What do you think about this…
Anyone who embraces responsive webdesign is stupid (Ric van Westhreenen)
To get the discussion going, why don’t you start by telling us what you think of it?
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This was just sensational headers to get us to watch.
He basically wants RWD but be smart about it; integrate calling features on mobile if possible (e.g. those types of things mobiles can take advantage of…gps…etc).
So yeah; that guy just wanted people to view the video / presentation. I’m pretty upset that I just wasted 30 minutes on that.
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How about “Anyone who browses the internet while driving is stupid”?
But seriously, what he’s talking about had nothing to do with RWD. RWD is mainly about the site layout and presentation. All the things he says should be going in to mobile sites are about contextual content. Content and presentation are two separate issues that go together, you don’t choose one over the other. A mobile site that does all the things he thinks it should will still require RWD to handle layout. He’s just talking about making the mobile web UX go further than just having RWD, which may be food for thought in some cases. This is stuff in addition to RWD, not replacing it with something else.
If I were to give a shop/website analogy: It’s like saying to shop owners “Anyone who embraces interior design is stupid.” Then preaching to them that you should be offering quality customer service.
The shop owners would agree, customer service is very important and we should focus on that. But, I still need to decorate the shop anyway, if it has bare plaster walls or looks like a hovel, no one will want to go there.
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I only wasted about 5 minutes
He is right about one thing, anyone that thinks Design alone is all there is to web dev is mistaken
I didn’t have time to watch much of it, but here are my non-related thoughts on Responsive Design…
It is hard for me to fathom how my entire computer life people have wanted larger monitors and more stable viewing sizes, and in the past 5 years people want to view the world through a 2" x 3" screen. WTF???
In my free time I have just spent the last few years building a very nice community website, and there is no fricking way where I can see how it could work on a smart phone.
For instance, 2-column and 3-column layouts have existed for hundreds of years and the metaphor WORKS!!!
Why in the hell do kids prefer something that looks like reading scribbles on a roll of toilet paper???
Smart phones TRASH everything I have worked so hard to build!!
I can see where RWD and the 2 x 3 inch paradigm would work in some situations, but in most I think it is 20 steps backwards.
Of course if you just have to be able to respond to a post on SitePoint or read the news while you are driving with your kids in the back-seat or standing at the urinal, I can see where a 19" inch display could get in the way… 
But for normal humans that don’t need a smart-phone crammed up their *ss while they are driving and in the bathroom and at church and getting medical procedures done, I say wait until you get back to your desk and view the Internet the way God intended!
(FWIW, yes, I am interested in learning Responsive Web Design - but it is only for the $$$$. I personally think smart phones are the stupidest - and most destructive - thing invented in the past 200 years…)
You can’t fathom why people want a portable computer that they can easily carry around and which also doubles as a computer? Seriously? You can’t fathom why that’s awesome?
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FWIW, @RyanReese, this thread was no “bait” on my end.
I watch like 60 seconds of it and had to go to bed.
I was just curious what others thought, because I hate the mobile metaphor, and I still struggle how going “responsive” will trash everything I have built…
No, because I’m not helpless like some generations…
Strange, I have never owned a GPS and yet I have seen more of the U.S. than almost anyone on here.
Strange, I have never owned a smart phone, and yet I can still shop for groceries and never forget anything.
Strange, I don’t carry a cell phone around with me, and I have yet to miss a really earth-shattering call.
Strange, I have yet to be in the bathroom and miss ANYTHING important before I finished.
Need I go on?
Millennials struggle to read and write and do basic math. (And my bank employee’s can’t even pronounce my balance in English!)
It’s a wonder that for tens of thousands of years people functioned quite well without smart phones, and yet this latest generation has all of this advanced technology and it can’t function even with it…
It’s not about being hopeless without the phones. I’m a millennial and I assure you, I can read and write, as well as do any sort of math in my head. You are generalizing an entire generation due to a few encounters. That’s pretty bizarre of you.
I know people in early high school who can kick my ass when it comes to English or any sort of math. Are they just stupid millennials too?
And judging from your comments, you obviously can’t comprehend why it’s awesome to have a computer phone.
This is so so wrong and I hope you’re just being facetious.
Off-topic
lol
It took quite a while for my grandmother to adopt the use of a microwave oven - “who can’t wait for a cooked meal?”
It took quite a while for my parents to adopt the use of answering machines - “any call that important they’ll call back”
Are smart phones an absolute necessity? Not for me anyway.
Are smart phones a good thing? IMHO not if they’re interfering with your driving.
Are they convenient? Of course.
Are they popular? Ever increasingly more so. That’s why RWD and related web dev improvements (or whatever tech will follow) is important.
Mobiles are useful tools to add to your communication toolbox. Without them…
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/if_all_you_have_is_a_hammer,_everything_looks_like_a_nail
if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail
– With limited tools, single-minded people apply them inappropriately or indiscriminately
– If a person is familiar with a certain, single subject, or has with them a certain, single instrument, they may have a confirmation bias to believe that it is the answer to/involved in everything.
Personally the great mobile feature that I like is to be able to read email, latest news, forums and especially novels. Reading a hard-backed book now seems very awkward. Trying to respond to using a small keypad is often infuriating and best left until a desktop is available.
In the limited capacity that I know you, you do seem smart - which is good being the “non-expert” that I am! 
No, I am stating my experience with 85%+ of Millennials. It is a pandemic - not some minor annoyance.
I am talking about interactions with thousands upon thousands of people under 40 across the U.S. over the last 15 years. And I am also basing things off of what numerous people my age that I run into across the U.S. also say.
But a better indicator is that the U.S. is in the bottom quartile in K-12 among industrialized nations. (Much worse than I was your age.)
The U.S. is also in the bottom quartile in post-secondary education among industrialized nations. (Again, much worse than when I was your age.)
U.S. kids just don’t have the same basic competency with reading, writing, and arithmetic as in the past.
And guess what many experts believe is a common-thread? Near-total reliance on technology! (We had another thread going on this here at SitePoint a few weeks ago. And as I recall, the older members here agreed with me that the U.S. education system is in the toilet. Technology only seems to make things worse.)
I can see the convenience in some cases, but I also don’t feel the need for it. My life wouldn’t be any better with a smart phone in hand when I am out and about.
I never said you were dumb or helpless. And I have obviously met tons of kids who are as smart or smarter than I was at their age. But if you can’t see the fact that the younger generations do worse across the board in school and are much more DEPENDENT on technology, then you are dreaming.
Go read any official study on these topics and the points I am making will be backed up by cold hard facts.
And back on topic…
While I can see how some website designs would adapt nicely to a smart phone, I can see lots of situations where you will have 1/3 the website design if you make it “responsive”.
I believe there is good money to be made helping businesses convert to a more “responsive” design, but for my own website, I am at wits end of how I can convert it and not lose all of the design and features I worked so hard on over the last year or two. (That is another thread!) 
That is my stubborn Mikey has been busy asking for guidance this week on RWD!
Doesn’t mean I think it won’t trash my website or that I know we have a crippled generation of kids due to over-reliance on technology…
So, basically you’ve noticed other humans complaining about other humans. What a brand new experience.
“Man, noone in (x state) can drive! Did they not learn how to drive?”
If this is the first time you have heard a complaint about Millennials or how younger generations are failing horribly in school in the U.S. or how dependent younger generations are on technology to do the simplest things, then I would encourage you to read more.
Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, Journal of Higher Education, The Washington Post, etc.
You seriously can’t think this is just my opinion/issue?
And if you don’t feel any of my criticisms apply to you - which I don’t think they do - then why are you offended by the facts I speak about?
You don’t think that I’m the only one who thinks everyone else is a terrible driver?
I’m not offended. I just find the entire argument / reasonings to be terrible. Other stupid people complaining about other stupid people? Give me a break. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen grown adults (and older people) have those same issues you complain about.
It’s not just a specific group of people.
Yes, over reliance on technology can turn anyone into a fool.
But the advantage my generation has over yours is that we were forced to learn to go to the bathroom, and drive and get directions and read and interact with other humans and date and function first WITHOUT technology.
I have never had anyone over 40 at my bank who couldn’t pronounce dollars and cents. Yet with Millennials, it is about 50/50.
And that is the point… If you come into this would so dependent on technology that you cannot function without it, then what happens when it is taken away?
As high as 1 out of 3 kids in the U.S. will not finish high school. 1 out of 3!! (Yet nearly all of them are aces on FaceBook and their smart phones…)
So it’s really just an excuse to rant about ‘the youth of today’
Joking aside, the questions about whether we are over-reliant on technology, and if it’s negatively affecting the kids that grow up with it are interesting and valuable ones to ask. However, it doesn’t change the fact that mobile devices will soon (if not already) out number traditional computers as means of accessing the web, and any business which ignores this does so at their peril. It’s also not just young people driving this trend, as there are large numbers of people without home computers or internet access but who own a smart phone (this is especially true in developing countries).
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