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I definitely get the annoyance. The problem is, a mobile version of this is a very different thing, to the point that it's essentially a completely new app. Dis

I definitely get the annoyance. The problem is, a mobile version of this is a very different thing, to the point that it's essentially a completely new app. Displaying a broken interface just to display something isn't helpful, even if I realise it makes it harder on the Show HN audience - I generally check HN on my phone too! For what it's worth, I'm not looking at user-agents or anything: it's cutting off at the point where the display starts looking awful. If you zoom out enough (plausible on a tablet, less so on a phone), then it will display as intended.

throw0101a 5y ago
> For what it's worth, I'm not looking at user-agents or anything: it's cutting off at the point where the display starts looking awful. I went to the site on my 27" iMac and got the 'Desktop Required' message. Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/13.1.3 Safari/605.1.15 Resolution per Panopticlick [0] is 2560x1440x24. [0] https://panopticlick.eff.org/ https://panopticlick.eff.org/
- Athenodoros 5y ago
  It's looking at the width, so that some fixed-width elements don't run into each other and wreck the display - if you expand the window a little it should work as expected. For what it's worth, I'm also running Firefox on MacOS, so I'd expect that to work given the right window size.
InitialBP 5y ago
It's not just an annoyance, it makes your site literally unusable on a mobile device. What if I urgently need to access some details of my account and don't have laptop access. If I check "load desktop site" then load the site and let me deal with the broken UI. This is a ridiculous "feature" and the fact that you are defending something like this is a major turn off on ever using this product. What other hill would you be "willing to die on" for some seemingly miniscule yet exceptionally annoying feature.
- rapind 5y ago
  It's open source, not a product. You're coming off as entitled, and he can die on whatever hill he wants to die on. You can fork it, and even submit a PR that would do something like click a button to continue anyways (on a smaller resolution).
  - mushyhammer 5y ago
    Maybe rude but not entitled. Nobody here cares about the product specifically, but it’s shooting itself in the foot and saying it’s a feature; that doesn’t sit well with many. https://xkcd.com/386/ https://xkcd.com/386/
    - monkey_monkey 5y ago
      Incredibly entitled actually. > Nobody here cares about the product specifically, Citation needed. > but it’s shooting itself in the foot and saying it’s a feature; that doesn’t sit well with many. That's their problem, no one else's.
      - mushyhammer 5y ago
        Nah you’re wrong on all counts. If a product makes bad decisions and then the author posts it on HN what do they expect exactly?
      - InitialBP 5y ago
        They don't mean literally nobody cares about the product, just that this conversation isn't necessarily related directly to the product but more about design in general. My original point is just that it's a design that locks people into using the app with a very specific medium and it locks people out of accessing it on another medium with no details about why. That's a pattern that most people would agree they don't like and my comment is meant to be a criticism of that. > That's their problem, no one else's. It was posted in a public forum for discussion, is it really wrong to critique or praise the product in this setting?
- 5y ago
Aeolun 5y ago
Whether or not I can zoom out enough on my phone depends on your website. If you set the mobile screen width in your meta tag to 1280 or something, instead of ‘device-width’, then I’ll be able to use the site fine, as long as I’m willing to zoom and pan a bit.
dananjaya86 5y ago
Fair enough. Maybe the mobile version could just showcase the features and such of the « Desktop » version.
vorejdajo 5y ago
I really think the design should be mobile first. For other mobile users, you can use Firefox+ublock to zap the overlay(Addon>ublock>element zapper> need to zap the entire screen a few times(not just the dialog) until icons are individually zap-able >swipe right twice to exit zap mode). It is designed for desktop and there is some overlap in charts, but looks usable, on first look nonetheless.
quickthrower2 5y ago
I suggest: Pop up warning: This will be hard to use on your screen size, continue? If they click Yes then scale width to screen width (so no scrollbars) If they click No take them to a description page with screenshots.
iamben 5y ago
This looks lovely, well done! Regarding the cut off, why not use: min-width: 1199px; overflow-x: scroll; on the <body> element, and change the 100vw on the 'css-obv7rs' element to 100%? (And you may need some more tinkering, but you get the general idea.) You can still put a mobile popup there ("this has been designed for a desktop"), but mobile users can pan around if they wish - degraded experience, but can use if they're desperate.
- Athenodoros 5y ago
  That's a good idea - hard to believe that I didn't think of "min-width" considering the amount of other CSS that had to go into this, I wish I'd come up with it myself 12 hours ago... I've just updated it, everyone should be getting an updated version now (clearly there's interest!). Thanks for the thought!

throw0101a 5y ago

> For what it's worth, I'm not looking at user-agents or anything: it's cutting off at the point where the display starts looking awful. I went to the site on my 27" iMac and got the 'Desktop Required' message. Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/13.1.3 Safari/605.1.15 Resolution per Panopticlick [0] is 2560x1440x24. [0] https://panopticlick.eff.org/ https://panopticlick.eff.org/

Athenodoros 5y ago
It's looking at the width, so that some fixed-width elements don't run into each other and wreck the display - if you expand the window a little it should work as expected. For what it's worth, I'm also running Firefox on MacOS, so I'd expect that to work given the right window size.

InitialBP 5y ago

It's not just an annoyance, it makes your site literally unusable on a mobile device. What if I urgently need to access some details of my account and don't have laptop access. If I check "load desktop site" then load the site and let me deal with the broken UI. This is a ridiculous "feature" and the fact that you are defending something like this is a major turn off on ever using this product. What other hill would you be "willing to die on" for some seemingly miniscule yet exceptionally annoying feature.

rapind 5y ago
It's open source, not a product. You're coming off as entitled, and he can die on whatever hill he wants to die on. You can fork it, and even submit a PR that would do something like click a button to continue anyways (on a smaller resolution).
- mushyhammer 5y ago
  Maybe rude but not entitled. Nobody here cares about the product specifically, but it’s shooting itself in the foot and saying it’s a feature; that doesn’t sit well with many. https://xkcd.com/386/ https://xkcd.com/386/
  - monkey_monkey 5y ago
    Incredibly entitled actually. > Nobody here cares about the product specifically, Citation needed. > but it’s shooting itself in the foot and saying it’s a feature; that doesn’t sit well with many. That's their problem, no one else's.
    - mushyhammer 5y ago
      Nah you’re wrong on all counts. If a product makes bad decisions and then the author posts it on HN what do they expect exactly?
    - InitialBP 5y ago
      They don't mean literally nobody cares about the product, just that this conversation isn't necessarily related directly to the product but more about design in general. My original point is just that it's a design that locks people into using the app with a very specific medium and it locks people out of accessing it on another medium with no details about why. That's a pattern that most people would agree they don't like and my comment is meant to be a criticism of that. > That's their problem, no one else's. It was posted in a public forum for discussion, is it really wrong to critique or praise the product in this setting?
5y ago

Aeolun 5y ago

Whether or not I can zoom out enough on my phone depends on your website. If you set the mobile screen width in your meta tag to 1280 or something, instead of ‘device-width’, then I’ll be able to use the site fine, as long as I’m willing to zoom and pan a bit.

dananjaya86 5y ago

Fair enough. Maybe the mobile version could just showcase the features and such of the « Desktop » version.

vorejdajo 5y ago

I really think the design should be mobile first. For other mobile users, you can use Firefox+ublock to zap the overlay(Addon>ublock>element zapper> need to zap the entire screen a few times(not just the dialog) until icons are individually zap-able >swipe right twice to exit zap mode). It is designed for desktop and there is some overlap in charts, but looks usable, on first look nonetheless.

quickthrower2 5y ago

I suggest: Pop up warning: This will be hard to use on your screen size, continue? If they click Yes then scale width to screen width (so no scrollbars) If they click No take them to a description page with screenshots.

iamben 5y ago

This looks lovely, well done! Regarding the cut off, why not use: min-width: 1199px; overflow-x: scroll; on the <body> element, and change the 100vw on the 'css-obv7rs' element to 100%? (And you may need some more tinkering, but you get the general idea.) You can still put a mobile popup there ("this has been designed for a desktop"), but mobile users can pan around if they wish - degraded experience, but can use if they're desperate.

Athenodoros 5y ago
That's a good idea - hard to believe that I didn't think of "min-width" considering the amount of other CSS that had to go into this, I wish I'd come up with it myself 12 hours ago... I've just updated it, everyone should be getting an updated version now (clearly there's interest!). Thanks for the thought!