Today I opened iNat from my browser on my phone - the way I most often navigate iNat.
The observation page is now responsive! Other pages are still like on desktop (tiny and hard to navigate on mobile screens) but this is already a big improvement for the niche of mobile web users.
I noticed already some weeks ago that small adjustments in that direction are being made. Is this part of an effort to make the entire website mobile-friendly?
In my opinion it does not need to be perfect. Just rearranging some things such that everything fits in view is already a BIG help. Thank you and keep the good work up! :)
As a fellow mobile browser iNaturalist user, it’s hard for me to get too excited about this. While the old standard wasn’t good design by any means, being optimized (if that’s really the right word…) for desktop, I’d gotten used to zooming way in and moving around the page accordingly. Now with so many things shifted or broken, it’s not even usable in the sense to which I’m accustomed. I hope for and will look for this to be fixed very soon.
I noticed that, but assumed it was some sort of mistake on my part (when it comes to the device). Not a big fan of it, I find it much harder to use iNat with it, but of course that won’t stop me from using it. ;)
Basically the design of the page “responds” to the size of the screen – at different screen sizes, elements on the page are sized and arranged to adapt to the available space. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsive_web_design
Logout of the iNat site, and visit the iNaturalist home page (background image and " Where your curiosity contributes to science.") on mobile devices and desktop. Flip the mobile device from landscape to portrait mode. Resize the browser window on desktop. You will notice the layout is slightly different as the browser window changes. That’s responsive design.
One of the main problems with the iNat software ecosystem is that the website, MacOS apps, and Android apps have different features. If the iNat dev team makes the entire website responsive, then users can access all the features of the website on variety of devices, browsers, and operating systems.
Oh I can’t disagree more. The main difference between an app and a website is offline use: You can’t use a website offline, but you can use an app.
From that follows that the website should have all functions neccessary for online use / working in the database: recording, upload, cv, messaging, commenting, identify, compare etc.
The app on the other hand should excel in the necessary offline functions / offline preparation of new database additions: recording, storing of 100s of observations until the user is online again (which can be hours, days or weeks later), fast and secure upload even with less than optimal connections.
@wy_bio I think the main problem of iNat is that the app is totally overloaded with unnecessary functions like CV etc. while failing to provide the offline services needed.