What is the "perfect" width for the web?

[shelle]

I think this can help: http://gs.statcounter.com/#resolution-ww-monthly-201208-201308

Anyway, i think 1024x768 is retiring (finally) and now new leader 1366x768, so websites can be wider and able to provide more content above the fold...

 

[m00min]

When there is a mobile version, things are always different and "dumbed" down, IMO. Zooming in and moving around isn't that bad.

Ok, I can see your point about dumbing down. A good responsive site should have everything available to all users. Content might be organised differently, so comments that load automatically on a desktop device require a button click to load them separately on a mobile, just to keep page sizes down.

Zooming a page is the horizontal scrolling of the 21st century.

 

[960design]

I was one of the responsive early adopters back in early 2012. Now a year later I've just about completely purged my theme development core of responsive design ideas.

As mentioned above, I've also found that users complain of the design changes between online and mobile. Analytics from several sites show that mobile users of the responsive site have a significantly faster drop rate, backing up the user comments.

I do keep a few of the responsive ideas; I bump the font up one and 'thin it out' to make it more readable on a mobile device for example. But mostly develop fluid sites based with max/min widths set to try to keep the experience the same across all devices. I use RESS principles regarding images for differing clients, but try to limit the server calls per page to a bare minimum.

But, hey that's just me.

 

[HarryPot]

Ok, I can see your point about dumbing down. A good responsive site should have everything available to all users. Content might be organised differently, so comments that load automatically on a desktop device require a button click to load them separately on a mobile, just to keep page sizes down.

I agree there are some nice responsive designs. Mostly I've found that blogs do relatively OK with this designs. But for business websites, I think that maintaining a same design everywhere is ideal.

It's better to do what Apple does, make an App for buying things. Even better, having a same design for mobile and desktop forces you to make simpler and more elegant desktop designs. I dislike desktop designs with many complicated animations, drop-downs, or too many information, things which are impractical in mobile devices.

Zooming a page is the horizontal scrolling of the 21st century.

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

I dislike desktop designs with many complicated animations, drop-downs, or too many information, things which are impractical in mobile devices.

Yeah, join the club. But try telling that to a client, or some fancy for hire UX contractor who was called in first on a gig, never thinks of the the back end development involved, and wows the client with graphics that Pixar would be proud to showcase in their next big budget movie.