Mobile Site content question

[will_wallace85]

I’m having a “discussion” at work about the needs of a mobile user and wanted to ask a few questions and see if anyone has numbers regarding this.

When creating a mobile version of an existing desktop website, do you hide information from the user? IE if you have a 3 tiered nav, do you only expose the first tier on small devices or do you make all content available, but displayed and accessed in a more mobile friendly way?

I personally don’t like the idea of intentionally hiding information from any user and prefer to present it all and allow the user, through the nav and interior page design, to determine how specific or granular they want their experience to be. My boss thinks that most of the content should be removed so as not to overwhelm or confuse the user due to the limited screen real estate.

Thoughts? Opinions? Articles to read with more info?

[Alen]

Your strategy/objectives should dictate your decision making. What do YOU want your visitors to accomplish? If you read Brad Frost’s [Separate Mobile Website Vs. Responsive Website](http://mobile.smashingmagazine.com/2012/08/22/separate-mobile-responsive-website-presidential-smackdown/) article you might get some ideas. IMO if you have to hide content from mobile users, it begs the question, is that content really that important. There are ways to hide content then load it via AJAX if user wishes to have access, while still maintaining relatively simple layout that is easy to navigate/digest.

[Author]

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