The UK Gov Digital team have done a way better just of standardizing things in ways that look nice.
bretpiatt 6y ago
Part of function is layout. It isn't any more difficult to grab Bootstrap or some other out of the box framework that'll give a good consistent look than it is to go "no style".
- dreamcompiler 6y ago
  Or jquery, the original IE glue library.
afavour 6y ago
One reason that comes to mind is that a lot of people browse on mobile devices. These days a site really ought to be responsive to mobile viewports and a lot of “basic bitch” government sites are not.
- adrianN 6y ago
  Plain old HTML is responsive. It stops being responsive when you start trying to make it look good.
  - afavour 6y ago
    I’m not convinced that’s true. Case in point: tabular data. I don’t think presenting something in a table is an attempt to make it look good, I think it’s the most logical and recognisable way of presenting certain kinds of information. But tables don’t scale well on a mobile viewport without extra work.
    - Aeolun 6y ago
      Reasonable tables work fine on a mobile viewport. It’s when you get into crazy ones that it breaks down.
  - canofbars 6y ago
    Plain old HTML stops being responsive as soon as you try to do anything more than text. A plain HTML table would be horrible on mobile. If you want to reflow anything that isn't text you will need flexbox. There is literally no reason to not use CSS to make a site that works well on mobile and desktop.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

secfirstmd 6y ago

There can be a medium. US Gov sites generally look awful. The UK Gov Digital team have done a way better just of standardizing things in ways that look nice.

bretpiatt 6y ago

Part of function is layout. It isn't any more difficult to grab Bootstrap or some other out of the box framework that'll give a good consistent look than it is to go "no style".

dreamcompiler 6y ago
Or jquery, the original IE glue library.

afavour 6y ago

One reason that comes to mind is that a lot of people browse on mobile devices. These days a site really ought to be responsive to mobile viewports and a lot of “basic bitch” government sites are not.

adrianN 6y ago
Plain old HTML is responsive. It stops being responsive when you start trying to make it look good.
- afavour 6y ago
  I’m not convinced that’s true. Case in point: tabular data. I don’t think presenting something in a table is an attempt to make it look good, I think it’s the most logical and recognisable way of presenting certain kinds of information. But tables don’t scale well on a mobile viewport without extra work.
  - Aeolun 6y ago
    Reasonable tables work fine on a mobile viewport. It’s when you get into crazy ones that it breaks down.
- canofbars 6y ago
  Plain old HTML stops being responsive as soon as you try to do anything more than text. A plain HTML table would be horrible on mobile. If you want to reflow anything that isn't text you will need flexbox. There is literally no reason to not use CSS to make a site that works well on mobile and desktop.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]